News

Ignition domestic abuse programme 'saves £2.8 million in 3 years'

New financial data from Bracknell Forest Council’s Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Service (DAPS) demonstrates how the Ignition brief one-to-one engagement and treatment programme has helped save the Local Authority almost 3 million pounds in less than three years. The DAPS uses Ignition’s programme in its work with male perpetrators in families where there is a child protection concern due to domestic abuse

Nick Young, DAPS worker, delivering the programme, said: "The average yearly cost to Bracknell Forest Council of a child on a Child Protection (CP) plan is £36,000. Since the conception of DAPS in September 2011, there have been 30 children whose Child In Need plans were successfully prevented from escalating to Child Protection plans after DAPS intervention with the perpetrator helped increase safety, and 57 other children safely de-escalated from Child Protection, with a linked reduction in children being taken into care."

DAPS also fulfils an important preventative function by working with men in families where the children are on Child in Need (CIN) plans but are at risk of escalating to CP because of domestic abuse.

Nick continued; “Since September 2011 there have been 30 children whose CIN plans were successfully prevented from escalating to CP plans after DAPS intervention with the perpetrator helped increase safety. Coupled with the CP de-registrations, this has contributed to savings of 2.8 million pounds for our Children’s Social Care department. When you consider that the service costs only £43,000 per year to run, the benefits are clear".

Dr Mark Farrall, Director of Ignition, commented: "Independent evaluation (Phillips 2013) has already shown that the programme and the strengths-based, motivational approach combined with effective 'action' techniques, works in terms of quality-of-life outcomes. Now we have some hard financial data which simply adds further support. It is just not true that we cannot say 'what works' with domestic abuse cases".

The independent evaluation of the programme (Phillips 2013) can be found in the Resources section of this website.