The Northamptonshire Health and Wellbeing Board requested a review of current shelter and housing provision, nationally and internationally. Specifically, the research team were asked to address three questions:

1. How do other parts of the world deal with this issue, particularly where there is more emphasis on support for the victim to stay in their own home and removing the perpetrator?

2. What, if any, is the impact on funding IPV services following structural changes to partner agencies namely CCG’s being formed, and the current changes to the Probation service?

3. How have other areas dealt with the impact of these changes so that victims and perpetrators continue to receive support?

To address the three questions identified by the Health and Wellbeing Board, the research team initially completed a search of available scholarly and grey literature. However, it was clear that questions 2 and 3 could not readily be answered by literature that was available in the public domain. Consequently, interviews were carried out with local authorities and with service providers in Northamptonshire, and in five other counties, to explore the impact of funding changes for domestic violence services, and to establish how other counties have responded to these funding changes.