DVPP Programmes Commissioned by Cafcass as a Court Ordered Activity
Dear Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service,
Following on from my request regarding women referred to DVPP courses as a court ordered activity, which you stated there were none please provide the following information:
1) The average cost per attendee for court ordered DVPP (Building Better Relationships) etc. courses
2) The minimum, maximum and average time from referral to completion of the course
3) The documents which were used to commission the services in the form of invitations to tender, course specifications, accreditation requirements, etc.
4) The budget allocated within Cafcass for DVPP courses for men.
5) The budget allocated within Cafcass for DVPP courses for women.
6) Any evidence in the form of research or scientific papers which indicates no female perpetrators could benefit from the same, or a similar course to the ones provided for men.
7) The re-offending rate for male perpetrators who attend the courses.
8) The re-offending rate for male perpetrators who don't attend the courses.
9) The re-offending rate for female perpetrators.
Yours faithfully,
B Maloney
Dear B Maloney,
Thank you for your email.
Please accept this as a formal acknowledgement of your Freedom of
Information request which was received on 12 June 2017. Your reference
number is CAF 17-69.
We aim to respond to you promptly, and at the latest 20 working days from
receipt of your request. You will therefore receive a response on or
before 7 July 2017.
Kind regards,
Governance Team | Cafcass
* [1][CAFCASS request email] | ü [2]www.cafcass.gov.uk
[3]Cafcass_Logo_2014_email
References
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2. http://www.cafcass.gov.uk/
Dave Darby (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
Further adding, that I requested such approx 4-5 years ago and was more or less told the same as one of your request...Cafcass does not as yet have a perpetrator programme for women which we are able to commission as a court ordered activity.
This is because Cafcass provide accredited programmes and as yet there are no consistent standards or accreditation for programmes which are specifically for women perpetrators although Cafcass acknowledges that men can be victims too. In relevant case, Cafcass will respond by offering signposting to male victim support services and ensuring that our assessments are balanced and safe for the child in proceedings regardless of the provenance of the domestic abuse. Cafcass is working with partner agencies to consider gender neutral and female perpetrator programmes and how they might be commissioned in the future.
So in a nutshell, given the fact such was asked 4-5 years ago, it won't ever be a case that such DVPP will be put in place for women and supported by CAFCASS.
Dear B Maloney,
Thank you for your email. Please find attached our response to your
Freedom of Information request.
Kind regards,
Governance Team | Cafcass
* [1][CAFCASS request email] | ü [2]www.cafcass.gov.uk
[3]Cafcass_Logo_2014_email
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[CAFCASS request email]
2. http://www.cafcass.gov.uk/
Dear Governance - Cafcass,
I would like clarification on one of your answers as I think there has been some confusion. In answer to my question:
"2) The minimum, maximum and average time from referral to completion of the
course. "
You said:
"Not all people referred to a Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programme (DVPP) go on to start the course as some are found to be unsuitable at the assessment stage. "
"Of those that do start the course, the figures in days are below: "
" Average > 142 "
" Max > 334 "
" Min > 35 "
Could you please clarify if all these men who started these courses actually completed the course in full? If the figures you have given were for the length of time from referral to when the man in question stopped attending, but had not necessary completed the course, could you please give the information as requested, i.e. from referral to completion of the course, not from referral to when the man stopped attending without completing the course.
Yours sincerely,
B Maloney
Dear B Maloney,
Thank you for your email and for your request for clarification in regards to the response to your Freedom of Information request.
The information given in regards to the minimum, maximum and average time from referral to completion of the DVPP is data taken from May 2016 to April 2017 and covers the period from referral to completion of the course in full, and not to the point when participants stopped attending the course prior to completion. Participants who complete a programme have to attend all the sessions in the programme.
The variation in average, maximum and minimum time from referral to completion is attributable to a number of factors, including the different lengths of different DVPP courses, whether a participant may need to attend catch up sessions and court dates.
Kind regards
Governance Team | Cafcass
G [CAFCASS request email] | www.cafcass.gov.uk
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Dave Darby (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
Similar has been answered before and it is quite clear, that CAFCASS does not recognise that females can be perpatrators of domestic violence/abuse and therefore does not make recommendations that females attend an DVPP course or support such a course. You'd be hard-pressed to find any such course for females.