This means that our Fast Track Professional Development Program, piloted in 2019, will now be expanded in 2020 enabling us to provide more opportunities to build the knowledge and skill capabilities of professionals wanting to move into specialist family violence leadership roles.

So, why is upskilling the workforce and our Fast Track Program so crucial?

If we are to make in-roads to reducing the prevalence of family violence and other forms of violence against women, we need skilled practitioners in key roles to have the ability to design and implement programs that address the root causes and contributing factors underpinning this violence. Similarly, in order to operate an effective system designed to prevent and respond to family violence and violence against women, it is crucial that appropriately skilled workforces are in place to meet the challenges we face.

Fast tracking the up-skilling of our current workforce with the capabilities to support systems implementation and service delivery, and ensuring the supply of prevention practitioners with the capability to work across settings, with specific populations, and across the general community is therefore critical.

Our Fast Track Pilot Program

Piloted in 2019 and funded by Family Safety Victoria (FSV), our program was designed to fast track the supply of knowledgeable and skilled Tier 1 senior level practitioners to take up urgently needed specialist family violence management and leadership roles. The program was conducted over a three month period and involved ten face to face sessions, coaching and mentoring, workplace experience and a community of practice. Workshops were structured around leadership and management skills as outlined in FSV’s family violence Capability Frameworks and included topics such as managing risk, leading systems and quality services, advocacy and reform.

Read a summary of our evaluation findings.

Moving Fast Track in the future

With confirmation of further investment and learnings from our pilot program taken on board, a new iteration of the program has been developed and will expand in 2020. This means more opportunities to diversify the program for delivery to wider audiences over a two-year period. We look forward to sharing more details about what our new and invigorated program looks like and how to become a part of it.

Respect Victoria is the first agency solely devoted to preventing family violence and violence against women in Victoria. What are the priorities for this exciting new statutory authority?

Tracey Gaudry: Primary prevention is our number one priority – that is, to prevent all forms of family violence and violence against women before it starts. With the recent launch of our four-year strategic plan on 29 March, we’re aware that a change of this magnitude can take generations to achieve, but we’re in it for the long haul and more than that, we’re hopeful that our vison will be realised – that all people are safe, equal and respected, and free from all forms of family violence and violence against women. By coordinating and galvanising the prevention efforts that have come before Respect Victoria, a key part of our work is educating the community about the drivers of family violence. Most notably, helping people understand the role gender inequality plays in perpetuating the attitudes and social norms that have contributed to a culture where family violence remains hidden, and in many cases, often until it’s too late.

Family violence is an incredibly complicated issue, and many people see it as the consequence of an unhealthy relationship. As we know, there’s victim blaming and a whole host of blinkered attitudes that can prevent people from absorbing the bigger picture, and that can include discrimination based upon sex, gender and race. We’re committed to bringing the community at large along the prevention journey. We’ll do this by using evidence-informed research, lived experiences and the proven societal benefits of respect and equality to demonstrate how men, women, young people, everyone can contribute to making Victoria a safer, more equitable place to live.

How does Respect Victoria differ from Our Watch?

Patty Kinnersly: A really important key difference between these two agencies is that Respect Victoria is devoted to preventing family violence and violence against women. Our Watch was established in 2013 to drive nationwide change in the structures, norms and practices that underpin violence against women. Whilst there is significant overlap, Respect Victoria has a broader remit.

The other key difference is that Our Watch has national responsibility and works with state and territory governments (including Victoria) and receives funding from almost all state and territory governments.

What possibilities does Respect Victoria bring for Victoria’s prevention sector?

Tracey Gaudry: The possibilities for Respect Victoria are endless. As a new statutory authority, we’re on a steep establishment and development curve. Our focus is to cultivate relationships with leaders in primary prevention, to consult widely and build our research arm. In the six months since Respect Victoria’s inception, we have been thrilled with the results of our flagship ‘Call It Out’ campaign, and more recently, the response to Respect Victoria’s first strategic plan.

