Aboriginal acknowledgement

The Victorian Government acknowledges Victorian Aboriginal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land and water on which we rely. We acknowledge and respect that Aboriginal communities are steeped in traditions and customs built on a disciplined social and cultural order that has sustained 60,000 years of existence. We acknowledge the significant disruptions to social and cultural order, and the ongoing hurt caused by colonisation.

We acknowledge the ongoing leadership role of Aboriginal communities in addressing and preventing family violence and will continue to work in collaboration with First Peoples to eliminate family violence from all communities.

Recognition of victim survivors

The Victorian Government acknowledges victim survivors and honours their resistance and resilience. We keep at the forefront in our minds all those who have experienced family violence or other forms of abuse, and for whom we undertake this work.

Family violence support

If you have experienced violence or sexual assault and require immediate or ongoing assistance, contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) to talk to a counsellor from the National Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence hotline.

For confidential support and information, contact the Safe Steps 24/7 family violence response line on 1800 015 188.

If you are concerned for your safety or that of someone else, please contact the police in your state or territory, or call Triple Zero (000) for emergency assistance.

I would like to present the fifth annual report on the continued roll-out of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework 2022–23.

This report details the implementation progress and achievements departments, peak bodies, agencies and organisations in aligning their procedures, policies and practice guidance to MARAM.

In January 2023, the Victorian Government announced the implementation of all 227 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence to reduce the impact of family violence in Victoria.

The MARAM Framework (established in 2018 and embedded into the Family Violence Protection Act 2008) is a critical part of Victoria’s family violence reform and ensures that responding to family violence becomes a collective, system-wide responsibility.

Since the Royal Commission, the Victorian Government has invested more than $3.86 billion to prevent and respond to family violence, which includes $97 million in 2021–22 over 4 years to keep people safer, implementing MARAM reform and alignment activities, as well as critical information-sharing reform. Key achievements demonstrate that this investment is making a difference.

In October 2023, the 5-year MARAM legislative review was completed. This external analysis included recommendations to ensure family violence risk factors are appropriately reflected in MARAM Framework practice guidance and tools.

In 2022–23, more than 100,000 professionals across a range of sectors and the continuum of services received training in or aligned to MARAM and the associated information sharing schemes.

More than 200,000 workers have been trained since 2018, bringing Victoria closer to the target of 370,000 trained professionals. More than 40,000 risk assessments and safety plans have been undertaken (using MARAM online tools), and more than 20,230 Central Information Point reports have been delivered.

Driving lasting change is demanding, and we still have a lot of work to do. Departments, workforces and community services are committed to an effective family violence system.

By continuing alignment to MARAM and embracing collaboration in the response to family violence risk, we ensure better outcomes for the community.

I would like to express my gratitude to past and present ministers responsible for framework organisations in their portfolios for their sustained efforts in advancing this essential reform. This report is consolidated from my own portfolio report and those provided to me by:

• The Hon. The Hon. Anthony Carbines MP, Minister for Police, Minister for Crime Prevention
• The Hon. Colin Brooks MP, former Minister for Housing Minister for Multicultural Affairs
• The Hon. Danny Pearson MP, former Minister for Consumer Affairs
• The Hon. Enver Erdogan MLC, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Victim Support, Minister for Youth Justice
• The Hon. Ingrid Stitt MLC, former Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs
• The Hon. Jaclyn Symes MLC, Attorney General
• The Hon. Lizzie Blandthorn MLC, Minister for Children, Minister for Disability
• The Hon. Mary-Anne Thomas, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services
• The Hon. Natalie Hutchins MP, former Minister for Education.

I would like to thank Family Violence Regional Integration Committees, peak bodies, Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, and many others, such as multicultural community organisations and services who contribute tirelessly to the success of MARAM practice.

I would also like to thank specialist family violence services (including sexual assault services) and The Orange Door network for their passionate work and partnership. Your work is part of the foundation of our family violence system.

To those with lived experience, including past and present members of the Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council, your voices guide us in shaping MARAM practice and making a difference in the lives of those affected by family violence.

I would like to thank all government and sector collaborators who have contributed to this report for their dedication to victim survivors and the future of family safety and wellbeing in Victoria. Our communities want to feel safe, and the work we do continues to progress safety for all.

Vicki Ward MP

Minister for Prevention of Family Violence

Minister for Employment

The Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework was established in legislation in 2018. It responds to the first two recommendations of Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence 2016 (the Royal Commission).

The MARAM Framework creates a system-wide model for all services that interact with adults and children who have experienced family violence or may be at risk of experiencing family violence.

It covers all aspects of service delivery. This includes early risk identification, screening, assessment and management, safety planning, collaborative practice, stabilisation and recovery.

The MARAM Framework aims to:

• ensure all professionals, regardless of their role, have a shared understanding of family violence and perpetrator behaviour
• increase the safety of people experiencing family violence
• ensure the broad range of experiences are represented in the family violence response. This includes for Aboriginal and diverse communities and identities, children, young people, older people, and different family and relationship types
• keep perpetrators in view and hold them accountable for their actions
• provide guidance to organisations on aligning to the Framework to ensure consistent service delivery.

MARAM is being implemented alongside two other enabling reforms for information sharing and risk frameworks– the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) and the Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS). Family Safety Victoria is the lead agency on the implementation of MARAM and the FVISS. The Department of Education (DE) is the lead agency on the implementation of the CISS.

Organisations are prescribed under the regulations as MARAM Framework organisations and/or Information Sharing Entities (ISEs).

Section 193 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic) requires a report to be tabled in parliament annually on the progress of MARAM implementation. This is the fifth report to be tabled, covering implementation activities from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.

Family Safety Victoria, a Division of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (the department), leads the implementation of the reforms. This requires Family Safety Victoria to design and develop the policies, resources and training and prepare this consolidated annual report. Family Safety Victoria also oversees implementation across the whole of the Victorian Government (WoVG) through governance, reporting and annual surveys and for the department across its various workforce portfolios.

Each relevant department is responsible for tailoring the policies, resources and training to their specific workforce needs. This includes communication about the reforms and responses to barriers the workforces face.

Sector peak and representative organisations support implementation more directly with practitioners. In 2022–23, the department funded 16 organisations to undertake this work through the Sector Capacity Building Grants program. The funded organisations are:

• Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES)
• Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (CFECFW)
• Council to Homeless Persons
• Dardi Munwurro
• Djirra
• Elizabeth Morgan House
• Jewish Care Victoria
• No to Violence (NTV)
• Safe and Equal
• Sexual Assault Services Victoria
• Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA)
• Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association Limited (VACSAL)
• Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA)
• Victorian Healthcare Association (VHA)
• Whittlesea Community Connections (WCC)
• Youth Justice.

Chapters 1 to 4 of this report provide context of the reforms, legislation, and relevant portfolios.

Chapter 5 provides an overview of the current state of WoVG MARAM alignment, as indicated by the 2023 MARAM Annual Survey.

Chapters 6 to 9 cover the four WoVG strategic priorities. A chapter is dedicated to each priority.

• clear and consistent leadership
• supporting consistent and collaborative practice
• building workforce capability
• reinforcing good practice and commitment to continuous improvement.

Each chapter contains subsections related to work undertaken by:

• Family Safety Victoria within the Department of Families Fairness and Housing as reform lead
• departments as leads for their workforces
• sector peak bodies and organisations that support practitioners.

