Domestic abuse prevention pilot to expand to Bristol after £1.2m boost

A pilot programme preventing domestic abuse will soon expand across the Bristol region after receiving a £1.2m funding boost.

The Drive Project has been challenging the behaviour of high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators in South Gloucestershire since 2021.

Over the past two years the Drive Project has reduced reoffending rates of domestic abuse perpetrators, after intensive one-to-one interventions. The programme will now expand to Bristol and North Somerset too after the government increased its funding for the work.

The Home Office has given a grant of £1.23m to the police and crime commissioner, Avon & Somerset Police, Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council and South Gloucestershire Council.

The work includes challenging perpetrators to change, and working with the police and social services to disrupt abuse and protect victims.

Mark Shelford, Avon & Somerset police and crime commissioner, said: “I’m delighted with the results from the South Gloucestershire Drive Project, which has seen a 74 per cent reduction in domestic abuse reoffending rates from Drive participants who fully engaged with this programme.

“This proves that challenging high-risk perpetrators and changing their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours reduces and prevents abusive reoffending.

This funding will enable the Drive initiative to be available across three local authority areas, and will also support an evaluation process to monitor the positive impact and value for money.”

The project has already been running in South Gloucestershire since 2021, and has worked with more than 220 perpetrators and more than 670 survivors of domestic abuse.

The extra cash will mean Cranstoun, a charity, can work with high-risk and repeat perpetrators across Bristol and North Somerset, as well as South Gloucestershire.

The Drive Project launched in 2016 in Essex, South Wales and West Sussex. During its first three years, the project was studied by the University of Bristol.

Analysis by the university found that intervention reduced the number of perpetrators using physical abuse by 82 per cent; sexual abuse by 88 per cent; harassment and stalking by 75 per cent; and jealous and controlling behaviours by 73 per cent.

The intervention includes intensive one-to-one work, where a case manager works with a perpetrator to change their attitudes and behaviour, as well as addressing other needs such as mental health, substance misuse and housing, that can stand in the way of change. The work also includes advisers supporting survivors of domestic abuse.

High-risk, high-harm perpetrators are people assessed as posing a “risk of serious harm or murder to people they are in intimate or family relationships with”, according to the Drive Project.

Most, but not all, of the project’s clients are men in heterosexual relationships. About one in 10 are still living with their victim, and most have links with children.

Kyla Kirkpatrick, director of the Drive Partnership, said: “Our aim is to end domestic abuse and protect victims by disrupting and changing the behaviour of those who are causing harm.

“Together we will do all we can to make victims and survivors of domestic abuse safer by responding to high-risk, high-harm perpetrators and reducing the danger they pose.”

Domestic abuse can be reported to Avon & Somerset Police using their online form, by visiting a police station in person, or by calling 101.

Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Main photo: Martin Booth

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