While there is some research into the attitudes, practices and power relations that drive family violence, there is still a lot to be done, and Respect Victoria aims to fill this gap with the support of government, our colleagues and partners. We’ll be engaging with workplaces, industry, sport, the arts, media, community organisations and others. Respect Victoria will also undertake and disseminate research into the drivers of all forms of family violence and violence against women. Using this research, we’ll be developing and promoting best practice primary prevention for government, industry, organisations and communities, and we’ll be providing advice about what programs work and where investment should be placed.

Informed by research and evidence, we’ll be leading social marketing campaigns and engaging with stakeholders across multiple sectors to build a culture of respect for all Victorians.

Patty Kinnersly: Addressing the underlying drivers of violence against women and family violence is an enormous task, the more hands and minds dedicated to that task, the closer we will be to a future where women and children can live without fear of violence.

Respect Victoria will also provide a central leadership organisation for Victoria that will provide clarity about what’s needed for prevention work, give good advice to government, and advance important work to advance knowledge about the drivers of family violence (broader than gendered violence against women).

Victoria’s decision to invest both in its work with Our Watch and in establishing Respect Victoria shows that this state is genuinely committed to ending violence against women and their children, and demonstrates an appreciation of the fact that addressing gender inequality is the only true long-term solution to this terrible problem.

This article features in the April 2019 edition of DVRCV Advocate.

We’re about halfway through the Family Violence Rolling Action Plan 2017–­2020, how do you think the sector reform is tracking towards achieving the stated outcomes?

Minister Williams:

The sector should feel very proud of the work already done. Creating sustained, long-term and systemic reform is extremely challenging.

Our commitment to prevent family violence is enshrined in legislation through the establishment of Respect Victoria. We have rolled out five of the Orange Doors – providing a single entry point for victim survivors of family violence – and intend to have the remaining 12 operational by 2021.

We are driving an understanding of the link between gender inequality and family violence through our mass behaviour change campaigns. The second of these, Respect Women – Call it Out, has reached 5.2 million Victorians.

Emily Maguire:

Given the scale of the task and the depth of change, I think the reforms are tracking quite well across the state. The level of commitment we have around ending family violence across politics, the public and a wide range of sectors involved in these reforms is truly staggering; if we can maintain this commitment, I believe we will over time see the vision of the Royal Commission realised.

I think we’ve made progress in a lot of areas – we have strong new cross-sectoral partnerships, new prevention work is taking place across the state and more agencies than ever are seeing family violence as their core business – but as with any large-scale reform there is still lots more to do.

In the coming years it will be important to take stock of what we have achieved and learnt, and to think about what we should continue, what is still missing and what we need to improve or shift to ensure the best outcomes for women and children living with family violence.

What do you think some of the major challenges are in the reform journey over the coming years?

Minister Williams:

One of the hardest parts of reform like this is the time it takes – to not only build a system that creates behavioural change, but to see this flow through to results, in declining incidents of family violence.

It will take at least 10 years, if not more – but we know it can be done. Changes in attitudes toward drink driving took more than 20 years of sustained effort to achieve, but now they are entrenched in our lives.

Emily Maguire:

With any change comes challenges; the more we understand about what these are, the more we can plan and work together to address them.

Some of the challenges are about the people and the organisations doing the work; maintaining the pace and level of work required in a reform environment, increasing the pool of skilled prevention and response practitioners to do this work, and finding a balance between engaging with long-term reforms and maintaining the day-to-day work of organisations are joint challenges we all face.

Other challenges are more structural or theoretical; trying to coordinate a reform this complex and nuanced; bringing together differing theoretical frameworks and ensuring that the needs of women, young people, children and men are addressed in the intersections of these frameworks, and ensuring that every piece of work remains true to the intent and vision of the Royal Commission.

Whilst the challenges are significant, the depth of commitment from everyone involved will mean we can continue to work through these challenges as the reforms progress.

What is most inspiring or exciting about your work and/or the reform journey at the moment?