Key whole of Victorian Government highlights for 2022–23 include:

• 33,792 MARAM risk assessments undertaken by Tools for Risk Assessment and Management (TRAM) (a 41% increase from 2021-22). TRAM is used by practitioners in the Orange Door and a select number of specialist family violence and generalist agencies for risk assessment and safety planning
• Over 100,000 professionals received training in MARAM and the associated information sharing schemes (a 55% increase from 2021–22). Over 12,000 Victoria Police staff completed training, and over 81,000 training units were undertaken by Department of Health workforces
• 41,231 MARAM risk assessments, and 7,722 MARAM safety plans were undertaken in the Specialist Homelessness Information Platform (SHIP) by specialist family violence services and homelessness service practitioners.
• Over 20,230 Central Information Point (CIP) reports delivered from commencement in April 2018 until 30 June 2023
• Information shared by the courts over 49,500 times under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) and the Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS), with a total of over 144,862 since inception in 2018
• Completion of the 5-year Legislative Review of MARAM, FVISS and the CIP (Chapter 9)
• The commencement of Victoria Police’s Predominant Aggressor Identification pilot (Chapter 10)
• The commencement of MARAM Maturity Model pilot (Chapter 6)
• The Protecting Children Protocol (the Protocol) updates agreed between DFFH, Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care (ACAC) providers and Victoria Police to align to MARAM
• Commencement of the Disability-specific Men’s Behaviour Change (Family Violence) program. The program is aimed at perpetrators with cognitive disability who face barriers in accessing mainstream family violence and support services
• The rollout of the Department of Health’s Understanding Family Violence all-staff eLearn course as part of the department’s alignment to the MARAM Framework
• The rollout of Family Violence Financial Counselling Program and Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program to prevent economic abuse, address family violence-related debt, and help victim survivors with economic recovery. 3,806 victim survivors of family violence accessed financial counselling in 2022-23 through the Family Violence Financial Counselling Program
• An extensive mapping exercise of a person’s journey subject to Community Correctional Services (CCS) supervision or custody to understand how and when MARAM will be implemented and integrated into the corrections system (Chapter 7)
• Family violence practice leads embedded in Youth Justice and Corrections and Justice Services (Chapter 7).

This table sets out the departments, ministers, portfolios and program areas that are referenced in this report.

See Appendix 6 for a more detailed description of each program area's work profile.

Table 1: Ministers, portfolios, and responsibilities for the 2022–23 reporting period.

Adults, children and young people who have experienced family violence are referred to as victim survivors. We note that some people also prefer to use the term people who experience violence.

The word family has many meanings. This report uses the definition from the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (the Act). This acknowledges the variety of relationships and structures that can make up a family unit, and the range of ways family violence can be experienced, including through family-like or carer relationships (in non-institutional paid carer environments).

The term family violence reflects the Act and includes the wider understanding of the term across all communities. Dhelk Dja: safe our way – strong culture, strong peoples, strong families^[1] defines family violence as an issue relating to physical, emotional, sexual, social, spiritual, cultural, psychological and economic abuses. These occur within families, intimate relationships, extended families, kinship networks and communities. It extends to one-on-one fighting and abuse of Indigenous community professionals, as well as self-harm, injury and suicide.

Throughout this document, the term Aboriginal is used to refer to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Intersectionality describes how systems and structures interact on multiple levels to oppress, create barriers and overlapping forms of discrimination, stigma and power imbalances. It is based on characteristics such as Aboriginality, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, colour, nationality, refugee or asylum seeker background, migration or visa status, language, religion, ability, age, mental health, socioeconomic status, housing status, geographic location, medical record or criminal record. This compounds the risk of experiencing family violence and creates additional barriers for a person to access the help they need.

The term perpetrator describes adults who choose to use family violence, acknowledging the preferred term for some Aboriginal people and communities, as well as in practice, is a person who uses violence. The perpetrator is also the predominant aggressor where misidentification is suspected or has been assessed as occurring.

Young people who use family violence require a different response to adults who use family violence, because of their age, developmental stage and the possibility that they are also victim survivors of family violence. The term perpetrator is not used to refer to young people who use family violence. Some programs refer to adolescents who use family violence in the home.

References

[1] Dhelk Dja: safe our way is an Aboriginal-led agreement to address family violence in Victorian Aboriginal communities.

The legislative structure around MARAM is shown in Figure 2.

Evaluation

5 year reviews

1. Must assess whether the framework reflects current evidence-based best practice (up to every five years)
2. Must assess the extent to which the legislation is achieving consistency in family violence risk assessment and management (after first five years)

2 year review

1. Considering whether the Framework has been implemented as planned.

Legislative

Regulation

Family Violence Protection (Information Sharing and Risk Management) Amendment Regulations 2018.

• Defines prescribed matters for Ministers to report on, relating to implementation and operation of the framework by framework organisations
• Prescribes framework organisations.

Legislative instrument

Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework.

Defines what Framework organisations should align to:

• A set of principles reflecting the values underpinning the Framework
• Four pillars, each with Framework requirements, setting out the objectives of the Framework.

Policy

MARAM Framework

• Provides evidence base and policy direction
• Describes system architecture and accountability mechanisms
• Expands on the pillars in the legislative instrument

Practice

Supporting resources

• Operational Practice Guidance for risk assessment and management for Victim Survivors, Adults Using Family Violence, Child and Young People (pending).
• Guidance for organisations and change leaders, including development of a maturity model approach to alignment.
• Training for practitioners and organisational leaders (Victim Survivors, Adults Using Family Violence, Children and Young People, Collaborative Practice, Leading Alignment).

Legislative

Regulation

Family Violence Protection (Information Sharing and Risk Management Amendment Regulations 2018)

• Prescribes Information Sharing Entities authorising sharing under Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme.

Policy

Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme Guidelines

Provides information on the operation of the legislation and guidance on appropriate information sharing.

Practice

Supporting resources

• Guidance checklists and templates supporting practice.
• Links to MARAM Practice Guides

The three core components of MARAM are illustrated in Figure 3 below. The MARAM pillars are set at an organisational level. They each contain a requirement to which organisations must align. Alignment is defined as actions taken by organisations to effectively incorporate the four pillars into existing policies, procedures, practice guidance and tools, as appropriate to the roles and functions of the entity and its place in the service system. Appendix 3 sets out the MARAM pillars.

The pillars, along with 10 MARAM principles guide a shared understanding of family violence response across the service system to guide consistent practice. Appendix 4 provides the full text of the principles.

The MARAM responsibilities set out the practice expectations for professionals in relation to family violence risk identification, assessment and management. Supporting resources provides guidance for organisations to determine the appropriate MARAM responsibilities for their workforce. Appendix 5 provides the full details of the responsibilities.

The responsibilities can be broadly summarised into three levels of practice:

• identification – this role incorporates all MARAM responsibilities, except those related to assessment and management of risk (3–4 and 7–8). It applies to people who interact with Victorians in the course of their work, where they could identify family violence is taking place. They may be able to observe family violence narratives or behaviours, and/or ask sensitive questions of victim survivors (for example, at schools and early childhood centres)
• intermediate – this role incorporates all MARAM responsibilities, except specialist risk assessment and management (7–8). It applies to people who interact with Victorians in the course of their work, where they can assess or manage a presenting ‘need’ (for example, alcohol or drug use, mental health or housing crisis)
• comprehensive – this role incorporates all 10 MARAM responsibilities. It applies to people who interact with Victorians in a specialist capacity to directly respond to family violence (for example, specialist family violence services and family violence refuges).

Family Safety Victoria conducts an annual survey of framework organisations. The survey seeks to understand:

• the progress of implementation across different sectors
• how sectors can be supported to keep improving MARAM implementation.

Family Safety Victoria released the third annual MARAM Framework survey during this reporting period.

Across sectors

The survey was completed by 361 organisational leaders engaged in MARAM implementation activities across multiple sectors. It represents more than 600 MARAM-prescribed workforces and services.

The response in 2022–23 rate is 49 per cent higher than the previous year. This is mostly due to much higher engagement from leaders in the health sector.

Demographics

Most respondents are employed in health (42 per cent) and human services (26 per cent). They come from large or medium size organisations that provide metropolitan, metropolitan wide and/or state-wide services. 74 per cent of surveyed leaders are involved in policy, practice, and capacity development. Representation from the education and justice workforces was limited.

Supports received

Leaders indicated their organisations have received a variety of supports, communications, and training from Family Safety Victoria and departments to assist with MARAM alignment:

• 49 per cent stated they have received organisational supports from Safe and Equal
• 66 per cent have received accredited MARAM training
• 51 per cent have completed eLearns (identification and intermediate)
• 46 per cent have attended facilitated non-accredited MARAM training.

Most leaders (more than 90 per cent) also reported an understanding of obligations and responsibilities under MARAM and assessed MARAM alignment to be a high priority in their organisation (Figure 4).

Key organisational resources for MARAM, FVISS and CISS alignment appear to be considered useful, while some leaders are unaware of some newer or supportive materials.

Regarding internal organisational supports for alignment, most respondents agreed or strongly agreed that:

• they have been supported (88 per cent)
• organisational culture supports alignment (90 per cent)
• there is clear MARAM alignment leadership (79 per cent).

However, 15 per cent disagreed that there are effective continuous improvement processes, and 13 per cent disagreed that there is visible leadership and accountability.

