The Restitute Model
The gap the model addresses, the people it supports, how support works and the evidence behind it.
A cross-system intervention for families and loved ones affected by sexual abuse, sexual violence and serious violence
The Restitute Model exists because families affected by abuse, trauma and serious harm are often left trying to hold everything together with little or no support of their own.
The people Restitute supports are often exhausted, shocked and overloaded. Families can find themselves sitting on the bottom step scrolling through their phone while the chaos piles up around them—not because they do not care, but because they cannot work out where to start. Restitute was built for that moment: when someone needs help to work out what is urgent, what can wait, who needs contacting, what needs challenging and how to keep ordinary life going. Too often, the systems meant to support their loved one leave non-abusing family members feeling as if they are the problem: mistrustful, fearful, silenced and angry.
Since 2020, Restitute has grown into a specialist model of support for non-abusing parents, carers, family members and loved ones. This is not a niche problem. Restitute supported 903 clients across the three-year evidence period, and the pattern of need has stayed recognisable as the service has grown.
The Restitute Model was built in the real world. It has been shaped by families, practice, people with lived experience of abuse and violent crime, supervision, outcome data, case studies, long-term follow-up, external evaluation and developing economic research. The model brings that learning together into a specialist, evidence-informed intervention for families and loved ones whose needs are often visible to systems, but not properly held by them.
A cross-system intervention for families and loved ones
Non-abusing parents, carers, family members and loved ones may be dealing with police, court, safeguarding, school, health, housing, benefits, work, therapy and wider family relationships at the same time. They may also be supporting the primary survivor, siblings, other children and other affected adults. Their needs therefore cut across several systems and can easily fall between them.
The Restitute Model does not approach support through one narrow service lens. It works across the whole family picture while providing the client with independent support in their own right.
The model can be delivered from within different suitable services, provided its defining features and mandatory Delivery Site requirements are maintained.
The Restitute Model at a glance
| Question | The Restitute Model |
|---|---|
| Who is the model for? | Non-abusing parents, carers, partners, siblings, family members and loved ones. In practice, the model has developed most strongly around families affected by recent and non-recent child sexual abuse, sexual violence, serious violence and related trauma. |
| What makes it different? | The family member or loved one is supported in their own right. They are not just present in someone else’s support, and they are not only helped so they can keep helping the primary victim. |
| How is it separate from survivor support? | The model is independent from support offered to the primary victim. It gives the family member or loved one their own space to speak openly, ask difficult questions, steady themselves and get ordinary life going again. It does not rely on the survivor being willing or able to engage in their own support. |
| What does support include? | Help with the practical things happening around the family. This can include routines, forms, benefits, housing, school, police, court, social care, health, work, safety, family impact, sibling impact, boundaries and rebuilding ordinary life. |
| What does the worker do? | The worker helps the client work out what is urgent, what can wait, what their options are, and what can safely be done next, while also providing emotional support. |
| Is therapy part of the model? | Yes, but it is not the first or only offer. Support workers help clients feel heard, less alone and more able to deal with what is in front of them, while also helping with the practical things that are making life unmanageable. This has been described as having therapeutic effect in its own right. A range of clinical therapeutic interventions can be part of the model where therapy is needed, wanted and likely to help. Therapy is not the front door. |
| How long does support last? | There is no fixed length of time or fixed number of sessions as the default. Some clients need short, focused support. Others need longer support, step-down, bounce-back or help again at high-stress points. |
| What does it cost? | Costs are calculated through a delivery-cost calculator because the model is need-led, not session-led. The calculator takes account of staffing, supervision, recording, safeguarding, practical support, therapy routes, quality assurance and local delivery arrangements. |
| How do you know it works? | Restitute has used the same core wellbeing, carer confidence and health measures from the beginning, with systematic recording from 2021. Outcome data, case studies, client feedback, long-term follow-up, University of Suffolk evaluation and three-year service data all show a consistent pattern: clients improve, and the model has held its quality as demand has grown. Developing University of Bristol work is strengthening the economic evidence. |
| What holds it safely? | A clear model that has been shown to work in practice, regular supervision, safeguarding discipline, careful recording, reflective practice, worker support, outcome review, practical-support controls and quality assurance. The toolkit shows how this is delivered and managed. |
| What defines the model? |
These ten defining features make the Restitute Model what it is. Local delivery may adapt, but these features do not change.
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