Minister Williams:

The most inspiring part of the work for me is how those with lived experience of family violence are guiding these reforms and how incredibly resilient they are.

Working with the Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council – set up by government in 2014 and chaired by Rosie Batty – is an absolute privilege, and the Council’s direct advice to government has been crucial to our progress so far.

It’s also exciting to help shape a global movement of change. We in Victoria are leading the world with this work.

Still so far to go – but never forget the big steps forward that are already taking us on that journey.

Emily Maguire:

There are three things in particular that help keep me inspired in my work.

The first is the opportunity to be a part of once-in-a-lifetime change for an issue I care so passionately about.

The second is the people I work with – the team at DVRCV, my colleagues across the not-for-profit sector and government alike – all of us have different roles, but the passion, intelligence and commitment of the people I work alongside is inspiring.

And the third is the victim survivors who, I hope, will be the ultimate beneficiaries of these reforms. Being a part of creating a world where women and their children are safe, and where all people are able to engage in healthy and respectful relationships, is what drives so many of us in this sector.

This article features in the April 2019 edition of DVRCV Advocate.

Tell us about your role in AOD services in the western metropolitan catchments.

The Specialist Family Violence Advisor program was established in response to recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence to build capacity through improving early identification and intervention to family violence by the AOD and mental health sectors. The program aims to strengthen inter-sector and cross-service coordination and collaboration, moving towards integrated and consistent responses to family violence.

What needs to be considered in the AOD context for Specialist Family Violence Advisors?

The AOD sector responds both to those experiencing and using family violence.

There is scope to consider the potential barriers for women attending AOD services, as currently the majority of clients accessing AOD services are men. Western Health – Drug Health Services have a women-specific AOD day rehabilitation program which includes addressing family violence. However, many AOD clients who have partners using violence may not be accessing specialist family violence services out of fear that their help-seeking might be used against them, both by the perpetrator and by the service system.

The large number of men accessing AOD services also provides an opportunity to further develop understandings and leadership within the AOD sector, particularly regarding developing non-collusive practice in how to raise respectful accountability questions with those who perpetrate violence.

Cross-sector collaboration can also provide an important opportunity to bring AOD and mental health knowledge back into the family violence sector, improving access and support to those who also have AOD and mental health needs. Coordinated and systemic partnerships are integral to building comprehensive risk assessment and interventions.

What are the challenges and opportunities working as a family violence specialist in the AOD sector?

Building collaboration across the sectors will require deconstructing past siloed approaches that may have existed across specialist sectors. This cross-sector work also brings opportunities to improve responses, skills and understanding of family violence for all sectors, including family violence, AOD and mental health. At a systemic macro level, this includes opportunities to improve referral pathways, develop secondary consultation systems, and offer co-case management. Developing skills and practices to avoid collusion and improving respectful responses with those who use violence creates interventions that generate individual and community accountability. Improving these responses would also assist in prioritising the safety of families who are experiencing family violence.

Another important opportunity is engagement with criminalised women, who are often identified as being ‘high risk of lethality’ through the RAMP specialist family violence program, and AOD services may be the only supports they are actively engaged with.

What are the benefits of having specialist practitioners in organisations outside the family violence sector?

Being located in an AOD organisation external to the family violence sector facilitates incidental family violence consultations and the establishment of secondary consultation systems. My attendance at AOD clinical reviews and team meetings prompts a focus on family violence, providing opportunities for practitioners to develop a family violence lens and increasing their capacity to identify family violence risk, navigate referral pathways and undertake safety planning.

Another significant benefit is the opportunity to identify AOD practitioners who have an interest in and commitment to addressing family violence. Mentoring opportunities can be developed for those practitioners, and their involvement and expertise utilised to establish capacity-building activities within their teams/services. This can help to effect systemic change and build capacity to support improved responses to family violence.

If you could improve the way that Specialist Family Violence Advisors work in other services, what would you do?

