VRU investment helps strengthen healthcare response to domestic abuse across six London boroughs

For more than five years, the London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) has invested in strengthening the healthcare response to domestic abuse across London.

Through targeted funding for evidence-based healthcare interventions, including IRIS and ADViSE, the VRU has worked alongside healthcare partners, local authorities and specialist domestic abuse organisations to improve how services identify and respond to domestic abuse.

The latest phase of this work, the 6B IRIS programme, was delivered between April 2024 and March 2026 across Havering, Wandsworth, Merton, Harrow, Hillingdon and Sutton. The programme demonstrates what can be achieved when healthcare services and specialist domestic abuse organisations work together to support survivors earlier and more effectively.

Domestic abuse is often hidden, with survivors frequently accessing healthcare services long before they disclose abuse or seek specialist support. The IRIS programme addresses this challenge by embedding specialist Advocate Educators within primary care systems, creating trusted pathways between general practice and local domestic abuse services.

Working with IRISi, local domestic abuse organisations and healthcare professionals, the programme strengthened the healthcare response to domestic abuse across all six boroughs. During the two-year programme 140 general practice teams received specialist training to improve their confidence in identifying abuse, responding to disclosures and supporting patients to access help. As a result, clinicians made 599 referrals into specialist domestic abuse services.

The impact has been felt by both survivors and healthcare professionals.

One survivor in Hillingdon described IRIS as the:

“Best service which I have come across.”

A clinician who participated in the programme said:

“Now I have a plethora of knowledge about services that are available to victims of DV and the different impact it can play on their health.”

Another reflected:

“This course has empowered me to ask difficult questions, directly if needed, document and escalate real-life situations. I highly recommend this training.”

Alongside investment in general practice, the VRU also supported the development of a Health Visitors (iDAHV) pilot in Sutton.

Health visitors are uniquely placed to identify domestic abuse because of the trusted relationships they build with families during pregnancy and early childhood. Through specialist training and a dedicated referral pathway into local domestic abuse services, the pilot strengthened confidence among practitioners and improved opportunities for earlier intervention.

Reflecting on the training, one health visitor described feeling “much more empowered and informed” and better equipped to have sensitive conversations and make timely referrals that could improve safety and mental health outcomes for mothers and children.

The evidence is clear: when healthcare professionals are equipped with the right training, supported by specialist advocates and connected to local domestic abuse services, survivors receive better support and safer pathways to help.

The VRU’s investment has helped strengthen local systems across these six boroughs, demonstrating the important role healthcare can play in tackling violence against women and girls. Building on this progress will require continued collaboration across health and community partners to ensure survivors continue to receive the support they need, when they need it most.

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.