Feasibility Study of the Drive Partnership’s Restart Programme

Cordis Bright are delighted to be working with Foundations – the What Works Centre for Children & Families – and the Drive Partnership on a feasibility study of Restart. Restart is a multi-agency intervention designed to improve responses to domestic abuse in low-to-medium risk families. This feasibility study aims to understand Restart’s programme theory and participant pathways, and to determine the feasibility of a future impact evaluation using experimental or quasi-experimental designs. The feasibility study will run from April 2024 to August 2025.

About Restart

Restart aims to improve responses to domestic abuse. It has been developed by the Drive Partnership (SafeLives, Respect, and Social Finance) and is delivered by Cranstoun and Respect. The programme adopts a whole-family, multi-agency approach targeting low-to-medium risk domestic abuse perpetrators who have involvement with children known to Children’s Social Care (CSC). Its primary goals are to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions, support behaviour change, and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of (ex-) partner and child victim-survivors.

Restart operates across six London Boroughs (Barking and Dagenham, Camden, Croydon, Havering, Sutton, and Westminster). It consists of four key components:

1. Safe & Together model implementation: This is a system-level approach aimed at improving domestic abuse responses by ensuring that accountability is placed on perpetrators while keeping adult and child victim-survivors safe.
2. One-to-one domestic abuse perpetrator intervention: This is a four- to eight-week behaviour change programme focused on improving motivation and readiness for change among low-risk-low-harm perpetrators.
3. Support pathway for victim-survivors: This involves parallel support for (ex-) partner victim-survivors, including risk monitoring and safety planning.
4. Optional housing pathway: Provision of temporary accommodation for service users to ensure that victim-survivors can remain safe at home, guided by the wishes of the victim-survivor.

Approach to the feasibility study

The feasibility study is taking an exploratory, "test and learn" approach, with a focus on building capacity for future impact evaluation. It will focus on understanding the programme’s delivery and determining the feasibility of future impact evaluations using experimental or quasi-experimental designs. 

The evaluation will address key questions, including:

• To what extent is Restart’s Theory of Change rooted in evidence?
• To what extent has Restart been implemented and delivered in line with key dimensions of implementation?
• To what extent does Restart show evidence of promise?
• To what extent would an experimental or quasi-experimental methodology be feasible and acceptable?
• To what extent do key findings vary by EDIE characteristics?

The study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews and observations in three case study sites, and analysis of monitoring, activity and outcomes data across all six boroughs. It will also explore potential benefits for children who, while not direct participants, are the intended primary beneficiary of Restart.

In addition, the Cordis Bright team will be working closely with a group of adult and young people experts by experience, who will co-facilitate fieldwork and inform analysis and reporting.

Key outputs

Foundations have now published the protocol for the feasibility study, which is available here. The study is also registered on the Open Science Framework, available here.

Next steps

The feasibility study is now focussing on delivery, and analysis and reporting is due to conclude in August 2025. It is intended that findings will inform a potential future pilot trial, and provide recommendations for scaling up the programme.

For more information about the feasibility study, please contact Emma Andersen.