A Necessary but Not Sufficient Intervention: Implementing Safe and Together in Scotland and England

Abstract

Background Child welfare responses to domestic violence often blame mothers for "failing to protect" while ignoring perpetrators. The Safe and Together (S&T) model promises transformation through perpetrator pattern-focused assessment. Objective To examine how S&T implementation translates into practice across diverse UK child welfare contexts. Methods Focus groups with 55 professionals across five Scottish and English sites were analyzed using Two-Stage Reflexive Implementation Analysis, integrating reflexive thematic analysis with Proctor's implementation framework. A systematic literature review examined family involvement in S&T development. Results S&T achieved high practitioner acceptability, with professionals reporting it resolved conflicts between their values and bureaucratic demands. Implementation successfully transformed professional language from mother-blaming to perpetrator pattern analysis and improved assessment quality. However, critical gaps emerged between assessment capabilities and intervention availability—no perpetrator programmes or children's therapeutic services existed to address identified needs. The literature review found zero published accounts from families about S&T experiences, revealing exclusively professional knowledge production despite "partnership" rhetoric. Conclusions S&T is necessary but insufficient for comprehensive transformation. While successfully shifting professional consciousness away from victim-blaming, the model cannot improve family outcomes without parallel investments in intervention infrastructure. The systematic absence of family voices perpetuates professional-centric approaches even within anti-oppressive innovations. This "necessary but not sufficient" framework advances implementation science beyond binary success/failure assessments. Findings indicate that genuine transformation requires not only assessment innovation but also service infrastructure development and authentic co-production with families experiencing DVA.