Safer Places Professional Training and Development has continued to deliver a wide-ranging and high-quality programme of short courses, workshops, webinars, and increasing our nationally recognised accredited qualifications for domestic abuse professionals, statutory organisations, and community partners from seven options to nine. Our training continues to raise awareness, strengthen knowledge, and enhance professional responses for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. While much of our work has built on the strong foundations of previous years, we have also been developing a new qualification specifically designed to ensure that domestic abuse practitioners are fully prepared to work within safe accommodation settings. Alongside this, we have grown our training team, enabling us to run more sessions and broaden access, and we have expanded our portfolio with additional free awareness-raising opportunities for over 3,000 attendess. This year, we have continued to respond to the requirements of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, ensuring the sector recognises and embeds the principle that children are victims in their own right. To support this, we have delivered targeted webinars and workshops for professionals working with children and families, and our bespoke Level 3 Children’s Domestic Abuse Advocate qualification has continued to equip practitioners with the specialist skills required to support children affected by domestic abuse. We have also forged some excellent partnerships with other specialist agencies to support our work around children. As part of our ongoing focus on children and young people, we have also delivered healthy relationship workshops across secondary schools and colleges, where funding has permitted, to help young people understand what safe and respectful relationships look like and where to seek support. Building on this, we worked extensively in partnership with Hertfordshire County Council on a project providing staff with the tools to identify and support children impacted by domestic abuse within 68 schools. A key feature of this project is a train the trainer model, ensuring sustainability of knowledge and practice within schools even as staff change. More broadly, we remain active in engaging with schools, youth groups, local businesses and local authorities, to deliver awareness initiatives such as J9 Disclosure, Healthy Relationships, and Crucial Crew. These initiatives not only help victims and survivors access support but also ensure those responding are well-trained and confident in providing effective assistance. We continue to work in partnership with local and specialist ‘by-and-for’ organisations, offering complimentary training to help them strengthen their response and upskill staff who might otherwise be unable to access such opportunities. Through our research, frontline experience, and evaluation, we remain committed to reflecting the voices of the victims/survivors, identifying training gaps, emerging best practice, and upcoming statutory changes. This allows us to provide a continually relevant and forward-thinking selection of professional development opportunities for those working to improve domestic abuse responses and awareness within their communities.

Alongside our employees, trustees, and delivery partners, Safer Places’ stakeholders include organisations, charities, and individuals working in the field of domestic abuse, as well as local authorities, the police, NHS workers, and those with statutory safeguarding obligations. We also engage with the education sector and those supporting young people in the community through youth groups and workshops. Our staff bring extensive frontline experience in supporting those affected by domestic abuse, sexual violence, and stalking. This wealth of knowledge, combined with years of data and practice-based insights, forms the foundation of our training programmes. To ensure quality and impact, all delegates complete evaluations following training sessions. These evaluations help us refine content, continuously improve delivery, and identify both strengths and gaps. In addition, we regularly gather feedback from local domestic abuse forums to stay responsive to emerging needs, peer learning, and potential funding opportunities. To make sure our training reflects authentic lived experiences, we also hold dedicated focus groups with victims and survivors of domestic abuse. Their voices directly shape the development of our programmes, ensuring that every session we deliver is “client approved” and genuinely reflective of real-world experiences. Between April 2024 and March 2025, our training, workshops, and webinars have supported thousands of professionals and community members, helping them to better understand and respond to domestic abuse. We have continued to engage with schools, colleges, and youth clubs across Essex and Hertfordshire, reaching approx. 2,000 young people with healthy relationships workshops and early-intervention awareness initiatives. We also built on the success of our first official stakeholder consultation in October 2023. The feedback from this and subsequent consultations has been carefully reviewed by our Board of Trustees and used to strengthen our strategic direction, ensuring that the voices of stakeholders, partners, and survivors remain at the heart of everything we deliver. Our current stakeholder consultation has been reviewed by a data analyst and circulated, the results of which will be reviewed by the board of trustees in December 2025.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration