The Drive Project — A Whole-System, Perpetrator-Focused Response to High-Harm Domestic Abuse in England and Wales

The Drive Project is a case-managed intervention targeting high-risk, high-harm and serial perpetrators of domestic abuse identified through Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs). Launched in 2016 by the Drive Partnership (Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance), it combines one-to-one behaviour-change work with 'disruption' of the perpetrator using existing housing, immigration, licensing and criminal-justice levers, alongside independent support for victims.

Rather than relying on a single group programme, Drive aims to reduce abusive behaviour and reoffending among the highest-harm perpetrators through coordinated, multi-agency case management.

Drive was piloted for three years (2016–2019) in Essex, South Wales and West Sussex, then expanded to further areas including Cardiff, Croydon, Birmingham, and Sandwell and Worcestershire, and now underpins England and Wales' wider domestic-abuse perpetrator strategy.

A University of Bristol evaluation covering 2,627 perpetrators, using a quasi-experimental design with individually randomised elements, found self-reported physical abuse fell 82%, sexual abuse 88%, harassment and stalking 75%, and jealous and controlling behaviour 73% among Drive service users. Police-recorded domestic-abuse offending fell around 30% in the six months after the intervention, with effects for repeat and serial perpetrators still significant a year later.

No published cost-effectiveness or cost-per-perpetrator analysis was found for Drive, so unlike its behavioural and reoffending outcomes, its economic efficiency is not yet independently evidenced.