Diana Barran

Diana Barran has shown extraordinary vision in setting up her own charity
towards aiding and supporting victims of domestic violence. Diana is the founder of Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA), a ground breaking new process of using professional Independent Domestic Violence Advisors, (IDVAs), to support victims and co-ordinate help for them. The system aims to keep victims and their children safely within their homes and unreachable by their abuser who can be speedily dealt with by the criminal justice system.

In 2001, Diana left her successful career as a hedge fund manager to join New Philanthropy Capital, looking for a cause that would inspire her. Whilst at NPC she co-authored a guide for funders in the field of support to survivors of domestic violence. Through this experience she saw severe flaws in the existing system, and recognised that the majority of those suffering from violence at home were not getting the right support. Diana left NPC and set about implementing a new national IDVA network and re-engineering the response to domestic violence based on the work of the IDVA.

An IDVA works with the highest risk victims and their families and co-ordinates the agencies that a victim needs to access safety. This includes statutory agencies such as the police, the courts, housing, children’s services and immigration services as well as practical help such as appropriate community support. The concept aims to allow the victim and their family to stay safely at home and to shut the abuser out. It also reaches victims who were otherwise difficult to help, particularly in minority communities.

Since 2004, 275 new IDVAs have now been trained and the approach is working. Over 70 Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences, (MARACs), are up and running across England and Wales. Over 20,000 of the highest risk victims within the UK are being supported. An estimated 70% of these families will be made safer as a result of this work. The savings in financial terms will exceed £50 million. The savings in human terms are immeasurable.

Diana’s ideas are being copied nationally and are influencing government policy, for example IDVAs are now able to access new fast track domestic violence courts and are at the heart of a multi-agency response to domestic violence. CAADA’s future aim is to deliver even greater social benefit; cutting more deaths and injuries and safeguarding the psychological well-being of thousands of vulnerable victims and children.

“She has brought to this work an intellectual rigour, a deep concern for the victims of domestic violence and a creative impatience to make a real and demonstrable difference to the world of women and children who are at risk.”

Richard Hopgood, Director, The Henry Smith Charity

>back