PROJECT DETAILS

Systematic Review: Domestic Abuse Interventions delivered to Children about whom there are Child Protection Concerns

What Works in Children’s Social Care has commissioned a systematic review of interventions for children exposed to DA and who are in receipt of Children’s Social Care (CSC) services because of child protection concerns.

Status

Review / In progress

Estimated completion

October 2022

Focus areas

Children & families

Evaluated by

Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford

Domestic abuse (DA) was the most common factor identified at the end of assessment for children in need in England between 2017 and 2018, on 31st March 2018, presenting in 51.1% of assessments..  

What Works in Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) has commissioned a systematic review of interventions for children exposed to DA and who are in receipt of Children’s Social Care (CSC) services because of child protection concerns.   

The aim of this review is to identify (i) the state of the evidence for interventions delivered by Social Care alone or in conjunction with other agencies that aim to improve outcomes for children exposed to domestic  abuse and in receipt of CSC services because of child protection concerns; (ii) facilitators and barriers to implementing and evaluating domestic abuse interventions in children’s social care (iii)  organisation level factors that mediate or moderate the effectiveness of domestic abuse interventions in children’s social care.

This study seeks to address the above gaps in the existing literature by using a rapid review method to answer the following questions:

  1. What is the state of the evidence on the effectiveness of different types of domestic violence interventions delivered by CSC alone or CSC in conjunction with other agencies that report on outcomes for children?  
  2. What are the facilitators and barriers to implementing and evaluating domestic abuse interventions in children’s social care? 
  3. What are the mediators and moderators of domestic abuse interventions in CSC?

The rapid review is being conducted between April and October 2022.