Updates on Safe & Together

Safe & Together is a model designed to support children and family services and their surrounding systems to improve outcomes for families impacted by domestic abuse and improve competency across the workforce. Respect, with the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest and Hackney have formed a partnership to implement the Safe & Together Model. Respect employs an Implementation Lead who is co-located within the two local authorities. 

In response to COVID-19, the Safe & Together training has had to be adapted and several virtual options continue to be explored. This has included developing training material around how to do domestic abuse safely during this pandemic. This webinar sessions were attended by 142 practitioners in Waltham Forest and 47 practitioners across the North London Social Work Teaching Partnership.

Part of the Implementation Lead’s role is to hold case consultations with social workers and child and family practitioners across both boroughs providing them with support and guidance around their work with families. The pandemic led to a considerable increase in requests for case consultations with many practitioners eager to ensure their involvement does not increase risks to survivors and children during these unprecedented times. In June 2020, 56 consultations were held compared with 12 consultations held in March 2020.

Since the project commenced on 23rd September 2019, work completed up to 14th of August 2020 has included:

• Number of practitioners who attended the four days of Safe & Together Core training: 107
• Number of practitioners who attended a one-hour introduction to the model: 130
• Number of consultations held across both boroughs: 255
  

For more information on the project, please contact [email protected]