It seems essential to me that Phase 2 of the AOD and mental health Specialist Family Violence Advisor program has a coordination infrastructure across Victoria. Encouraging the sharing of information and strategies amongst advisors would facilitate the systemic changes that advisors have been tasked to implement, including breaking down barriers and bridging identified gaps in service and sector responses across the family violence, AOD and mental health sectors.

This article features in the April 2019 edition of DVRCV Advocate.

Recommendation 94 enshrines what many workers in the primary prevention of violence against women (PVAW) and local government sectors already know: local government is critical in driving the change needed to prevent violence against women and to embed gender equity and respect into local communities.

Councils work with people across all life stages and across a number of settings, such as health and community services, arts, sports and recreation, education and care settings and public spaces. Councils are a major employer within their municipality, providing them with a unique opportunity to embed primary prevention in their communities through civic leadership, service provision, policies, work practices and community engagement. Over the last decade, councils across Victoria have been taking action at the local level to address the drivers of violence against women as set out in the national prevention framework, Change the Story.

It would be hard to talk about prevention of violence against women in the local government space without talking to Kellie Nagle, Policy Adviser for Prevention of Violence against Women at the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) since 2011. The position is, in Kellie’s words, “a networking position that links councils to each other and to the broader PVAW system.”

For the last six years, Kellie has convened quarterly network meetings which attract dozens of workers from across the state to share learnings and challenges and stay up to date on primary prevention. But her role is much more than simply linking local government PVAW workers to each other. The scope of Kellie’s role has expanded since the RCFV, and Kellie’s role is now seen as a conduit for state government and other services to keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening in the PVAW space in local government.

Councils working in a deliberate and coordinated way on this issue is a relatively new development. Prior to the MAV Policy Adviser role, Kellie began her work in local government at Darebin City Council in 2007 as the Family Violence Project Coordinator where it was her role to “explore if councils had a role in family violence.” This was when Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon introduced major family violence reforms in Victoria Police, which led to a spike in reporting of violence against women. Suddenly each council had a clearer picture of the rates of family violence in their communities, and the data was sobering. VicHealth had released their ground-breaking 2004 report, The Health Costs of Violence: Measuring the burden of disease caused by intimate partner violence which found that intimate partner violence is the single greatest contributor to death, disability and illness in Victorian women between the ages of 15-44. Councils were increasingly taking notice of these developments and considering their role in the health, wellbeing and safety of the community. Kellie piloted a statewide PVAW networking project out of Darebin City Council, and two years later the Premier announced funding for the position at the MAV.

The importance of the policy adviser role for PVAW work in local government cannot be underestimated. Kellie has established links with at least one worker from all 79 councils in Victoria, and has a handful of contacts at most councils. Over the last year she has overseen ten projects funded by the Victorian Government through the Local Government PVAW Grants Program, administered by the MAV and their gender equity e-bulletin is essential reading in the prevention sector, reaching over 600 individuals, both within and outside of local government.

Impressive as these numbers are, the significance lies in the connections being formed through the network and Kellie’s role as a local government cog in the prevention sector. The position was designed to keep violence against women on the agenda of all councils, but it has also encouraged the sharing of ideas, challenges, learnings and initiatives within local government and the broader PVAW sector. Rather than reinventing the wheel, councils have been able to know and build on each other’s successes. The MAV recently launched the PVAW Promising Practice Portal, a collaborative website where councils are invited to share examples of practices, projects and plans that they have developed to support PVAW. Kellie says, “Councils are incredibly good at sharing their work with each other and they can also be quite competitive.” This combination of information sharing and competition creates a particularly useful framework for innovation and action in primary prevention.

Kellie has seen major changes in the local government sector since she began the pilot role back at Darebin City Council nearly a decade ago. “Councils’ focus has expanded from thinking in terms of response-based work into considering primary prevention and culture change”. She also says that many councils are starting to move away from awareness-raising activities on one day of the year to embedding primary prevention principles into everything they do – work practices, service provision, policies, culture and community engagement.