Alignment progress

The great majority of respondents (87 per cent) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that ‘their organisation is showing progress towards alignment with MARAM’.

Most respondents (80 per cent) reported that their organisations either ‘have or are creating/adapting a change management plan for implementing MARAM’. However, 20 per cent of respondents reported no change management plan for MARAM implementation.

Pleasingly, 100 per cent of ACCOs (33 respondents) reported either ‘having or have created/adapting a change management plan for implementing MARAM’. Additional findings include:

• 78 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that ‘professionals in their organisation understand information sharing responsibilities’
• 90 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that ‘professionals in their organisation are aware of MARAM’
• 88 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that ‘professionals in their organisation are aware of victim survivor and perpetrator referral services’.

Challenges

Respondents were also asked about MARAM alignment challenges. The most common theme across responses was a lack of time and resources.

Specialist services

Of the 361 responses to the survey, 85 respondents reported working in a state-funded specialist family violence or sexual assault service.

Demographics

The 85 specialist leaders that responded to the survey are employed in the human services and ACCO sectors and mostly come from large or medium size organisations that provide state-wide and metropolitan services. 84 per cent of these leaders are ‘always involved’ in policy, practice and capacity development.

Supports received

Specialist leaders and their organisations have received a variety of supports, communications and training. 80 per cent of respondents indicate having received organisational supports from Safe and Equal. 68 per cent of respondents indicate their organisations having received accredited MARAM training, 55 per cent indicate attendance of non-accredited MARAM training and 47 per cent attendance of Leading Alignment Training.

All (100 per cent) leaders reported having an ‘understanding of obligations and responsibilities under MARAM’ and most (99 per cent) place alignment as a high or medium priority. Practice guidance for MARAM appears to be considered highly or somewhat useful (more than 70 per cent of respondents), with some leaders not having viewed the roleplay and animation series.

Most respondents agree or strongly agree that they have been internally supported (95 per cent), organisational culture supports alignment (94 per cent), there is clear alignment leadership (90 per cent), there are continuous improvement processes (85 per cent), processes that enable MARAM responsibilities (98 per cent), and the organisation is prepared and supported to align (93 per cent).

Alignment progress

The great majority of respondents (91 per cent) agree or strongly agree with the statement that their organisation is ‘showing progress towards alignment with MARAM’.

The greater proportion of respondents (89 per cent) report that their organisations either have or are creating/adapting a change management plan for implementing MARAM.

Most respondents seem to agree or strongly agree that they have been supported (95 per cent), organisational culture supports alignment (94 per cent), and that there is clear alignment leadership (90 per cent).

Table 2 demonstrates that the majority of specialist service leaders appear to have taken the key foundational and intermediate steps for organisational alignment, while it does appear that more advanced alignment activities are still in progress.

Challenges

Lack of staff time and lack of resources were flagged by respondents as key challenges to alignment.

Table 2: WoVG alignment: Activities that you and/or your organisation has undertaken to align to MARAM

Summary of progress

MARAM Annual Survey results indicate that the majority of responding organisations are progressing towards MARAM alignment and that alignment remains a priority. The vast majority (80 per cent) of respondents indicate that their organisations have commenced key steps to alignment and change management activities.

At the same time, demand on the service system has generally increased. Reports of family violence steadily increased since 2017^[2]. This is in part because our reforms made it easier for people to identify family violence, report it and seek help. There are more entry points for victim survivors to seek help, including through Victoria Police, The Orange Door network and Safe Steps. More professionals understand their role in identifying and responding to family violence as a result of the MARAM and Information Sharing reforms^[3].

The COVID-19 pandemic may also have contributed to this increase. Family violence workers reported more first-time reports of family violence during the pandemic.

In addition, many prescribed organisations are in sectors that are experiencing broader workforce challenges that place additional demands on a limited number of staff.

This context helps to explain why workload issues and organisational funding are noted as barriers to alignment by a small percentage of survey respondents. To address this, support to operationalise MARAM is being provided through the MARAMIS Sector Capacity Building Grants program (see Chapter 8), and ongoing guidance from relevant departments. Surveyed leaders are more aware of alignment support from funded sector peaks, and support received from Safe and Equal, CFECFW and NTV has increased in comparison to the previous year.

The release of the MARAM Maturity Model (See Chapter 6) will further support prescribed organisations to self-assess and benchmark their progress throughout their MARAM alignment journey.

Embedding system-wide reform requires clear and consistent leadership. The MARAM and information sharing WoVG change management strategy sets out the following strategic actions:

• strategic plans for change management^[4]
• governance to monitor and support implementation efforts
• consistent and accurate messaging
• ensuring sector readiness through implementation supports.

Section A: Family Safety Victoria as WoVG lead

Family Safety Victoria coordinates all MARAM and FVISS (MARAMIS) work across government.

Refreshed MARAMIS governance

In late 2022, Family Safety Victoria reviewed and refreshed MARAMIS governance. This responded to machinery of government changes that affected organisational structures.

The new governance structure continues to provide system-wide oversight and strategic leadership across government and the sector. It brings together expertise to address emerging needs and challenges.

Figure 7 sets out the new governance structure.

The dotted arrows reflect where groups share information, as required, on shared programs of work.

The solid arrows reflect advisory groups that directly inform other governance groups, which then ultimately reports to the Family Violence Reform Board.

MARAM Maturity Model – supporting system-wide alignment

During 2022–23, eight Sector Champion organisations, representing more than 20 services^[5], guided the design of Maturity Model resources. The Maturity Model will help prescribed organisations self-assess and benchmark their progress in MARAM alignment.

Family Safety Victoria has developed the model and its resources in response to requests from organisational leaders for greater certainty and support to meet their legislative requirements. The model is also aimed at providing a common language and benchmarks for organisational alignment across all sectors and to assist in action planning.

Current resources include:

• MARAM Maturity Model on a page, which provides a snapshot of the stages of alignment
• MARAM Maturity Roadmap, which links the four framework pillars with the Maturity Model, and lists indicators and actions for each stage
• MARAM Maturity Assess Mate, an interactive self-assessment tool for organisations to get tailored suggestive action plans at a local level.

Family Safety Victoria will test and finalise the resources with department and sector stakeholders before reflecting updates and fully implementing the model in 2024–25.

Section B: Departments as portfolio leads

Department of Education

The Department of Education^[6] provides leadership and oversight of MARAM implementation through the Child Safety and Family Violence Project Control Board (PCB). The PCB is responsible for major projects and the strategic direction, coordination and integration of child safety frameworks.

These frameworks include:

• Child Safe Standards
• Reportable Conduct Scheme
• information sharing and risk frameworks – CISS, FVISS and MARAM
• mandatory reporting in early childhood and care settings and schools
• criminal offences – failure to disclose offence and failure to protect offence.

The PCB also oversees DE’s responses to reports and recommendations made by external bodies. These include the Commission for Children and Young People, the Victorian Auditor-General, the Victorian Ombudsman, Family Safety Victoria, the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor and the Child Abuse Royal Commission Interdepartmental Committee.

In 2022–23, the PCB approved approaches for:

• MARAM guidance, training development and delivery
• implementing MARAM in education and care services
• consultation about MARAM tools for education workforces
• proposed updates to the PROTECT website
• updating the Identifying and responding to all forms of harm and abuse resource and PROTECT Four Critical Actions.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (including Family Safety Victoria)

The department works across five ministerial portfolios including Child Protection and Family Services, Disability, Housing and Multicultural Affairs, and Prevention of Family Violence.

Key activities in 2022–23 included:

• updating the Protecting Children Protocol between the department, Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care (ACAC) providers and Victoria Police, among other changes, including aligning to MARAM. The Protocol supports these agencies to work together to keep children safe
• piloting a new approach to collecting family violence data through the Victorian African Communities Action Plan (VACAP) Employment Brokers Program. This will help identify the number and type of family violence referrals through the program, and how family violence acts as a barrier to employment
• commencement of the disability-specific Men’s Behaviour Change (Family Violence) program for perpetrators of family violence with cognitive disability who face barriers accessing mainstream services
• information sharing resources for the community housing workforce to support the use of MARAM, the CISS and the FVISS.

Department of Government Services

Consumer Affairs Victoria transitioned from the Department of Justice and Community Safety to the newly established Department of Government Services in January 2023.

