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Good practice Imported

The Drive Project — Intensive Case Management for High-Risk Domestic Abuse Perpetrators

United Kingdom · London · See the United Kingdom profile · See the London profile

Evidence: Quasi-experimental Top 17% 89/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Intensive one-to-one case management for high-harm domestic abuse perpetrators in England and Wales. An independent University of Bristol RCT (2016–2019, n=506) found reductions of 73–88% across physical, sexual, stalking and controlling abuse types.

82%
Physical abuse reduction among completers (2016-2019)
88%
Sexual abuse reduction among completers (2016-2019)
75%
Harassment and stalking reduction among completers (2016-2019)
73%
Jealous or controlling behaviour reduction among completers (2016-2019)
82% % of cases
Cases with reduced victim risk reported by IDVAs (2016-2019)
4,644
High-risk perpetrators engaged (2016-2023)
5,201
Adult victim-survivors supported (2016-2023)
9,359
Child victim-survivors supported (2016-2023)
The Drive Project — Intensive Case Management for High-Risk Domestic Abuse Perpetrators

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Respect / SafeLives / Social Finance (The Drive Partnership)
Period
2016–2023
Keywords
domestic abuse intervention, criminal justice, social services, victim safety

Context

The Drive Project is a partnership between Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance, formed in 2015, that manages high-harm, high-risk and serial perpetrators of domestic abuse in England and Wales through intensive one-to-one case work.

Objectives

The programme aims to change perpetrator behaviour and reduce risk to victims where standard criminal-justice and support responses have already failed to stop the abuse.

Activities

Case workers combine behaviour-change work with coordinated multi-agency disruption tactics; an independent evaluation followed 506 perpetrators aged 17 to 81 across pilot sites in Essex, West Sussex and South Wales from 2016 to 2019.

Results

Perpetrators who completed Drive showed large reductions in physical, sexual, stalking and controlling abuse compared with a comparison group receiving usual responses, alongside reduced victim risk and fewer subsequent police-recorded incidents.

Conclusions

Following the pilot, Drive expanded to seven police force areas, engaging thousands of perpetrators and supporting thousands of victim-survivors, funded through a mix of police and crime commissioner and local authority budgets.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Funded through a mix of police and crime commissioner and local authority budgets across seven police force areas in England and Wales.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
dedicated case workers (intensive one-to-one case management), independent domestic violence advisers (IDVAs), multi-agency coordination staff

Conditions for success

  • coordinated multi-agency disruption action alongside behaviour-change work
  • sustained funding from police and crime commissioners and local authorities
  • referral of high-harm, high-risk and serial perpetrators where standard responses have failed

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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