Increasingly, councils are taking creative and varied action; they’re implementing gender equitable parenting programs in maternal and child health services, libraries are actively featuring children’s books that resist traditional gender stereotyping, and councils are implementing programs that mentor women to run for local council. Other councils are auditing public spaces to ensure they are welcoming and accessible for women, adding sports facilities and programs to increase women’s participation in physical activity, and putting gender equity guidelines in place for anyone wanting to hire council venues. One council has even introduced a gender equitable superannuation policy that provides a higher rate of superannuation for women in acknowledgement that women retire with significantly less super than men.

“But there is so much more to be done,” says Kellie. Only three Victorian councils have a full-time dedicated PVAW or gender equity worker; most allocate this role to a staff member who has a few hours a week dedicated to PVAW-related work. In the MAV’s submission to the RCFV, it called for a gender equity development officer to be funded at every council. The MAV wants to see state government recognise the critical role local councils play in delivering on many of the Victorian PVAW strategies – and invest in the local government workforce accordingly.

But challenges aside, Kellie’s role at the MAV has ensured that there is someone taking a bird’s eye view of PVAW in local government, joining the dots and connecting the right people. It is ensuring that there is not a piecemeal approach to the work, and that the learnings made in one council are incorporated into other projects and become part of the accumulated wisdom of councils and others working in this space.

More information

Visit the Municipal Association of Victoria website for more information and resources on gender equality.

To subscribe to the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Gender Equality email updates, please contact Kellie Nagle: knagle@mav.asn.au

Read more of the December 2017 edition of The Advocate
Download this article

For this to be a reality, enormous changes across almost all aspects of our society is required, which will rely on the collaboration of many: government services, correction services, legislative and judicial systems, and between the service sectors that traditionally operated in more siloed ways.

We have seen some changes begin as a result of investigations, inquiries, research and royal commissions into circumstances related to children, families and family violence, and although it is never their responsibility, it is the courage of victim survivors who have spoken about their experiences that has often set that change in motion.

Last week, the Victorian parliament passed a Greens motion to start the process to expunge criminal convictions given to children in state care; until 1991, children placed in state care were charged with being in need of protection, which then appeared on police criminal history records, compounding the suffering those children experienced even further.

Many of these children would have been fleeing their home due to family violence. Protection charges of children that are conflated with criminal charges should be expunged and the systems in place to protect children who cannot find safety at home should be accountable to the care they provide. For us, this also underlines the need for women to have the financial independence and support to provide safety and protection for their children when experiencing family violence.

Women experiencing violent or abusive relationships face high financial barriers to escape. This makes leaving impossible for many, and is the motivation behind the campaign calling on the federal government and the Fair Work Commission to implement ten days of paid family and domestic violence leave for Australian workers to support victim survivors of family violence.

Like so many of the changes that have been advocated in this area, paid family violence leave would be just a first step in the ongoing change that is required to address this national emergency.

To ensure a world free from violence for every child, it is critical that the various legal, child and family welfare, educational and family violence organisations working with children and parents experiencing family violence fulfil their roles within a coordinated effort and that our common goals of keeping women and children safe guide our collaboration.

Dr Kate O’Halloran presents a summary of issues arising out of submissions to the Royal Commission into Family Violence (excerpt of full article).

The recently held Royal Commission into Family Violence provided a much-needed opportunity to address gaps within the sector.

One clear issue that emerged was that, at present, family violence is treated within a binarygender model of male perpetrator and female victim, often in the context of a heterosexual relationship. As pointed out in the submission by the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (VGLRL), such an approach is insufficient and ‘inappropriate in addressing domestic violence in LGBTI relationships’.

It is understandable why such a framework exists. As noted in the joint submission to the Royal Commission by Safe Steps and No To Violence (NTV): Women are at least 6 times more likely than men to be the victim of physical assault by a current or former partner, 24 times more likely than men to become homeless due to experiencing intimate partner violence; and a woman’s experience of intimate partner violence is associated with substantially more fear and severity than men’s.