The Department of Government Services plays a leadership role in the MARAM alignment work of the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria (DSCV), and funded agencies in the Financial Counselling Program (FCP) and Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program (TAAP).

Activities in 2022–23 included:

• quarterly MARAM e-newsletters, review meetings, direct email correspondence, agency managers meetings, and practitioner network meetings. These activities support all funded programs to embed MARAM practice
• monthly meetings with DSCV, FCP and TAAP managers, and quarterly review meetings with FCP and TAAP agencies, to share feedback on progress, challenges and opportunities for improvement
• participating in WoVG working group meetings, including the MARAMIS Directors forum, CISS working group, and MARAMIS Working Group forums
• regular consultation with the Department of Justice and Community Safety MARAM implementation team about tailored family violence and MARAM training for DSCV, FCP, and TAAP delivered in the second half of 2022.

Department of Health

Throughout 2022–23, the Department of Health supported health organisations to align to the MARAM Framework.

Activities included:

• convening the MARAMIS internal working group, which assists the sector to identify and respond to family violence and helps ensure MARAM alignment successes are shared across organisations
• working on the Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence (SHRFV) initiative with The Royal Women’s Hospital and Bendigo Health, which are the state-wide leads for the project
• publishing resources to support organisations such as alcohol and other drug services and Ambulance Victoria to support employees experiencing family violence.

Department of Justice and Community Safety

The Department of Justice and Community Safety’s Family Violence and Mental Health (FVMH) Branch has a MARAM team that leads implementation.

The team assists prescribed business units to provide sector support for their workforces to operationalise the MARAM Framework.

Other leadership activities in 2022–23 include:

• the Justice Health MARAM Sector Support Lead role commenced in May 2023 and began working collaboratively across the business unit and Corrections and Justice Services more broadly
• a new Community Correctional Services Family Violence Practice Committee as part of the governance structure for family violence
• new primary health service providers for Justice Health were supported to understand their contractual obligations and reporting requirements
• two Youth Justice Family Violence Practice Lead roles to support Youth Justice staff with family violence risk assessments and safety planning
• the Victims of Crime Helpline and Victims Assistance Program (VAP) continue to use the expertise of Family Violence Practice Leads (FVPLs) to provide on-the-job training, coaching and reflective practice sessions to operational staff
• Victim Services Support and Reform became the first business unit within a Victorian government department to receive Rainbow Tick accreditation, demonstrating a commitment to safe and inclusive services for the LGBTIQA+ community
• the Aboriginal Justice Group (AJG) continued to support culture and practice change in the two funded ACCOs, Djirra and Dardi Munwurro, as well as regionally based services and partners. This included ensuring services and responses provided to people from Aboriginal communities are culturally responsive and safe, recognise rights to self-determination and self-management, and consider experiences of colonisation, systemic violence and discrimination.

The courts

In 2022–23, the courts:

• commissioned an upgrade to the lizARD2 platform used by applicant and respondent practitioners. The upgrade strengthens the accurate and timely recording of MARAM assessments and improves data reporting for court users both experiencing and using family violence
• boosted the workforce to include additional roles in the Central Information Sharing Team (IST), CIP and an additional capability development officer in the MARAM team.

Victoria Police

Victoria Police prioritises MARAM alignment by driving best practice and cultural reforms.

Responding to family violence is core business for police. The Centre for Family Violence continues to deliver tailored training to achieve consistent police responses.

For Victoria Police, continual alignment with MARAM is supported through embedded roles, accountabilities, and the Family Violence Report (FVR), which operationalises MARAM for frontline members.

Dedicated Family Violence Liaison Officers embed the principles of MARAM through quality assurance of FVR reports. Divisional Family Violence Training Officers also have a key role in providing interactive education to members.

During 2022–23, Victoria Police progressed several change management activities. These included:

• boosting relationships between police and Aboriginal communities through the Police and Aboriginal Community Protocols Against Family Violence (PACPAFV). In 2022–23, the number of PACPAFV sites increased from 10 to 17
• collaborating with the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to support the review of the Protecting Children Protocol
• developing educational resources to support training and help members understand the impacts of their response to family violence.

Victoria Police participated in many cross-government committees and advisory groups. This work supports a shared understanding of family violence risk. Through these groups, Victoria Police:

• provided strategic advice on the policing of family violence, sexual assault and child abuse
• monitored the implementation of reforms to provide feedback about the impact of police responses
• produced evidenced-based products to improve the understanding of family violence, sexual offences and child abuse.

Section C: Sectors as lead

Sector Capacity Building Grant recipients and other sector organisations continued to lead reforms within their workforces.

Some highlights during this reporting period include:

• CFECFW delivered six editions of the MARAM updates newsletter to over 560 subscribers
• VHA and NTV ran two workshops to support culture change
• VAADA delivered a quarterly MARAM newsletter for alcohol and other drug (AOD) leaders (managers and CEOs) to provide a single and regular source of truth for the sector
• VASCAL built communities of practice for the ACCO family violence sector, including Q&A panels and information sessions
• Whittlesea Community Connections (WCC) delivered a community of practice multicultural organisations with six meetings attended by 78 participants
• Safe and Equal partnered with NTV to co-facilitate a community of practice to improve understanding of newer MARAMIS concepts.

Summary of progress

Communicating the intent and impact of the reforms is integral to the success of MARAM. Family Safety Victoria, government departments and the sector are continuing to communicate the importance of new and upcoming resources, training and alignment activities to support the implementation of MARAM.

MARAM Annual Survey results indicate that most leaders (more than 90 per cent) reported an understanding of obligations and responsibilities under MARAM and stated that MARAM alignment is a high priority in their organisation.

Section A: Family Safety Victoria as WoVG lead

Family Safety Victoria supports consistent and collaborative practice by developing and publishing whole-of-system practice guidance and resources for all MARAM-prescribed organisations and services. This guidance can be tailored to individual workforces, as required.

MARAM practice guidance

Child and young person-focused MARAM practice guides

Family Safety Victoria is developing the Child and young person-focused MARAM practice guides and tools.

These are for direct risk and wellbeing assessment of children and young people who are victim survivors. They also support identifying and responding to young people using family violence or harm in the home and in intimate partner/dating relationships.

This new practice guidance will support workforces to respond to children and young people with a trauma and violence-informed, and age and developmental stage lens. Family Safety Victoria has partnered with a range of experts to develop and test the new practice guidance.^[7]

In 2022–23, 41 consultation sessions were held with more than 500 professionals in MARAM-prescribed workforces who work with diverse cohorts.

To contribute to this work, Family Safety Victoria engaged key academics to undertake research projects. on essential questions of practice or evidence.^[8]

The Child and young person-focused MARAM practice guides will be released in 2024.

MARAMIS video series project

In 2022, the MARAMIS video series project created accessible and engaging video content to highlight key concepts and practice from the MARAM practice guidance. The project was in response to sector feedback.

The videos are in two styles:

• animations exploring short, sharp specific topics
• roleplays showing longer scenes between a practitioner and client.^[9]

In the 2022–23 MARAM Annual Survey, out of the 361 respondents who had viewed the resources, 79 per cent and 73 per cent respectively found the MARAM animation series and MARAM roleplay series either highly or somewhat useful.

Adolescent family violence in the home model of care

In January 2023, alongside the state-wide rollout of the Adolescent Family Violence in the Home (AFVITH) program, Family Safety Victoria implemented a new model of care within the program.

The model outlines an evidence-based, end-to-end user journey to support early intervention for young people using violence in the home and their families.

The AFVITH model of care embeds MARAM risk assessment and risk management as one of the five core components of the model.

Child and young person-focused MARAM practice guides will also support best practice in responding to young people using family violence, as well as responding to children and young people as victim survivors in their own right.

Embedding MARAM tools in online systems

At the end of June 2023, MARAM tools supporting risk assessment and safety planning were embedded in three online systems:

• Tools for Risk Assessment and Management (TRAM), which is used by practitioners in The Orange Door for risk assessment and a select number of specialist family violence and generalist agencies for risk assessment and safety planning
• The Orange Door Client Relationship Management (CRM) system, which is used by practitioners in The Orange Door for safety planning
• Specialist Homelessness Information Platform and Service Record System (SHIP), which is used by specialist family violence and homelessness services for risk assessment and safety planning.

The Adults Using Family Violence (AUFV) Comprehensive Assessment Tool supports specialist practitioners to undertake comprehensive risk assessment when working with an adult using family violence. It was released for TRAM in October 2022 and released for use in The Orange Door from July 2023.

