Final Evaluation Report

Action 14

Strengthen systems and service integration to ensure that specialist responses for identifying and responding to violence against women and their children are supported and effective, including through: collaborative models of service delivery; and information sharing protocols and risk assessment tools.

56.Intention and Government commitment

Action 14 intends to strengthen system and service integration and improve information sharing in order to provide consistent responses to victimised women and their children and to minimise the need for victims to repeatedly retell (and therefore relive) their abusive experiences to different service providers.

The Australian Government committed to encouraging collaboration between the police; domestic and family violence and sexual assault services; housing and homelessness services; child protection, health and mental health services; income support and financial management support; and perpetrator interventions and programs.²⁷

Completeness of Action 14

Action 14 was delivered across most jurisdictions. It was delivered through a collection of diverse services and systems for addressing family violence, including mobile applications (apps), integrated service hubs, pro-active policing referrals and strategies (also partly addressing Action 20), and new risk assessment frameworks for front-line staff. A selection of services and systems delivered across the Australian Government and states and territories is described below.

Australian Government

To deliver on this action, the Australian Government provides funding to Lifeline Australia to build on DV-alert, a Domestic Violence Response Training program which offers free training to community frontline workers. DV-alert is designed to improve frontline workers’ understanding and ability to identify and respond to domestic and family violence. The Australian Government has funded Lifeline to deliver DV-alert since July 2007 and will continue to deliver the program until 2018. Over the course of the Second Action Plan DV-alert has provided a series of general workshops across the country, in both metropolitan and regional centres. To address the unique needs of CALD women and Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population DV-Alert has also provided multicultural workshops and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workshops. For more flexible delivery of the course content DV-Alert also offers E-learning workshops for frontline workers to attend remotely.

Australian Capital Territory Government

The ACT Government appointed the first Coordinator General for domestic and family violence in relation to Action 14, as a specialist response to women and their children experiencing domestic violence. The role of the Coordinator General is to support the ACT Government in all domestic violence prevention and response activities.

Initiatives being implemented include: integrated case management, training for front-line staff across community and emergency services, a residential behaviour change program for men, programs which strengthen criminal justice responses to alleged perpetrators, improved access to legal aid for victims of family violence, and support for the implementation of the Law Reform Commission report - 'A National Legal Response'.

Information Sharing Protocols have also been developed and tested in a place based initiative to support improved understanding and practice of information sharing across the service system. With the appointment of a full time Coordinator General for Family Safety in 2016, further work is being progressed to improve information sharing in the ACT and with other jurisdictions.

New South Wales Government

The NSW Government undertook a range of actions in relation to Action 14 including a Police-NGO partnership to pilot Australia’s first domestic violence disclosure scheme (DVDS). The DVDS aims to increase the safety of people potentially at risk of domestic violence by enabling them to find out if their partner has a history of domestic violence offending.

The NSW Government continues to implement It Stops Here: Standing together to end domestic and family violence, which promotes information sharing, as well as helps drive collaborative models of service delivery. The Safer Pathway initiative is a coordinated, holistic and victim-centred (as opposed to agency-centred) approach for responding to victims and their children as they navigate through the domestic violence support and criminal justice system. The NSW Government also legislated to change part 13A of the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 and the supporting Domestic Violence Information Sharing Protocol to enable domestic violence support services to share information for the purpose of providing support services to victims, and to prevent or reduce serious threats to life, health or safety of victims. With these legislative changes, information can be shared across jurisdictions to protect women who are at risk of violence from a known perpetrator.

The NSW Government has also commenced work on developing a NSW Sexual Assault Strategy which aims to provide a cohesive and consistent response to the needs of victims of sexual assault. A literature review has been completed and formal consultations with government, peak organisations, service providers and the community commenced in mid-2016.

Northern Territory Government

The NT Government delivered on Action 14 through the implementation of the Family Safety Framework. The framework is an integrated service response led by the NT Police for responding to people at high risk of injuries or death. The framework comprises common risk assessment for victims of violence; protocols for information sharing between agencies; fortnightly meetings between agencies to discuss high risk family and domestic violence cases; and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the framework.

As at 30 September 2016, the NT Government, through the Alice Springs Integrated Response to Family and Domestic Violence Project and the Safety is Everyone’s Right Strategy, has delivered training and targeted information sessions to 2,483 frontline practitioners, supervisors, policy/governance development officers and senior executives. This training has been made available at no cost to all three tiers of Government and the non-government service delivery sector and has built an integrated service delivery model.

In Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Darwin and Katherine, Critical Intervention Outreach Services have been established and provide holistic and culturally appropriate case management and targeted outreach support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children. The Critical Intervention Outreach Services extend to 16 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and twenty nine town camps, with integrated service delivery across the community sector paramount to the success of the program. All four Indigenous Critical Intervention Outreach Services have established mutually beneficial relationships with service providers, built on trust and respect.

Queensland Government

The QLD Government is delivering on Action 14 through an integrated service system response to domestic and family violence for QLD. The Government is also currently implementing recommendations from the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence report Not Now, Not Ever, with commitments in the First Action Plan 2015-16 to:

• 
  develop contemporary integrated domestic and family violence service delivery models, in consultation with the sector, to trial in three locations - an urban community, a regional community and a discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community – across QLD; and
  
• 
  in consultation with the sector, also undertake the foundational work needed to support implementation of these trials including development of a common risk assessment framework, information sharing guidelines and a process for managing high-risk cases.
  

The urban trial commenced in Logan-Beenleigh in mid-2016. The remaining two trial sites at Mt Isa and Cherbourg will commence in 2017. The QLD Government has also passed legislation to enable information sharing as part of the integrated service responses to domestic and family violence.

South Australian Government

The SA Government established the Family Safety Framework in 2007 enhancing information sharing protocols and collaborative models of service delivery. The Framework consists of common risk assessments, information sharing protocols, family safety meetings and ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities.

Also in relation to Action 14, the SA Government implemented the Rapid Response Framework as a coordinated interagency approach to dealing with children and young people under the guardianship of the Minister. The framework provides children and young people under guardianship with quality case management, priority access to services, an education plan and financial support in accessing vocational education and training courses.

The SA Government implemented a Multi-Agency Protection Service (MAPS) which co-locates staff from SA Police (SAPOL), Department of Education and Child Development, Health SA, Housing SA, Families SA and Department for Correctional Services to share vital information faster and identify victims and emerging patterns of harm before they escalate, ensuring that children and families at risk are provided with a timely service when incidents arise. The inclusion of a NGO service will provide a liaison point to gather information from a range of NGOs that women may have accessed prior to police call-outs to incidents.

The SA Government also introduced the Domestic Violence Response Review in 2014, in response to the Coroner’s recommendations regarding the death of Zahra Abrahimzadeh. The Domestic Violence Response Review provides a circuit breaker in instances where a Domestic Violence Service provider does not believe the most appropriate response to their client’s situation have been received. It is designed to increase accountability and provide an escalation point where there have been process flaws or gaps in the response of a government agency to domestic violence.

Tasmanian Government

The TAS Government implemented the Signs of Safety: Child Protection Practice Framework to guide practitioners in evaluating a range of risk factors, in case planning and decision making in relation to child abuse. The framework aims to move child protection practice and culture away from a paternalistic approach towards a collaborative approach as highlighted in Action 14, involving professionals working together with family members to address incidents of child abuse.

Since 2004, Safe At Home, the TAS Government's integrated criminal justice response to family violence, has brought together a range of services working together to protect and support victims of family violence, including children and young people, while making offenders responsible for their behaviour. Safe At Home is underpinned by the Family Violence Act 2004 (TAS) and section 37 of the Act enables information sharing between Safe At Home services.

A key feature of the Safe At Home service response is integrated case coordination (ICC), a systematic and holistic approach to coordinating interventions to address the risk and safety needs of Safe At Home clients across professional and agency boundaries. It aims to maximise the efficient use of available resources in order to produce better outcomes for clients through a ‘seamless’ service delivery system. The aim of the ICC approach is to contribute to the safety of adult and child victims of family violence and mitigate against the risk that an offender will repeat or escalate their violence by coordinating an integrated service response that is proactive, timely, holistic and effective. More specifically, case coordination involves developing a series of agreed goals, interventions and responsibilities that provide a cohesive and integrated approach to address the identified risk and safety needs of a case.

The Safe Families Coordination Unit (SFCU) brings together staff from the Departments of Police, Fire and Emergency Management; Health and Human Services; Justice; and Education to work collaboratively, to provide the best available information about family violence incidents to ensure that victims of high-risk family violence are identified and supported as early as possible, and family violence perpetrators are held to account.

