IRISi’s Impact Report 2024: Leading Healthcare’s Response to Gender-Based Violence

IRISi stands as the only organisation in the UK solely dedicated to driving a healthcare response to gender-based violence. Launched as part of our 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, this year’s Impact Report highlights the profound strides we’ve made in the year ending March 2024, underscoring our pivotal role in building the bridge between healthcare providers and specialist services.

From equipping clinicians with life-saving skills to expanding our interventions to underserved areas, IRISi continues to lead the way in creating sustainable, evidence-based solutions for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Key Highlights from our impact report

Expanding our teach:
- An estimated 1.5 million women across England and Wales now have access to the IRIS Programme through their GP.
- Our presence in London has grown significantly, with the support of the Violence Reduction Unit, enabling us to reach more boroughs and make communities safer.
- Through the ADViSE programme in Greater Manchester, sexual health clinicians are now better equipped to identify and support survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Transformative programmes:
- The IRIS+ Programme is breaking new ground by exploring support for men and children impacted by domestic abuse in general practice settings, paving the way for inclusive healthcare responses.
- By training student and foundation dentists, we are broadening healthcare’s role in identifying and responding to abuse, showcasing our commitment to system-wide transformation.
Innovative initiatives:
- This year, we undertook a comprehensive review of our clinical training materials to ensure they align with the latest evidence and best practice. These updates are designed to enhance the knowledge and confidence of healthcare professionals, equipping them to provide effective, sensitive, and informed care to survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Real impact, real lives:
- Over 7,200 referrals were made to IRIS and ADViSE programmes this year, each representing a survivor receiving life-changing support.
- 100+ Advocate Educators from 38 partner organisations collaborated with us to strengthen clinician support and survivor outcomes nationwide.
Policy and advocacy:
- We partnered with Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to improve healthcare responses to domestic abuse and sexual violence.
- Our advocacy extended to ensuring safe medical record access and reflecting on the NHS’s role in women’s health over its 75-year history.

Why funding matters

Our Impact Report makes one thing clear: IRISi’s evidence-based interventions work. However, securing sustainable funding remains a significant challenge. Supporting IRISi is an investment in scalable, cost-effective solutions that save lives. With consistent funding, we can continue expanding our reach and ensuring survivors receive the care they deserve.

>>> Click here to read the full report

Discover the full scope of IRISi’s work and learn more about our achievements, challenges, and vision for the future in our 2024 Impact Report. Together, we can continue transforming healthcare into a safe space for survivors of gender-based violence.

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.