The Predominant Aggressor Identification Tool enables professionals to accurately identify the perpetrator/predominant aggressor and respond safely to misidentification when it occurs. It was released for TRAM for agency use in April 2023. We expect to release this tool for The Orange Door, and it will be available for use in SHIP by early 2024.

Table 3: Number of MARAM risk assessments and safety plans undertaken by The Orange Door since commencement (using TRAM and the CRM)

Family Safety Victoria will continue to add MARAM tools and improve these systems for new organisations and services as appropriate. This includes the child and young-person focused MARAM wellbeing and risk tools.

Section B: Departments as portfolio leads

Department of Education

Information sharing and family violence reforms guidance and toolkit

This guidance supports the education and care workforces affected by the MARAM reforms.

It complements the training sessions and eLearning modules for centre-based education and care services, schools, system and statutory bodies; the department’s health, wellbeing and inclusion workforces; and its corporate workforces.

It is designed to be used with the legally binding CISS Ministerial Guidelines and FVISS Ministerial Guidelines.

Response to the Early identification of family violence within universal services report

During the reporting period, the department responded to the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor’s recommendation to update guidance around school transitions.

These actions ensure that family violence risk information is consistently communicated during transition from early childhood settings to primary school, and from primary school to secondary school.

Work included:

• adding guidance on CISS and FVISS to the Transition: a positive start to school resource kit. This kit is for early childhood professionals working with children and families while they transition to school
• adding guidance on CISS and FVISS to the transition to school professional development for early childhood and Foundation teachers
• updating and inserting questions on family violence in the department’s School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) to better align with MARAM. SEHQ is for parents to record concerns and observations about their child’s health and wellbeing as they begin primary school.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

Child and young person wellbeing assessment tool pilot

The Orange Door developed a state-wide child and young person wellbeing assessment tool pilot, in collaboration with The Orange Door staff, Family Services, Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (CFECFW) and the department.

The tool is being trialled in six Orange Door sites. It will be incorporated into a risk and wellbeing assessment for children and young people.

CFECFW has been funded for two years to boost capability in assessing child and young person wellbeing. This includes on-site support, the development of practice guides and webinars.

CIP expansion

In November 2022, the department expanded CIP to Safe Steps and Men's Referral Service as a phased rollout in line with the Royal Commission's recommendation.

This supports the intake and high-risk service responses of the family violence system.

Revised Homelessness and housing support guidelines

The revised guidelines replace the 2014 Homelessness services guidelines and conditions of funding. They build on the COVID-19 amendment to the guidance published in 2021.

They guidelines promote consistent application of the MARAM Framework by:

• reinforcing the obligation of government-funded homelessness organisations to comply with the Family Violence Protection Act 2008
• outlining the pillars and principles that underpin the MARAM Framework and intersections with the CISS and FVISS
• assisting homelessness organisational leaders to understand which of the 10 MARAM practice responsibilities apply to their organisation
• highlighting the responsibilities for risk assessment and management held by homelessness organisations
• providing references to sector-specific resources, practice guides, templates, tools, and training to promote workforce access to learning opportunities.

The inclusion of this comprehensive overview of MARAM in the updated guidelines will promote consistent application of the framework across the state-funded homelessness service system. The guidelines are currently under review and will be published in late 2023.

Easy English and multilingual fact sheets

The department released easy English and multilingual factsheets in 2022–23.

The factsheets outline the MARAMIS reforms to support people from multicultural communities accessing the department’s services. They were tested through an external consumer testing workshop to ensure they were fit for purpose.

The fact sheets are translated into six commonly used languages including Dinka, Somali, Simplified Chinese, Oromo, Arabic, Vietnamese, as well as easy English.

Department of Government Services

In 2022–23, the Department of Government Services (DGS) continued to embed MARAM in ongoing practice. This included:

• working with funded agencies to map co-location of Financial Counselling Program (FCP) and Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program (TAAP) in The Orange Door network to improve information sharing and holistic support for victim survivors
• secondary consultations between staff from DGS agencies and specialist family violence services
• providing community education to services including mental health services, Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs), the Salvation Army and homelessness services
• working closely with DSCV to develop risk-screening procedures and a risk identification tool
• collaborating with Tenants Victoria to establish a TAAP community of practice
• developing tools including:
  • the MARAM screening and identification flow chart
  • a safety plan template for non-specialist workforces
  • Family violence information sharing practice toolkit to build on the training and address gaps in practice knowledge.

Department of Health

In 2022–23, the Department of Health continued to support MARAM practice across all health workforces. This included:

• dedicated project funding for 26 public hospitals and health services to implement the SHRFV initiative and provide mentoring and support to other public health services across Victoria in a hub and spoke model
• funding for The Royal Women’s Hospital and Bendigo Health – the State-wide Lead (Metropolitan Sector) and State-wide Lead (Regional Sector) respectively – to embed MARAM and MARAMIS in whole-of-hospital responses to family violence
• securing funding under the National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses 2021–23. This funding enabled The Royal Women’s Hospital, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, to undertake three projects to support health services to identify and respond to family violence. These include:
  • developing sustainable antenatal family violence screening for women who do not speak English
  • evaluating the SHRFV program
  • implementing and evaluating family violence clinical champions (who support staff responding to family violence) and contact officers (who support staff experiencing family violence) across six health services
• developing guidance for health organisations about seeking secondary consultations in relation to family violence. The guidance was recommended by the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor in its May 2022 report on the early identification of family violence within universal services.

Department of Justice and Community Safety

During the reporting period, the Department of Justice and Community Safety continued to implement and embed MARAM practice throughout its workforces. This included:

• the Family Violence Restorative Justice service continuing to use TRAM
• the Victims of Crime Helpline developing bespoke MARAM-aligned risk assessment tools and training for use with male victims of family violence. This includes predominant aggressor tools
• reviewing the Community Correctional Services (CCS) practice guidelines to further incorporate MARAM concepts and strengthen case management practice
• a mapping exercise of the journey for people subject to CCS supervision and those in custody to understand how and when MARAM will be implemented and integrated into the corrections system
• a mapping exercise to map central business units, CCS and prison workforces against the 10 MARAM responsibilities
• funding for Caraniche Forensic Youth Service to conduct comprehensive clinical and forensic risk assessments to identify risk factors and treatment needs of young people
• producing an FAQ document that provides Youth Justice staff with guidance on the proper use of the L17 Portal
• MARAM victim survivor screening for young people upon Youth Justice intake. If the screen indicates that family violence is present, a full MARAM assessment is completed.

The courts

The courts undertook a range of MARAM-related activities in 2022–23, including:

• expanding the Remote Hearing Support Service to 11 courts across Victoria. This provides increased accessibility and safety for victim survivors
• trialling a Central Family Violence Practitioner team at the Magistrates’ Court
• establishing the Koori Family Violence Online Support Service to support Koori men and women using or experiencing family violence.

Victoria Police

Consistent and collaborative practice is supported through a range of improvement activities. MARAM related activities completed in 2022–23 include:

• collaborating with the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing through the Vulnerable Children’s Committee to improve processes related to DFFH intakes
• updating the Code of Practice for the Investigation of Family Violence. The Code of Practice is an external document for the community to find out about the roles and responsibilities of Victoria Police, and how police respond to reports of family violence
• working with key partners to roll out a trial to identify improvements to Victoria Police policy and practice, to reduce the impact of misidentification of predominant aggressor
• developing clear and intuitive information sharing processes and guidance in consultation with agencies prescribed through MARAM
• improving data collection processes to enable a holistic understanding around engagement practices for Family Violence Training Officers, who maintain strong collaborative relationships with frontline members and external stakeholders within their regions, particularly with The Orange Door.

The Code of Practice is an external document for the community to find out about the roles and responsibilities of Victoria Police, and how police respond to reports of family violence.

Information sharing

Information sharing is an indicator of consistent and collaborative practice. This section outlines information sharing demand and activity for departments that centrally collected FVISS and CISS data in the 2022–23 reporting period.

Available data suggests information sharing is increasing over time. It shows:

• there is an increase in family violence being identified
• practitioners are gaining confidence in multiagency collaboration
• MARAM and related information sharing reforms are progressing and maturing
• the impact of prescribing additional workforces in April 2021, and the continued training and capability building activities that have occurred over 2022–23.

