The CAADA Independent Domestic Violence Advisor training course has been developed with the aim of improving the response to high risk clients by building the skills of IDVAs with the knowledge and tools required to facilitate risk management. The ultimate aim of the CAT course is to make victims of domestic violence and their children safer, by giving them effective support and real options through an IDVA.

We equip learners with a clear understanding of how to identify risk, support clients and address the issues that they face in a consistent and professional way, as well as improving their ability to work with voluntary and statutory agencies in responding to abuse. This achieved through the four main areas of knowledge:

The development of an ‘IDVA toolkit' of practical skills
The development of expertise in risk
Drawing upon a wide range of safety options
Understanding the IDVA role within a multi-agency setting

The development of an ‘IDVA toolkit' of practical skills

IDVAs need specific skills to motivate and enable each client to make changes in their lives. We deliver training on an ‘IDVA toolkit' that contains all the essential skills and approaches required for the role. The toolkit includes:

• Motivational Interviewing
• Stages of Change
• Active listening
• Negotiation
• Pro-social modelling

We expect IDVAs to use these tools in their approach to clients, other agencies, and colleagues. We also expect learners to demonstrate these skills in the CAADA training room.

IDVAs need a clear understanding of risk identification and risk management. This includes an understanding of how risk in domestic violence situations is linked to the key areas of public protection including child abuse and homicide. IDVAs need to be familiar with risk management strategies both individually and in a multi-agency setting such as MARACs. They need to be confident in identifying the degree of risk faced by a client, in safety planning and in determining when to access other support services. We will train IDVAs on the importance of ‘defensible decision making', and the importance of recording their work in order to ensure accountability and professionalism. Safety should be at the core of everything the IDVA does, and we will explore this throughout the course.

Drawing upon a wide range of safety options

IDVAs need a thorough practical knowledge of the full range of options available to their clients. This includes the criminal justice system, civil law, housing, support for vulnerable adults and children and other specialist support services. IDVAs need to be able to advise clients on the availability and accessibility of all appropriate services to reduce their risks. We will look at the importance of relating risk directly to individual client safety plans. Throughout the course we will consider how each client's individual needs and circumstances will affect their risk, and we encourage IDVAs to broaden their knowledge of a wide range of client groups and the potential implications in achieving safety.

Understanding the IDVA role within a multi-agency setting

Finally, IDVAs must recognise that their role does not end with a range of tangible interventions for each client. We expect IDVAs to help every client build their own local support network, and to empower them to make safe choices that will have long-term effects. Moreover, we encourage IDVAs to contribute to the improvement of response to domestic violence at a local and national level. We will explore the wider domestic violence sector and the vast range of agencies that can impact on client safety at strategic and operational level. We expect IDVAs to monitor and evaluate their own work in order to improve their own response to clients. We also equip learners with knowledge about multi-agency working and how to achieve positive institutional change.

In developing these four building blocks, by the end of the course, IDVA course graduates will have the confidence to work from the point of crisis with high risk clients. They will be able to utilise various skills and tools to offer a wide range of practical options that can achieve long-term safety for individual clients, and make a real difference in improving the wider response to domestic violence.

The IDVA course itself comprises a total of 15 days, broken into five blocks of three day sessions. The following table provides an overview of the topics covered in the course.

The training programme will NOT cover:

Gender focus

In recognition of the research and reporting information from all the key agencies responding to domestic violence, the main focus of the training will be on work with women experiencing domestic abuse from male partners or ex-partners. However, there will be training provided on responding to women and men experiencing abuse within lesbian and male gay relationships, and men experiencing abuse from a female partner.