Respect celebrates success of its young people’s programme and launches new animation

Ahead of CPA Awareness Day, taking place on 14 October, Respect is celebrating the success of the Respect Young People’s Programme, our intervention for families experiencing child or adolescent to parent violence and abuse (known as CAPVA). This includes publishing impressive new evaluation figures, provided by our Cambridge delivery partners, and launching a new animation created in partnership with our Durham delivery partners, raising awareness of CAPVA, and the support available to families.

CAPVA is used to describe the dynamic where a young person (8 years - 18 years) engages in repeated abusive behaviour towards a parent or adult carer. It is known as a hidden harm: 40% of those experiencing CAPVA don't to report it, often due to shame or out of fear their child will be criminalised, but prevalence is estimated to be high, with CAPVA-related offences representing 21-27% of cases within youth offending services.

The Respect Young People’s Programme is an evidence-based 3-month intervention for families experiencing CAPVA, during which practitioners work with the whole family, encouraging everyone to take a role in stopping the abuse and learning respectful ways of managing conflict, difficulty, and intimacy. The programme is delivered across 14 local authorities and 5 police districts in England and Wales. 

Reducing violence, reducing police callouts, reducing costs

A recent evaluation of the Respect Young People’s Programme, conducted at our Cambridge delivery site by Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Trinity YMCA, found that:

• The programme reduced violence and abusive behaviour for all parents and carers in the cohort
• The programme reduced police callouts by 94%
• For every £1 invested in reducing CAPVA, up to £8.30 in police resources could be saved

Reaching more families

Our new animation, created in partnership with Durham County Council, Durham Police and Crime Commissioner, and children’s charity Investing in Children, aims to raise awareness of CAPVA and the support available to families experiencing it. We’d like to thank the families whose testimony helped form the script, and the families who reviewed and fed into the animation.

Jo Todd CBE, CEO at Respect, says,

“As a society we’re lacking when it comes to our awareness and understanding of child to parent abuse. It’s often incorrectly framed as a parenting failure and victims often feel ashamed, stigmatised, and isolated, only reaching out for support when they reach crisis point. We hope our new animation helps us connect with more families experiencing CAPVA, and we hope these new figures get the attention of commissioners across England and Wales. The Respect Young People’s Programme works: it saves money, it reduces the burden on the criminal justice system, and most importantly, it helps families repair their relationships. Our mission is to make the programme available to everyone who needs it”