Impact case study database

Condry’s APV study has raised awareness of the nature and scale of APV, underpinned the first ever government policy on APV published by the Home Office, and has informed training and reporting procedures for practitioners and professionals across a wide range of services that work with children and families.

Raising awareness of APV

The APV study was the first research to articulate and quantify adolescent to parent violence in the UK and highlighted the dearth of support available to families due to a lack of understanding of adolescent violence directed at parents. Media coverage following the publication of R1 online in November 2013, including print articles in The Times, The Independent and The Guardian and coverage on the radio on PM on BBC Radio 4, Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1 [C1], gave significant national profile to an issue that hadn’t hitherto been spoken about publicly. In London, where the study was carried out, the lead article of BBC London Evening News included an interview with Condry and referenced the report alongside interviews with victims and calls from charities for more support for families affected by APV, which could potentially have provided a lifeline to other families listening experiencing similar issues.

Developing policy guidance on supporting APV

Condry organised a conference at the end of the study in September 2013 to disseminate the research findings to practitioners, policy makers and academics. During the conference, Condry secured a commitment from attendees including the Youth Justice Board (YJB), the National Policing Lead and other key practitioners and policymakers, to develop a central policy guide for practitioners. This multi-agency working group included the Home Office, who committed in parallel in March 2014 to 'develop and disseminate information for practitioners working with children and families on how to identify and address the risks posed by adolescent to parent violence' as part of its Violence Against Women and Girls Action Plan [C2]. This was the first formal recognition of APV in UK government policy. The Home Office subsequently assumed the lead of the multi-agency working group that was developing the policy guide for practitioners and the resultant guide was published by the Home Office in March 2015 [C3]. The guide is publicly available and contains general information about APV (renamed APVA by the Home Office to fit with their terminology for domestic violence and abuse) and specific advice for professionals working in health, education, social care, housing, policing, and youth justice, as well as advice about further support. The APV study [including R1, R3, R4] is referenced extensively throughout.

In 2018, the Ministry of Justice asked Condry to contribute to their consultation on Transforming the Response to Domestic Abuse due to her research in this area and invited her to chair a roundtable event as part of this process in May 2018. This explored how youth perpetrated domestic abuse should be addressed and included lengthy discussions about the specific response to APV. The government published their response to the consultation in January 2019 [C4] which included a page on APV and committed to ‘draw together best practice and develop training and resources to improve the response to victims of adolescent to parent violence. We will also promote and embed existing Home Office guidance [C3] and general principles in addition to working with experts to develop service-specific guidance’ [C4, p.44].

Improving understanding of APV within the justice system and development of appropriate services to support APV

The Covid-19 pandemic has placed additional pressures on families, and R6 showed that most families in the study who had previously experienced APV experienced an increase in violence during the first national lockdown and a significant lack of support. These findings were echoed by the HM Inspectorate of Probation in their review of youth offending services during the pandemic in November 2020 [C5]. The review directly references R6 and quotes some of the difficulties parents faced as highlighted in R6, identifying some practical responses “ YOTs [Youth Offending Teams] *were acutely aware of the specific issues for parents and siblings and undertook doorstep or garden visits to check on the safety of actual and potential victims.*”

As the issue of APV becomes more visible, other agencies are also looking at how they can better respond. The Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime launched a tender in October 2020 to undertake a comprehensive needs assessment of Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence (CAPV) in London and to deliver a community-based parent/carer mental health support pilot. “Domestic abuse is a strategic priority for the Mayor of London, and as such, the VRU [Violence Reduction Unit] seeks to take the opportunity to understand the picture of CAPV in London and shape how services and strategy are delivered [C6 page 9 ]. Little is known about the families in London affected by CAPV; where they live, their protected characteristics or what support would help them. A key opportunity to improve outcomes for young people, and ensure they are safe within their homes, and therefore beyond, would be to fully understand a form of harm which is hugely under-reported; CAPV...” [C6 page 11 ]. The invitation to tender specifically requests that the work “ further explore[s] experiences captured within Rachel Condry et al C/APV during covid-19 report” [R6] [C6 page 13 ].

Informing the training and practice of practitioners and professionals in relation to APV across a range of services

The findings of Condry’s work on APV [R1, R2, R3, R4] have been used by a range of agencies to evidence and inform their policies on APV, and to train staff to respond to APV.

The Operations Manager of Leeds Youth Offending Service has stated that “The Oxford research [R1] […] conceptualised the problem, it’s actually providing evidence of the prevalence of this as a problem, it comes up with figures around who tends to be experiencing this, what are the issues, and it gets people to understand that actually this is everybody’s issue, and I think it’s really helped us move forward with the work in our city – much quicker than would have been if the research hadn’t happened” [C7].

According to the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales “The exploratory research into child to parent violence led by Rachel Condry and Caroline Miles [R1, R3, R4] was instrumental to the development of effective policy responses. Prior to the conclusion of their work, this area of social policy suffered from a limited evidence based which made it more difficult to develop effective policy responses. The APV study has been a crucial catalyst in developing both central policy responses” [C8] .

Condry’s work has had a very practical impact on agencies at the forefront of dealing with APV via the Home Office Information Guide [C3]. Condry organised two launch events for the Information Guide in London and Manchester in 2015 where project partners and over 200 service leads and practitioners from local authorities across England and Wales met to discuss the guidance and how they might best implement it in their areas. The following changes in practice have subsequently been recorded:

The Head of Policy and Development at the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales confirms the guidance was sent to ‘all Youth Offending Teams in England and Wales’ and ‘as a result, a number of youth justice services have shaped their practice according to the principles outlined in the guidance’. They went on to add ‘the work with Rachel’s team is a concrete example of the impact social research can have on the development of effective policy and practice responses. Specifically, it enabled the YJB to support front-line youth justice services who were calling for central guidance to manage this complex issue’ [C8].

The charity Against Violence and Abuse also confirms: “ The findings of the project [R1] have been incredibly useful at providing a national picture of APV. As this is an issue we frequently get asked about when training practitioners it has been really helpful to have robust evidence and statistics which provide a better picture of this form of abuse…. This guidance [C4] … is being used nationally to inform best practice. We use this document frequently when training and provided copies to delegates at our recent seminar on the Care Act and APV.” [C9].

A Senior Business Partner for Domestic Abuse at Peabody, one of London’s largest housing providers, notes: ‘The Home Office guidance, which drew upon the findings of the Oxford study, has been circulated to all my links at Peabody and the Community Safety Officers use this as a vital reference to their work on cases of APVA [Adolescent to parent violence and abuse] . We have also updated our IT systems to create a separate categorisation of APVA so we are in a better position to collect data around this and then feed this back on a national level to partners and to the Home Office as I sit on the National Violence and Women and Girls’ panel. I also share this best practice resource with other housing providers in the sector at national and international conferences regularly […] The guidance is now part of our everyday work at Peabody and I use it as a resource in all the training I deliver which is now up to 41 housing providers nationally. This guidance not only gives practitioners a clear understanding of what APVA is but is also one of the most comprehensive resources I have seen on how to tackle this issue’ [C10].