It should be noted that there is no legal requirement to collect FVISS and CISS data. Data that is available is from departments with the ability to collect central information. For those that do, this section outlines information-sharing demand and activity in the 2022–23 reporting period.

Table 4: 2022–23 information sharing requests received by department.

Section A: Family Safety Victoria as WoVG lead

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing develops training modules, capability building activities and resources for MARAM non-accredited training. These are used across departments and tailored to individual workforces.

Training development

Accredited MARAM training

MARAM-aligned family violence accredited training is for pre-service and in-service professionals and communities across Victoria. This is action 2.1 of Strengthening the foundations: first rolling action plan 2019–22.

In June 2023, the department’s Centre for Workforce Excellence (CWE) completed a refresh of the Course in Intermediate Risk Assessment and Management of Family Violence (22625VIC). The course allows students to practice and be assessed in MARAM skills in a safe and controlled training environment.

Work has also started on the Intermediate Assessment and Management of Family Violence Risk (VU22988) training unit. The new resources will support streamlined delivery of the course in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.

In addition, CWE is refreshing the Course in Identifying and Responding to Family Violence Risk (22510VIC), aiming for reaccreditation in late 2023. The course has been available for delivery since 2019 and is approaching the end of its five-year accreditation period^[11]. This course comprises a single-unit course (VU22733) which can be taken as a stand-alone course or as a unit embedded in VET qualifications. To date, 1,036 people have completed the stand-alone course, and 2,653 people have completed VU22733 as part of another course.

The refresh will:

• update the content in line with all MARAM practice guidance released since the course was originally developed
• reduce the volume and complexity of learning in the unit to support better accessibility
• incorporate feedback gathered from students and trainers who have engaged with the course.

Work will also commence on the development of a short, accredited course to deliver MARAM comprehensive skills and knowledge in late 2023. This course is for specialist family violence practitioners, and it will address responses to both victim survivors and adults who use family violence. This work was originally planned to commence in 2022 but was delayed due to resourcing limitations and competing training priorities.

Non-accredited MARAM Training

Since the release of the MARAM victim survivor practice guides in 2019, Family Safety Victoria has developed MARAM non-accredited training for practitioners working with victim survivors at the identification, intermediate and comprehensive levels. Safe and Equal continues to deliver these modules, with some departments adapting them to provide workforce-specific victim survivor training.

Family Safety Victoria developed additional training modules on MARAM leading alignment, delivered by Safe and Equal, and MARAM collaborative practice, delivered by Principal Strategic Advisors in their regions.

Family Safety Victoria encourages departments to tailor the core non-accredited victim survivor training modules for their prescribed workforces. Although non-accredited training does not provide a formal qualification^[12], these modules boost capability and understanding of MARAM practice. They help to quickly upskill existing workforces in prescribed organisations and services.

As shown in Figure 10 below, there has been a 55 per cent increase on 2021–22 training figures, with over 100,000 professionals trained in MARAM in 2022–23.

Adults using family violence (AUFV) training development

Three training packages will support prescribed MARAM workforces and their practitioners working with AUFV. The training packages cover identification, intermediate and comprehensive responsibilities. NTV will deliver the training.

Funded capability building activities

In addition to MARAM training and direct MARAM support, Family Safety Victoria funds capability building activities that support best practice and promote MARAM alignment.

Family Safety Victoria supplements training with funding to peak bodies, key specialist organisations and Family Violence Regional Integration Committees (FVRICs) to support more direct capability building activities.

Figure 11 shows activities for 2022–23.

Section B: Departments as portfolio leads

Department of Education

The Department of Education delivered training for education workforces prescribed under Phase 2 of MARAM, FVISS and CISS via webinar, face-to-face workshops and eLearns.

The training ensures these workforces can understand and implement the reforms.

The department recommends that all school staff with information sharing responsibilities attend training. Schools can also access funding to support casual relief teachers to attend.

From February 2020 to 30 June 2023, 17,129 leaders and professionals from education services including schools, centre-based education and care services, and Department of Education regional workforces completed training.

This number includes 3,545 leaders and professionals from schools and wellbeing and inclusion workforces, and 2,267 professionals from centre-based education and care services from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with more than 93 per cent rating the course highly and expressing confidence in using information sharing schemes and reforms. The eLearn training is still available and is widely used.

The department also continued to deliver the Family Violence Human Resources eLearning Module for Managers and Principals.

This module is for corporate managers, school principals and school leaders who support staff experiencing family violence. The module had 63 new completions from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023, with a total of 700 completions since it commenced in 2019.

The department also engaged Safe and Equal to update the Identifying and Responding to Disclosures of Family Violence training for DE’s Respectful Relationships workforce. The goal of this was to align the training with CISS, FVISS and MARAM. The Respectful Relationships workforce now uses the updated training to train other school staff, including promoting a shared understanding of family violence, and a key focus on MARAM responsibilities 1, 2, 5 and 6.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

During the 2022–23 reporting period, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing continued to develop and deliver tailored learning and development for its prescribed workforces and agencies.

In September 2022, the department delivered the ‘MARAM identification of family violence against older people (Elder Abuse) – victim survivor-focused – eLearn’. eLearns are self-paced online learning modules.

The eLearn is for workforces with the MARAM identification responsibility. Specifically, it aims to strengthen the aged care workforce’s response to elder abuse. It is part of the Elder Abuse Training and Learning Hub, an initiative to help professionals working with older people.

The Elder Abuse Learning Hub also provides elder abuse eLearns developed by the Bouverie Centre.

In October 2022, South East Community Links (SECL) was funded to pilot the MARAM Identifying and Responding to Financial Abuse workshop. The three-hour workshop and supporting video are for client-facing services with MARAM identification and intermediate responsibilities such as Child Protection, housing, disability and multicultural services. The workshops help workforces apply financial abuse learnings within the context of their MARAMIS responsibilities.

Homes Victoria collaborated with the Council to Homeless Persons on a series of MARAM information sessions for the Victorian specialist homelessness sector. More than 60 professionals attended. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 94 per cent expressing satisfaction with the sessions.

The department funded CFECFW to develop and deliver MARAM intermediate training for its workforces.

CFECFW also worked with three MARAM-funded ACCOs – Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) and Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) – to tailor the MARAM training package for Aboriginal organisations.

In feedback surveys, attendees had a 92 per cent rate of increased understanding and a 92 per cent satisfaction rate.

Thanks to this success, further funding is allocated for the 2023–24 financial year to continue the workshops.

Table 4: Department Families, Fairness and Housing MARAM training and satisfaction
2022–23.

The Orange Door also continued its MARAM-aligned induction training for 716 new staff in 2022–23 and covered the following modules:

• ‘MARAM comprehensive training’ for all practitioners in The Orange Door
• ‘DFFH information sharing’ eLearns
• ‘MARAM in The Orange Door: tailored application of comprehensive responsibilities in The Orange Door’
• ‘Information sharing in The Orange Door’ – this module reviews information sharing permissions and responsibilities under the Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes, Children Youth and Families Act 2005, Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and Health Records Act 2001
• ‘Screening, identification and triage including the CIP’
• ‘Assessment and planning, and service responses’
• ‘Integrated Practice in The Orange Door’
• ‘CRM systems training for recording keeping’.

Department of Government Services

The Department of Government Services continued to build workforce capability throughout 2022–23.

The department worked closely with DSCV to ensure that all staff undertook the Foundational Family Violence Training and that the training is included in the induction of new staff. Most DSCV staff completed the Foundational training in 2022. New staff have been enrolled to complete the training in September 2023.

The department funded Women’s Legal Service Victoria (WLSV) to deliver family violence training to financial counsellors and TAAP professionals, including ongoing training in MARAM and FVISS. This training ensures the workforce’s capability in assessing and managing family violence risks increases as the MARAM Framework matures.

All Financial Counsellors (98.3 FTE) and TAAP professionals (22 FTE) completed the mandatory MARAM brief and intermediate training, information sharing (FVISS) training and MARAM Risk Identification and Foundations Family Violence training.

New TAAP professionals participated in an induction program delivered by Tenants Victoria, which includes an eLearn on foundation family violence practice in relation to tenancy matters. The eLearn complements family violence training WLSV delivers to all TAAP professionals.

