Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service) have for many years referred perpetrators of domestic abuse to their ‘Respect’ accredited DAPP (Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme). DAPP had formerly been known as the DVIP (Domestic Violence Intervention Project) and DVPP (Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programme). Since around 2016, if the course was ordered by a family court, it was free to the participant. Previously, if a perpetrator was recommended or ordered to undertake this course,

it cost £2,850 for the privilege of participation. Cafcass would not recommend contact between a ‘guilty’ parent and their children, citing the element of risk. Courts too often rubber-stamped this. The Respect DV programme was for male perpetrators only. Cafcass’s Domestic Violence Pathway Project, their DV toolkit, considered that only males could be perpetrators of domestic violence. If women were domestically violent it was because they were victims of oppressive and controlling behaviour from their male partner. This Cafcass ‘toolkit’ was published in 2008. It ignored the fact that for years the Office of National Statistics (ONS) verified that males were between 33% and 50% of domestic violence victims. It also ignored that more children are killed by their mothers than by their fathers. In June 2022 it was announced that Cafcass could no longer access the ‘Respect’ model and that it would be coming to an end by March 2023. The Ministry of Justice called time on the gendered charade. Currently some courts are allowing the ‘Temper’ (registered charity no 1081139) domestic violence model to be used. This course is much shorter and far more effective in outcome. A comprehensive review of the DAPP situation is offered by the Transparency Project here:LINK

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