Information sharing schemes

Prescribed Victorian practitioners who, through the course of their work, identify and engage with people using and experiencing family violence are required to actively share risk information with and request it from other professionals. This is guided by appropriate information sharing legislation.

It is common for people using and experiencing family violence to come into contact with various agencies, such as health services, specialist family violence services, Victoria Police and housing services.

Information sharing is one way in which services can work together to keep victim survivors safe and hold perpetrators accountable.

There are two interrelated pieces of Victorian legislation that you should be aware of – the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme and the Child Information Sharing Scheme.

In the context of family violence, both FVISS and CISS must be used in conjunction with the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework. The MARAM Framework underpins and guides information sharing under both schemes when family violence is present. You can read the Ministerial guidelines for these schemes here.

Prescribed services are called Information Sharing Entities (ISEs) for both FVISS and CISS. FVISS also has a specific subset of ISEs called Risk Assessment Entities (RAEs), who have additional sharing abilities for a family violence assessment purpose. A broad range of services are prescribed to the Schemes across health, community services, justice and policing, education and more. You can learn more about which types of services are prescribed on the Victorian Government website here and here.

It is essential to know whether and how your program is prescribed under either scheme and to verify the same for prescribed organisations you share information with. To verify if a program is prescribed under FVISS or CISS, and whether you are an ISE or RAE visit the Information Sharing Entity list search.

Beyond the information sharing schemes, you should also be aware of other legislation which may require you to share information with other services (for example, failure to disclose and mandatory reporting laws).

Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme

The Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) authorises prescribed Risk Assessment Entities (RAEs) and Information Sharing Entities (ISEs) to share information for a family violence assessment or family violence protection purpose.

Sharing Information under FVISS

Practitioners can share information under FVISS when:

You are sharing between prescribed ISEs
You are sharing for a family violence assessment or protection purpose
You are sharing family violence risk relevant information
FVISS consent thresholds are met
The information is not excluded, and will not contravene another law that has not been specifically overridden by the scheme
You document in accordance with FVISS record keeping and information management

ISEs can share voluntarily, or in response to a request. ISEs must respond to a request unless exemptions apply.

Understanding family violence risk relevant information

Family violence risk relevant information means information that is relevant to assessing and managing family violence risk. This includes risk of harm from past and present family violence and future risk, and can differ based on the pattern of family violence and coercive control. The MARAM Framework and practice guides can be used to guide your professional judgement about what is family violence risk relevant.

Consent Thresholds

Under the FVISS, consent requirements will also depend on whose information you are sharing (a perpetrator, an alleged perpetrator, a third party, a child or an adult victim survivor). There are also exceptions to requiring consent, including sharing information about any person to manage family violence risk to a child, and the serious threat exception.

A comprehensive overview of the FVISS consent thresholds can be found in Chapter 1 of the FVISS Ministerial Guidelines. These should be consulted directly to support you in making decisions.

Child Information Sharing Scheme

The Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) enables prescribed ISEs to share information with each other to promote the safety and wellbeing of children. While CISS can be used where family violence is present, it is also not limited to family violence.

Threshold for sharing

Under the CISS Ministerial Guidelines there are three thresholds for sharing information.

The ISE must be sharing for the purpose of promoting the wellbeing or safety of a child or group of children.
The ISE must be sharing to assist another ISE in one or more of the four activities outlined in the CISS Ministerial Guidelines.
The information must not be excluded, which is further described in the CISS ministerial.

A comprehensive overview of the CISS thresholds can be found in Chapter 1 of the CISS Ministerial Guidelines. These should be consulted directly to support you in making decisions.

Understanding wellbeing

Under CISS, the term ‘wellbeing’ is not defined as understandings of wellbeing vary across the service system and across contexts. These understandings are underpinned by a variety of best interests, educational, developmental, risk assessment and other professional frameworks related to the role and responsibility of the professional or service.

To better understand how to interpret wellbeing under CISS visit the Victorian Government’s Understanding child wellbeing: Using the Child Information Sharing Scheme to promote child wellbeing.

The visual resources available for download at the bottom of this page provide another way to think about wellbeing, which can assist your professional judgement in deciding what is wellbeing relevant information to share. This includes:

Protected and free from violence
Physical, psychological and emotional health
Engaged and enjoying education
A sense of identity, belonging and cultural connection
Safe and supportive relationships

This is only way one to understand wellbeing. You may have different frameworks or definitions that better suit or are required in your professional context.

Consent

CISS does not require consent from any person to share their information to promote the safety and wellbeing of children. However, it is best practice to seek and take into account the views of children and family members about information sharing where appropriate, safe and reasonable to do so.

Working collaboratively with children and their safe adults when sharing their information builds trust, promotes their choice and autonomy, and helps professionals understand any risks or benefits of sharing information that we might not have considered.

Remember: In the context of family violence, both FVISS and CISS must be used in conjunction with the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework. The MARAM Framework underpins and guides information sharing under both schemes when family violence is present.