The department also funded Financial Counselling Victoria (FCVic) to deliver professional development sessions and master classes to financial counsellors. Topics covered during 2022–23 included:

• family violence and the social security system
• family violence for financial counsellors: foundations and general
• when family violence and gambling intersect
• working with victim survivors
• elder abuse
• the weaponisation of child support in Australia.

The department delivered two training workshops for African community leaders and youth leaders on family violence and the law.

Department of Health

In 2022–23, the Department of Health’s combined workforces completed 81,705 MARAM and information sharing training units.

The department also promoted the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s MARAM identification-level Family Violence Against Older People (Elder Abuse) eLearn course to health framework organisations. The course was promoted in the weekly public sector residential aged care services (PSRACS) update email distributed to approximately 800 PSRACS staff.

In February 2023, the Department of Health presented on the family violence reforms at the Stepping in the Right Direction Aged Care Forum, which had more than 200 attendees.

The bush nursing service in Victoria has approximately 40 staff members who continue to embed the MARAM Framework and attend training, and regular MARAM updates are provided at bush nursing network meetings.

In 2022–23, the department funded CFECFW to deliver Putting MARAM into Practice workshops for staff wanting to increase their MARAM skills and practice. It also funded identification and intermediate-level MARAM training for new health professionals or those wanting refresher training about their MARAM responsibilities.

In providing feedback, participants noted the training was useful, worthwhile, improved their practice with clients, and that they would recommend it to colleagues.

The department also provided funding and guidance to the SHRFV Statewide Leads for the development of an Advanced (Delegate) Information Sharing Schemes eLearn course. This course covers information sharing in large and complex organisations.

Department of Justice and Community Safety

The department progressed and completed activities to improve the justice workforce’s shared understanding of family violence.

VSSR continued to roll out its new Workforce capability framework (the framework). The framework underpins a systems approach to capability building. It ensures that victim services staff can effectively deliver services to victims, including a specific capability focusing on family violence, which reinforces the Victorian family violence capability frameworks.

The department also developed a training calendar for VSSR and VAP staff to support capability uplift in soft skills, technical knowledge and enhance best practice.

All current Family Violence Restorative Justice (FVRJ) and Victims of Crime Helpline staff have completed family violence and relevant MARAM training. FVPLs have also updated the on-the-job training that is provided to new Helpline staff following completion of formal MARAM training. This training supports Helpline staff to translate training into practice and provides them with the opportunity to explore the training content in more detail.

Youth Justice continued MARAM capability uplift activities through eLearn training modules and classroom-based training to custodial staff. During 2022–23, a total of 340 custody-based staff completed the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme eLearn with a completion rate of 59 per cent of all custody-based staff. In addition, 135 custodial youth justice staff completed the classroom-based Foundational Family Violence Training, taking the cumulative training completion to 92 per cent.

Youth Justice delivered MARAM training modules to community-based staff in screening and responding to family violence. 26 staff completed this training during the reporting period. In addition, 37 community-based staff completed the MARAM Framework for Youth Justice training module and 33 completed the DJCS Foundational Family Violence Training module delivered by the FVMH Branch.

Youth Justice developed an interactive workshop that demonstrated how to navigate the L17 Portal appropriately and confidently. The workshop also demonstrated the proper use of the FVISS and CISS.

While CV continued the rollout of Foundational Family Violence Training (FFVT) to its custodial workforce, an FFVT rollout strategy focused on redirecting resources towards additional FFVT trainers to open more training sessions for the custodial workforce. A face-to-face pilot session of the condensed version was delivered to staff in the women's prison system in mid-December 2022. Rollout of the DJCS Introduction to MARAM eLearn also commenced in this reporting period.

Community Correctional Services (CCS) worked closely with the FVMH Branch to customise the Victim Survivor Intermediate training package for the CCS workforce.

Case study: upskilling the prison workforce

This case study displays the positive outcome when a staff member supported a victim survivor in the women’s prison system. The staff member had undertaken FFVT and improved their understanding and skills to identify and manage a disclosure of family violence.

The courts

The courts continued to embed risk assessment and management across the eight new Specialist Family Violence Courts (SFVCs) via a capability uplift program. This program integrates risk assessment and management, including local-area referrals, with existing court operations. It ensures that people using or experiencing family violence can receive consistent and safe support.

The capability uplift program includes completing the initial round of training for gazettal of new SFVCs and moving to ongoing maintenance training for new and commencing staff in these courts. In total, 100 participants from SFVCs were trained in 2022–23.

This was further supported by the continued embedding of MARAM into the Trainee Court Registrar program. Risk assessment and management capability are key skills and requirements needed by court registrars to perform their duties. During the year, 106 trainee court registrars received MARAM training as part of their accreditation to become court registrars.

The Children’s Court Clinic also provided tailored information sessions introducing and contextualising the MARAM Framework for its state-wide services, including psychologists and administration staff.

Victoria Police

Family violence risk assessment and management is a core component of Victoria Police’s Family Violence Training Curriculum. This extends from recruit training, through to frontline duties and family violence specific roles including senior management programs.

Victoria Police’s state-wide Family Violence Report (FVR L17) training continued to be rolled out during 2022–23. More than 12,000 members completed the training, which includes evidence-based risk factors from the MARAM Framework.

Targeted FVISS and CISS training also continued to be rolled out to supervisors and family violence roles in the divisions to promote the benefits of proactive information sharing.

Alongside formal training, Victoria Police also collected information to better understand engagement practices between Family Violence Training Officers (FVTOs) and police members. FVTOs also maintained strong collaborative and knowledge sharing relationships with external stakeholders within their regions, particularly with The Orange Door, mental health services and the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria.

Table 5: Victoria Police training 2022–23.

Section C: Sectors as lead

• CHP collaborated with the Statewide Children's Resources Program (SCRP) and CFECFW to create an eLearn addressing the impact of family violence on children in the sector. To date, 156 professionals across the homelessness sector have participated in the eLearn through CHP, with 95 per cent finding it relevant, and knowledge-enhancing.
• Barwon Health’s Aboriginal Health team, with support from the Barwon Health SHRFV team and Barwon South West Dhelk Dja, created ‘A health response to First Nations family violence’ eLearn course. The course was officially launched in October 2023.
• VAADA delivered eight communities of practice meetings and two communities of leadership to the AOD workforce covering topics such as coercive control, child-centred practice, working with adults using family violence, and providing family violence supervision and information sharing schemes.
• Youth Justice, supported by Family Safety Victoria, further progressed a MARAM Sector Support project to strengthen Youth Justice MARAM capability. The project engaged with their 30 funded programs to assess their current practices and MARAM alignment.
• Jewish Care Victoria proactively offered individualised, on-site one-on-one coaching to nine allocated organisations to support MARAM alignment. The coaching ensures MARAM alignment is consistent with both the MARAM Framework and existing internal infrastructure, including reviewing existing alignment activities as desired.
• SASVic, NTV and Safe and Equal continued their identification-level peak body partnership for the specialist family violence and sexual assault sectors. The partnership delivered two workshops in May and June 2023 with subject matter experts and a panel of five specialised roles from different family violence sectors. There were 128 attendees in the May and June workshops, with between 75 per cent and 91 per cent of participants agreeing that the workshops increased their knowledge on how structural inequalities affect sexual assault and family violence for people with disabilities, and how to apply these learnings to MARAM comprehensive risk assessment.

Summary of progress

Improving the capability of existing workforces is key to embedding MARAM and the related information sharing reforms into practice. To support this, the departments continued to provide MARAM training tailored to their specific workforces.

More than 200,000 units of MARAM or MARAM-aligned training have been undertaken since inception, with more than 100,000 of these completed during the 2022–23 reporting period. This represents a 55 per cent increase on 2021–22 and demonstrates the early investment by Family Safety Victoria and departments in MARAM capability building activities.

When surveyed, 88 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that ‘professionals in their organisation are aware of victim survivor and perpetrator referral services’.

During 2022–23, Family Safety Victoria progressed the development of the AUFV training package, with delivery scheduled for the 2023–24 financial year.

The training will further support the implementation of the AUFV practice guidance and build practitioner confidence in working with perpetrators. Departmental MARAM implementation teams continue to prepare their workforces for the rollout of AUFV training in 2023–24.

References

Section A: Family Safety Victoria as WoVG lead

A key element of any reform is reinforcing the change that it brings.

MARAM is a complex reform, which is still in development. New practice guidance is released regularly. To support this, work is underway to assess progress and take steps to reinforce good practice and continuously improve.