Victorian Government

The VIC Government implemented the state wide rollout of the Strengthening Risk Management Program, also known as the Risk Assessment and Management Panels, to support women and their children at risk of domestic violence. This program relates to Action 14 through its emphasis on interagency collaboration, information sharing and risk assessment activities. The program brings together police, correction services, human services and courts to share information and respond to high-risk domestic violence offenders and victims.

From 2013 to 2015 the VIC Government also funded Our Watch for the Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence project which involved the Royal Women’s Hospital and Bendigo Health. This project equips hospital staff with the skills to identify, respond to and prevent violence directed at women and their children.

Western Australian Government

The WA Government delivered a range of initiatives in relation to Action 14, including implementation of Family and Domestic Violence Response Teams, Multi-agency case management and the second edition of the Common Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework. The Family and Domestic Violence Response Teams are a multi-agency partnership, based in every child protection district to provide timely response to domestic violence incidents following a police call out. Multi-agency case management is an approach for high risk cases that enables information exchange and coordinated safety planning. The second edition of the Common Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework further supports multi-agency responses through updated risk assessment tools, policy context and guidelines.

Also across most jurisdictions, the respective governments continued to use various forms of cross-sector information sharing schemes (for example SA Government's Multi-Agency Protection Services). These schemes enable sharing of information about the circumstances of a victim between police and other government or non-government service providers to ensure the safety of the victim.

The WA Department of Child Protection and Family Support has also partnered with the WA Police and specialist Family and Domestic Violence Coordinated Response Service providers to form the Family and Domestic Violence Response Team (FDVRT). The purpose of the FDVRT is to provide a consistent interagency response to victims of domestic and family violence as soon as they have been identified by the WA Police. The interagency response to an incident includes joint risk assessment, triage and followed by coordinated response. A shared database called the Triage Application has been developed to support the operations of the FDVRT, including the recording of outcomes.

57.

58.Effectiveness of Action 14

Action 14 is generally considered by survey respondents as being effective in supporting innovative services and integrated systems.

“Specialisation is currently being squandered and is under threat due to state-wide frameworks promoting generalisation. Further work is required to secure specialist services as the underpinning for the service system and building linkages and understanding across universal services.” – Survey respondent

Of the survey respondents, 44 per cent considered Action 14 somewhat effective, while 15 per cent indicated that it was very effective and 3 per cent believed that it was extremely effective. However, 20 per cent of survey respondents thought that Action 14 was not very effective and 10 per cent believed that it was not at all effective. These survey results are consistent with workshop results, where participants noted areas of improvements to increase the effectiveness of Action 14.



Service providers who attended the workshops reported that service innovation, as a specific element of Action 14, has progressed during the Second Action Plan, but continues to be an area of family violence policy that could be better developed. The workshop participants pointed out that some of the most innovative, collaborative models of service delivery under Action 14 were introduced under other sector’s frameworks, such as the homelessness sector. The National Partnership on Homelessness provides funding to state and territory governments to deliver shelter and support to people at risk of homelessness. The National Partnership on Homelessness gives priority to women and their children escaping violence. This agreement aims to encourage collaborate models of care between services specialising in homelessness and those specialising in domestic and family violence.

Service providers were asked how actions to support innovative services and integrated systems could be improved on through the Third Action Plan. Generally, the main themes that emerged from this question related to the need for additional funding to initiate and sustain policies aimed at supporting services and systems, and further collaborations. Service providers reported the need for long-term bi-partisan funding arrangements to resource innovation and services that have successfully provided services to victims of violence. In particular, service providers stated the need to fund grassroots organisations that work to support women, men, children, CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Service providers also reported that the actions to support innovative services and integrated systems in the Second Action Plan is still a “…work in progress…”, with most services recognising that work currently being done requires further implementation at both a policy and direct services level. Finally, service providers reported the need for further collaboration between mainstream agencies, the judiciary system and service providers.

“Increase the funding of the specialist CALD, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and women with disability services to provide service to these vulnerable groups” – Survey respondent

“It is essential that perpetrator programs run alongside strong supports for women and their children and that the funding of these programs does not come at the expense of a reduction in funding to specialist women’s services.” – Survey respondent

National Case Study – DV-alert The Department of Social Services through DV-alert is delivering the only nationally accredited training program designed to help community frontline workers better understand and identify domestic and family violence and improve their referral and support skills. State Case Study – Signs of Safety Framework, TAS The Signs of Safety Framework guides practitioners to evaluate risk factors and family safety simultaneously to achieve a balanced, comprehensive assessment of risk and assist in case planning, decision making and service delivery. The program was developed in Western Australia and has been applied in TAS.