Council Approves Over £1 Million for Domestic Abuse Partnership

Waltham Forest Council's Cabinet has approved over £1 million in funding to support a vital domestic abuse partnership across London. The Safe and Together London Partnership will receive £1,033,000 in grant funding from the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and Foundations.

Waltham Forest will act as the lead grant recipient and accountable body for the initiative, which aims to improve outcomes for children and families affected by domestic abuse. The partnership will commission Respect and the Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) as delivery partners, as stipulated by the grant conditions.

Services and Approach

The Safe and Together model, which Waltham Forest has been embedding since 2019, is recognised as best practice in supporting families impacted by domestic abuse. This child-centred approach is based on the principle that children and young people are best served when kept safe and together with the non-offending parent. It is a perpetrator-focused model that incorporates survivor strengths when working with domestic abuse cases.

The model aims to support staff across children's services to make informed decisions for children impacted by domestic abuse perpetrators. It consists of a set of assumptions, principles, and critical components that help improve the identification, assessment, documentation, case-planning, and decision-making in domestic abuse cases. The model is delivered through training and tools to multi-agency practitioners and supporting professionals, enabling them to 'pivot to the perpetrator' by partnering with the survivor and holding perpetrators accountable.

Delivery Partners and Funding

Respect and the Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) have been commissioned as the delivery partners for the Safe and Together London Partnership, a requirement of the grant conditions. Respect will receive £421,000 in Year 1 and £421,000 in Year 2, acting as the primary delivery partner and contributing towards salaries for Implementation Leads and training costs. CWASU will receive £25,000 in Year 1 and £25,000 in Year 2.

This expansion will see the partnership extend across fourteen London boroughs. A Randomised Control Trial (RCT) will be conducted in seven of these boroughs to strengthen the evidence base for domestic abuse interventions. The project is considered to represent strong value for money, being externally funded with a matched funding contribution that is offset by project management income.

Risks associated with not approving the proposal included the potential loss of over £1 million in external funding and disruption to the programme. The Cabinet's decision, detailed in the Public reports pack for the Cabinet meeting on 14th July 2026, ensures the continuation and expansion of this crucial work, with the project commencing immediately.

Further details can be found in the Decisions of the Cabinet meeting on 14th July 2026.