In 2020, we finalised an evaluation of the Newham New Day programme, a whole-family domestic abuse programme supported through the Department for Education’s Children Social Care Innovation Programme. In 2022, we completed an update to the data study conducted as part of the original evaluation, expanding the time span for the data study and exploring changes up to 30 months post-exit from NewDAy, with the aim of assessing its impact on children and young people’s social care outcomes (and associated costs) over a longer period of time. This report presents the findings from this longitudinal study. It found that NewDAy had a positive effect on how quickly the case status of children and young people affected by domestic violence and abuse de-escalated, and was most effective in de-escalating cases long-term for young people at higher risk. However, over the longer-term the scale of de-escalation converged so that by 12 and 24 months after exit there were few differences between the NewDAy cohort and the comparison group. Findings from the cost-benefit analysis suggest that (a) the overall costs of operating NewDAy, i.e. a highly specialist and experienced team, essentially outweighs the costs that can be saved over time by de-escalating statutory cases; and (b) the NewDAy model makes a particularly positive difference to costs if it successfully prevents children from entering care (or helps to remove children from care). A greater focus on this cohort could result in more immediate and substantial savings to the system.

For more information, please contact Colin Horswell or Suzie Langdon-Shreeve.