About Us
Who we are
Capa First Response is a specialist UK service providing compassionate, expert support for families and professionals experiencing Child or Adolescent to Parent Aggression and/or Harm (Sometimes referred to as CPA). We offer early help, crisis interventions, and practical strategies that reduce risk and rebuild relationships.
For families, we provide online, non-judgemental support that helps them understand the drivers behind behaviour, improve communication, and create safety and trust.
For professionals, we deliver evidence-informed training, consultation and tools that build confidence and improve the quality of support offered to families.
Our experienced team brings decades of frontline practice, research insight, and lived experience to ensure that every parent, carer and practitioner feels heard, understood and equipped to respond with clarity, compassion and hope.
How we can help
Capa First Response offers free support regardless of your location to the whole family.
For families we offer:
Weekly online Drop-in sessions
Advice & support sessions
Group Work
Bespoke and tailored one-to-one sessions
For professionals we offer:
FREE consultation sessions
3 hour introduction training (online)
1 day training (online)
Case-led team or individual supervision
Face to Face training events throughout the UK
Take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions.
Read more about how Capa First Response started..
Why we don’t like to use the term ‘abuse’
Since starting Capa First Response we’ve moved away from using the term ‘abuse’ to describe the actions and behaviours of the children in the families we support. Read why here.
We do recognise that using ‘CAPVA’ (Child Against Parent/caregiver Violence/Aggression) is the industry standard but we explain why we don’t like to use the word ‘abuse here. You’ll see a few phrases and words on our website linked to the term CAPVA. We want to work to not only help to lower the numbers of families suffering, but to also reduce the stigma in the hopes that families won’t put off asking for help when this is something being experienced.
The Capa First Response Approach
Attachment:
Secure attachment between a parent and child are crucial for child development, supporting emotional regulation, social skills and cognitive growth. This leads to better mental health and stronger relationships.
Solution Focused:
This approach emphasises the strengths within families and empowers them to identify and implement solutions. Helping lead to improved outcomes and a more positive collaborative relationship between the parent and child.
Neuroscience:
Understanding brain development helps us consider how our experiences shape our neural connections influencing behaviour and emotional wellbeing ultimately impacting our long term outcomes.
Pro Social Modelling:
Parents and carers are one of our child’s most important role models. By watching how their parent behaves a child will learn how to react in similar situations. It becomes really important to model the behaviours that you want to see in your child.
Did you know?
Each month…
- We share our resources with over 5000 people
- We offer over 200 families and professionals our services
Over a year that’s 62,400 people who have access to support around this issue.
What do people say about our services?
100% of families tell us they would recommend our support to other families
98% of families said their relationship with their child has improved since seeking our support
At least 40% of child-to-parent violence and abuse incidents are unreported to police, according to research by the VRU (the Mayor of London’s Crime Reduction Unit in 2022)
Drawing on data from 2011-20, the research found that while there was no single cause of child-to-parent violence and abuse, the issue was often under-reported to police due to fears of criminalisation, stigmatisation or the risk of having a child removed from homes. Other factors include cultural and linguistic barriers, and a mistrust of services resulting in patchwork support and resources for families.
In another example, a woman who had been a victim of intimate violence from her previous partner, was not supported by her family when her child became abusive. Her family blamed her for “not being hard enough” on her children.
Source: The Guardian
About the team
All the practitioners that work at Capa have knowledge and experience of supporting families. Each practitioner has been hand picked to work with us at Capa, we know how they work and understand their methods. Each practitioner brings a different strength and understanding to the work enabling us to allocate families to a practitioner’s strength.
We have a practitioner who specialises in working with families where the young person has a neurodivergent diagnosis, as with many more families experiencing this we want to give families the best possible resources to support them in their specific circumstances.
Meet our funders & partners:
We are so grateful to the funders and partners who believe in our vision and stand alongside us in supporting families affected by child-to-parent aggression and harm.
Their commitment enables us to offer early help, specialist guidance, and compassionate spaces where families and professionals can feel understood and equipped.
Our work is only possible because of their trust, belief, and willingness to invest in approaches that prioritise relationships, safety, and hope.
Together, we are creating meaningful, sustained change for families across the UK.
