Elevating standards: IRISi launches the National IRIS Key Performance Indicators

We are delighted to unveil our first national IRIS Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), a pivotal development in our ongoing commitment to excellence in the IRIS Programme. These KPIs represent a new metric, designed to ensure consistent, high-quality response to domestic abuse within general practices across the country. This strategic initiative underscores our dedication to setting the benchmark for best practice in primary care response to domestic abuse.

What Are the National IRIS KPIs?

The National IRIS KPIs provide clear, standardised targets for all local IRIS sites. These KPIs are grounded in extensive data analysis from our entire network, ensuring they reflect the best practice and essential outcomes of the IRIS Programme. By adopting these KPIs, local sites will be able to demonstrate their commitment to excellence and the impactful nature of their work.

The development process

Consultations with Advocate Educators (AEs), Clinical Leads (CLs), managers and commissioners were fundamental to the creation of these KPIs. Feedback highlighted the need for simplified, streamlined KPIs that clearly define what ‘good’ looks like. In response, we focused on key aspects of the IRIS model that are crucial to its success, ensuring that the selected KPIs are practical, relevant, and easy to implement.

Lucy Downes, IRISi Director of Programmes and Partnerships, who led this development, emphasised, “The national KPIs set an ambitious but achievable standard. They will not only guide local sites in monitoring their performance but also help them clearly demonstrate the positive impact of their efforts in supporting victims and survivors of domestic abuse “.

Implementation timeline

These KPIs are ready to use immediately, to benchmark your performance, if you wish,. We recommend incorporating these KPIs into new contracts or funding cycles (we do not suggest making mid-year changes to any KPIs included in your current IRIS contract). Comprehensive guidance on implementation is available to ensure smooth adoption and effective use, and local IRIS teams can speak with their Regional Manager for more advice if needed.

The Importance of Having KPIs to keep IRIS as the gold standard intervention

Clear performance standards: KPIs establish a definitive framework for success, enabling teams to focus on the most critical activities and outcomes.
Quality assurance: Consistent monitoring and evaluation maintain high standards across all IRIS sites.
Data-Driven decisions: Using KPIs allows for informed decision-making, driving continuous improvement.
Transparency and accountability: Standardised indicators ensure transparency and accountability to stakeholders, including funders and commissioners.
Enhanced support for victims: Focusing on key outcomes ensures that the support provided to domestic abuse victims is both impactful and effective.

Are you already a part of the IRIS Network? Join the movement for excellence!

The IRIS Programme is known for its rigorous evidence base and its effectiveness at improving the general practice response to domestic abuse so more victims and survivors are identified and offered life-changing advocacy and support. We are committed to supporting you to achieve this and to demonstrate your impact. We encourage all local IRIS teams to adopt these KPIs and join us in this collective effort to uphold the highest standards in your work.

By using these KPIs, local sites will not only demonstrate their effectiveness but also reinforce their commitment to providing the best possible support to victims of domestic abuse. This initiative is a significant step towards our strategic objective to ensure that every IRIS programme around the country is delivered with consistent high quality and effectiveness.

For more information, please get in touch with us at info@irisi.org.

Partners

AVA

AVA is an expert, groundbreaking and independent charity working across the UK.

Their vision is a world without gender based violence and abuse. They aim to inspire innovation and collaboration and encourage and enable direct service providers to help end gender based violence and abuse particularly against women and girls.AVA’s work is focused around those areas where they can make the best contribution to ending violence and abuse. They do this by making sure that survivors get the help and support they need in the here and now, through providing innovative training that has a proven direct impact on the professional practice of people supporting survivors of violence and abuse

developing a range of toolkits, e-learning and other material that supports professionals to provide effective and appropriate support to survivors of violence and abuse

using our influence and networks to ensure survivors voices are heard. We work closely with AVA in many areas including the Pathfinder project

https://avaproject.org.uk

SafeLives

SafeLives are a national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for good. We combine insight from services, survivors and statistics to support people to become safe, well and rebuild their lives. Since 2005, SafeLives has worked with organisations across the country to transform the response to domestic abuse, with over 60,000 victims at highest risk of murder or serious harm now receiving co-ordinated support annually. SafeLives are members of the Pathfinder consortium.

About us

IMKAAN

Imkaan is a UK-based, Black feminist organisation. We are the only national second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women and girls i.e. women and girls which are defined in policy terms as Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ (BME). The organisation holds nearly two decades of experience of working around issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence.

They work at local, national and international level, and in partnership with a range of organisations, to improve policy and practice responses to Black and minoritised women and girls. Imkaan works with it’s members to represent the expertise and perspectives of frontline, specialist and dedicated Black and minoritised women’s organisations that work to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Imkaan delivers a unique package of support which includes: quality assurance; accredited training and peer education; sustainability support to frontline Black and minoritised organisations; and facilitation of space for community engagement and development. They are a part of the Pathfinder Consortium.

https://www.imkaan.org.uk

The University of Bristol CAPC

The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. It is part of Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching.

A dedicated team of researchers at the Centre work on domestic abuse projects and IRISi is a co-collaborator and partner on some of these projects including ReProvide, HERA and DRiDVA.

The Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The Health Foundation’s Exploring Social Franchising programme aims to generate a deeper understanding of the potential of social franchising models for scaling effective health and social care interventions within the NHS.

We are one of four project teams participating in the programme to develop a social franchise to enable the sustainable spread of our intervention, the IRIS Programme. We receive funding and support from the Health Foundation, including technical expertise on social franchising, and attend programme learning events. The Health Foundation has also commissioned a programme-wide evaluation to support understanding of the use of social franchising in the UK health and care system. We and our franchisees will support the evaluation through co-designing data collection requirements, providing access to data as requested, hosting site visits and attending learning events.

https://www.health.org.uk

STADV

Standing Together Against Domestic Violence is a UK charity bringing communities together to end domestic abuse. They bring local services together to keep people safe

Most public services weren’t designed with domestic abuse in mind, and they often struggle to keep people safe. Poor communication and gaps between services put survivors at risk.

STADV aim to end domestic abuse by changing the way that local services respond to it. They do this through an approach that they pioneered, called the Coordinated Community Response. The Coordinated Community Response brings services together to ensure local systems truly keep survivors safe, hold abusers to account, and prevent domestic abuse.

Their model of a coordinated local partnership to tackle and ultimately prevent domestic violence is now widely accepted as best practice. They are also a part of the Pathfinder consortium.

http://www.standingtogether.org.uk

Spring Impact

Spring Impact is a not-for-profit social enterprise born out of the frustration of seeing social organisations constantly reinventing the wheel and wasting scarce resources. Spring Impact uses a combination of tested commercial and social principles and extensive practical expertise to support organisations to identify, design and implement the right social replication model to scale their social impact.