Domestic abuse project launched in Rugby to educate dads has been hailed a success in the county

A Canadian programme that works with fathers involved in domestic abuse cases has been hailed a success by health and social care bosses in Warwickshire where the scheme has been adopted.

The Caring Dads initiative was first launched in 2001 and was an idea initially commissioned by the county council in May 2021 when a group was set-up in Rugby.

Since then the project has expanded to more centres across the county, each running for 17 weeks with the aim of enabling fathers to understand the impact of their abusive behaviour on their children, with the aim of those children living safer lives.

At this week’s children and young people’s overview and scrutiny meeting, councillors were told that the programme had had a positive impact.

John Coleman, the county council’s assistant director for children and families, said: “It has been really positively received by dads. The feedback we’ve had is that they do feel more listened to and that their role is much more understood.

“These are dads who have been involved in quite high-risk situations and in the past we would probably have said that they could no longer safely care for their child. Now we are able to have a completely restructured conversation about how we manage the risk and get dads to think about their behaviour and their approach to parenting.

“Dads are saying they are really learning from the programme.

“There will be situations where there have been repeat domestic abuse incidents but we have seen those reduce - just one or two per cent of repeat incidents because of the programme and the work that has been completed.”

Mr Coleman said: “We will work with the dad to find out what the trigger was that led to that situation and sometimes we will have some individual sessions with dads if they are needed regarding certain issues.

“Change doesn’t happen overnight and sometimes it is difficult to sustain that change so we will continue to engage with that dad through the programme to achieve long-term change.”