Community Payback Order Programme: Domestic Offences
Programme Name:
The Caledonian System
Description:
The Caledonian System is an accredited, whole‑family intervention for men convicted of domestic abuse, combining a men’s behaviour‑change programme with parallel services for women and children to improve safety and reduce reoffending. It typically forms part of a 2-year Community Payback Order with Programme and Supervision Requirements; though it can also form part of a post‑custodial licence condition. The System has three linked parts: a men’s programme, a women’s service, and a children’s service, all designed to work together as one integrated system. The men’s groupwork programme typically includes: a pre‑group phase of around 14 one‑to‑one preparation sessions; a groupwork phase of at least 26 sessions across modules such as responsibility to self and others, relationships, sexual respect, and children and fathering; there is also a post‑group monitoring and maintenance phase. The Women’s service is voluntary and offers safety planning, information, emotional support and practical help to current or former partners of men on the programme, with reducing risk and increasing safety as its central focus. The children’s service ensures children’s rights and needs are recognised, provides direct support to help them make sense of their experiences of abuse, and contributes to risk management around contact and parenting. Typically the work is co-delivered in partnership with Dundee Community Justice Services with the majority of groupwork sessions held at Friarfield House, Dundee.