Accordingly, and in practice, most mainstream services adopt a feminist approach that insists that family violence is rooted in patriarchal and systemic gendered inequality. Often, however, this defaults to an exclusive focus on heterosexual intimate partner violence that, according to the VGLRL submission, results in ‘LGBTI groups being rendered invisible’. Crucially, this means that ‘some people in abusive relationships will not recognise it as such and therefore may not seek help’.

The barriers towards appropriately addressing family violence in an LGBTIQ context are numerous. They begin with limited statistical data on the prevalence of such violence. Data collected by mainstream services at national and state level on intimate partner violence ‘omits sexuality indicators, making it very difficult for researchers and policy makers to consider evidence for, and design programs in response to, issues affecting GLBT populations’ (ACON 2011).

What data has specifically been collected on the LGBTIQ community, however, suggests that rates of intimate partner violence are either equal to, or higher than, those of family violence between non-LGBTIQ people (ACON 2009).

 

This is an excerpt from the full article that was published in the spring/summer 2015 edition of DVRCV Advocate.

Dr Kate O’Halloran is a trainer at DVRCV.  

DVRCV’s submission to the Royal Commission included a comprehensive list of recommendations covering prevention, early intervention and response.

One specific area of focus was about the need to ‘embed a universal risk assessment and risk management framework’ in Victoria using the Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (CRAF) as the foundation.

Released in 2007, CRAF is now the central tool for assessing and responding to family violence risk across different sectors and settings in Victoria. It serves as one of the most significant pieces of collaborative work to reduce family violence harm in the state.  CRAF was also critical to the development of an integrated family violence system in Victoria.

The Framework adopts a ‘structured professional judgement’ approach that combines three elements to determine the level of risk:

• the victim’s own assessment of their level of risk
• evidence-based risk indicators
• the practitioner’s professional judgement.

In 2008 DVRCV, together with Swinburne University and No To Violence, was contracted to develop and deliver CRAF training programs and materials. Since that time, DVRCV has delivered, or co-delivered, CRAF training to over 6,500 Victorian service providers. In doing so, DVRCV trainers and others have identified gaps in the Framework, challenges around its use, and issues connected to the training and roll-out of CRAF. Our submission detailed those gaps and challenges, and called for a comprehensive review of CRAF.

 

This is an excerpt from the full article that was published in the spring/summer 2015 edition of DVRCV Advocate.

Libby Eltringham is the Policy and Legal Worker at DVRCV. 

Aboriginal women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised from family violence [1] and almost 11 times more likely to be killed as a result of violent assault.[2] Aboriginal women have been identified as the most legally disadvantaged group in Australia.[3]

Tragically, family violence against Victorian Aboriginal people appears to be escalating. Across Victoria, police reports of family violence against Aboriginal people (predominantly women and children) have tripled in less than a decade.[4]

This is despite evidence that the majority of family violence incidents go unreported and the reality that Aboriginal women are markedly less likely to disclose family violence due to a multitude of complex barriers.[5]

Family violence is complex and the issues our clients face are complex. Our clients live with intergenerational trauma, removal of children, discrimination, poverty, mental health issues, family violence-driven housing instability and homelessness, disability, lower levels of literacy and numeracy, as well as a range of other cultural, legal and non-legal issues.

There are multiple complex and diverse factors contributing to the high levels and severity of family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It must be clearly understood that the causes do not derive from Aboriginal culture. Family violence is not part of Aboriginal culture. However, the disadvantage, dispossession and attempted destruction of Aboriginal cultures since colonisation have meant that family violence has proliferated in Aboriginal communities.

This does not, however, mean that family violence affecting Aboriginal victims/survivors, predominantly women and children, is exclusively the domain of Aboriginal communities—or that all perpetrators of violence against Aboriginal women are Aboriginal men. There is insufficient data on the Aboriginality of perpetrators and FVPLS Victoria routinely sees Aboriginal clients, mostly women, who experience family violence at the hands of men from a range of different backgrounds and cultures, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. The only certainty in the existing data is that Aboriginal women are at disproportionately higher risk of family violence.

 

This is an excerpt from the full article that was published in the spring/summer 2015 edition of DVRCV Advocate.

Endnotes

1. The Australian Productivity Commission (2014) Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage—Key Indicators 2014, 4.93 table 4A.11.22

2. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2006) Family Violence Among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Cat. no. IHW 17, p.71

3. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (2003) Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee, Parliament of Australia, Inquiry into Legal Aid and Access to Justice, 13 November 2003, p.4

4. Victorian Auditor-General (2014) Victorian Auditor-General’s Report: Accessibility of Mainstream Services for Aboriginal Victorians, p.57

5. Matthew Willis (2011) ‘Non-disclosure of violence in Australian Indigenous communities’, Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice, No. 405

The findings from Luke’s inquest, handed down by State Coroner Judge Ian Gray on 28 September 2015, have highlighted the critical need to improve the way that family violence risk, and the risk of filicide in the context of family violence, is assessed and managed across the service system.

Despite a long and documented history of violence and abuse by Greg Anderson towards Rosie, as well as her contact with multiple services, Judge Gray noted the systems failure to engage with Greg Anderson. The responsibility to protect Luke was largely borne by Rosie. Luke’s death is a tragic example of what can happen in a system where risk of domestic homicide and family violence harm is not assessed and managed consistently and rigorously across sectors. There is no question: the system needs to change.

The Coroner made a number of recommendations about Victoria’s Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (otherwise known as the Common Risk Assessment Framework or CRAF) including that it be reviewed and validated to ensure that Victoria has the best tool available to assess and manage family violence risk, including risk to children.

CRAF provides a common or standardised approach to risk assessment and can be applied across all organisations in Victoria that respond to, or encounter people experiencing, family violence. CRAF is widely available, and intended to be used across a large range of professional and service types, including police and the community sector.

However, Luke’s inquest highlighted that even first responders in critical sectors, like Victoria Police and Child Protection, were not always being trained in CRAF and not using it consistently. The Coroner recommended that all agencies in the family violence system be mandated to use an updated CRAF, and adequate training be provided. Operational support for agencies to embed CRAF within their responses was also recommended. Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria applauds these recommendations.

Effective use of CRAF requires effective information sharing. The Coroner noted that in this case there was no 360 degree information sharing; no uniform approach to risk assessment and no coordinated approach to risk management and safety planning. Had this been in place the assessment of the seriousness of risk faced by Rosie and Luke may have led to different outcomes.

Since 2008, over 6,500 professionals from a wide range of services have completed CRAF training. Judge Gray made recommendations on the need for further widespread training on recognising, understanding and responding to family violence. Understanding risk is a critical part of this.

More widespread and consistent use of CRAF will mean that, in future, the types of risk factors exhibited by someone like Greg Anderson could be flagged across the system, information shared and strategies put in place to manage the risks. It would mean that all services would apply common standards and practices to ensure the focus of any intervention and support remained on the safety of those experiencing violence. Using the same approach also minimises the risk of misunderstandings and important information being lost. It is a crucial step in preventing further deaths of women and children.

Last week, the federal government pledged $14 million for family violence workforce development. Now is the time to invest in making sure effective risk assessment practices are embedded across all sectors that respond to family violence.

Related media

ABC Radio – PM, 28 September 2015

7.30 Report – 28 September 2015 (story starts at 24.21 minute mark)

‘Stop domestic violence for all time’, The Age, 28 September 2015

‘Let’s talk about men’s deadly sense of entitlement’, The Age, 28 September 2015

‘Rights of children must trump violent parents: Rosie Batty’, The Age, 28 September 2015

Rosie Batty: coroner is right about child protection and police systems, The Guardian, 28 September 2015

Rosie Batty media conference 28 September 2015