Five-year legislative review of FVISS, CIP and MARAM

The Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor (the Monitor) was appointed to undertake an independent review of the effectiveness of Part 11 of the Family Violence Protection Act (FVPA), which establishes the MARAM Framework, and Part 5A, which gives effect to the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) and the Central Information Point (CIP). This review was required under s. 195 of FVPA.

The Monitor’s report was tabled in parliament in August 2023. It found that the legislation has been effective in achieving its objectives. It did not identify any adverse impacts of the MARAM Framework legislative reforms.

The Monitor also found that the MARAM Framework supports:

• collaboration and service coordination
• a shared language for family violence
• a focus on keeping perpetrators in view.

‘Part 11 has supported a shared language for family violence and a focus on keeping perpetrators in view. Where services align with MARAM, there is also greater consistency in risk identification, assessment, and management.’ – the Monitor

‘However, framework organisations’ inconsistent alignment and a lack of alignment progress is limiting the overall effectiveness of Part 11.’ – the Monitor

The Monitor identified areas for improvement in relation to the MARAM Framework and made four recommendations:

• The legislative instrument authorising MARAM as the approved framework under Part 11 of the Act be amended to clearly set out the steps and activities that framework organisations must take to align with MARAM (Recommendation 13).
• Part 11 of the Act be amended to allow both people and bodies to be prescribed as framework organisations (Recommendation 14).
• The legislative instrument authorising MARAM as the approved framework under Part 11 of the Act be amended to introduce a timeline for alignment activities. The steps and activities to be incorporated into the legislative instrument under Recommendation 13 above should be linked to the timeline, with timeframes determined based on an organisation’s date of prescription as a framework organisation (Recommendation 15).
• The Regulations be amended to require portfolio ministers’ annual reports and the consolidated annual report to include information about framework organisations’ progress against key alignment steps and activities and timeframes. These amendments should be progressed after the legislative instrument has been amended in accordance with recommendations 13 and 15 (Recommendation 16).

The government supported recommendation 14 in full, with the remaining three supported in principle.

In response to these recommendations, the Victorian Government will:

• examine how to prescribe classes of individuals as framework organisations under MARAM to the extent that it is applicable to them in their professional capacity and seek advice on the policy implications of this change with relevant sectors
• undertake further work to prepare high-level descriptors of responsibilities for alignment to be included as a schedule to the legislative instrument
• continue its current work to develop a MARAM Maturity Model to support organisations to understand what steps and activities they should undertake to align with the MARAM Framework and to support continuous improvement over time, including indicative timeframes for completion of those steps and activities
• consider, once the MARAM Maturity Model is finalised, amending regulations to include reporting requirements against the Maturity Model for portfolio ministers.

MARAM five-year evidence review

Under s. 194 of the FVPA, the minister must cause a review of the evidence underpinning the MARAM Framework every five years.

The review must:

• assess whether the approved framework reflects the current evidence of best practices of family violence risk assessment and family violence risk management
• recommend the changes required (if any) to ensure the approved framework is consistent with those best practices.

The MARAM five-year review commenced in October 2022 in two parts:

• a literature, practice and design review led by Allen and Clarke Consulting
• a data review led by Monash University.

The review considers the currency and evidence supporting the MARAM legislative instrument and accompanying policy document. It also examines the victim survivor-focused MARAM practice guides, risk assessment and management (safety planning) tools (released in 2019), and other supporting resources that are appendices to these practice guides.

Future reviews will look at the Adults Using Family Violence (AUFV) and child and young person-focused MARAM practice guides following their implementation.

Allen and Clarke completed the literature review and extensive consultation with more than 200 people from different stakeholder groups.^[12] The final Literature, practice and design review report includes recommendations for ensuring MARAM remains consistent with current evidence and best practices of family violence risk assessment and risk management.

Monash University analysed the MARAM evidence-based risk factors through data available in MARAM-aligned online and other data storage platforms used across the Victorian service, justice and courts systems.

The final Data review report includes findings about MARAM evidence-based risk factors, as well as recommendations to ensure these risk factors are appropriately reflected in MARAM Framework practice guidance and tools.

Family violence prevention and response capability frameworks

Strengthening the foundations: first rolling action plan 2019–22 committed to reviewing and updating Victoria’s first Family violence prevention and response capability frameworks (the frameworks), which were completed in 2017 – before the development of MARAM.

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s Centre for Workforce Excellence (CWE) will undertake the review.

The review will ensure the frameworks articulate the skills and knowledge practitioners need across all workforces to respond to and prevent family violence and all forms of violence against women.

This will affect all workforces that intersect with family violence, including those prescribed under MARAM across the broader community services sector.

The review will focus on:

• updating capabilities for the response framework in line with MARAM responsibility levels and practice guidance
• ensuring the prevention framework includes the MARAM identification capabilities required for primary prevention workforces
• creating a consistent set of foundational knowledge across both frameworks
• embedding capabilities addressing intersectional knowledge and practice
• centralising Aboriginal and lived experience voices and perspectives.

The review is being undertaken in collaboration with Safe and Equal and in consultation with industry stakeholders. It is expected to be finalised in late 2023.

Once completed, work will commence to publish and implement the frameworks. CWE will explore further implementation activities.

Section B: Departments as portfolio leads

Department of Education

Department of Education workforces were prescribed under MARAM phase 2 in April 2021. Surveys and feedback from education workforces during this phase will inform implementation activities.

A survey of more than 600 school principals indicated that principals are more familiar with the information sharing and family violence reforms’ toolkit and the contextualised guidance, with 27 per cent of principals having used it in 2022 versus 17 per cent in 2021; and 86 per cent were aware of it in 2022, compared with 64 per cent in the previous year.

Principals also had strong awareness of the PROTECT Four Critical Actions and guidance: 79 per cent had used it compared with 76 per cent in 2021, and 95 per cent were aware of it compared with 92 per cent in 2021.

The survey also showed that more principals have engaged with The Orange Door, with 84 per cent using their services in 2022 compared with 60 per cent in 2021, and 97 per cent were aware of it, compared with 89 per cent in 2021. Almost half of all schools reported having a current case of family violence in their school (49 per cent in 2022 versus 48 per cent in 2021).

The Training and Practice Advisory Group (TPAG) provides feedback and advice to the department on implementation considerations and resources to support the ongoing rollout of the information sharing schemes and MARAM.

TPAG feedback indicated schools and centre-based education and care services are becoming increasingly capable and confident in using the information sharing and family violence reforms to promote the wellbeing and safety of children.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing promotes of continuous improvement in relation to MARAM. This includes:

• rolling out the new MARAM training packages for policy makers and practice leaders
• supporting the rollout of MARAM AUFV training packages to program areas and organisations including tailored product reviews
• training more client-facing professionals with MARAM Identification and Intermediate responsibilities to further progress alignment
• leveraging the departments MARAM eLearn modules, including promote and develop tailored resources, tool kits and fact sheets to enhance workforces understanding of MARAM.

Department of Government Services

The Department of Government Services’ prescribed workforces are now in their fifth year of MARAM alignment.

The department continuously audits Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria (DSCV) and funded agencies’ MARAM and FVISS processes, procedures and tools. It also provides advice and support to ensure that resources align with the MARAM Framework.

It also delivered MARAM change activities to provide additional resources to support DSCV, Financial Counselling Program (FCP) and Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program (TAAP) operational readiness and assist the workforces to apply the skills learned in the training.

Department of Health

To recognise good practice, the 2022 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards included the award category ‘Whole of hospital model for responding to family violence’, which was open to all hospitals implementing the Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence (SHRFV) initiative.

The winner of this award was The Royal Women’s Hospital – Centre for Family Violence Prevention in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, for their project evaluating SHRFV in 18 health services.

To date, MARAM alignment across the health sector focused on working with victim survivors of family violence. In 2022–23, framework organisations commenced mapping of their workforces to the MARAM levels of responsibility for working with adults using family violence.

To support this work in public health services, in October 2022 the department provided funding for Bendigo Health, as one of the two SHRFV Statewide Lead services. This will create a new Emerging Practice State-wide Lead role for working with adults who use family violence.

The role will support health services to use the perpetrator-focused practice guides and tools, and develop tailored resources as required.

Department of Justice and Community Safety

The Department of Justice and Community Safety MARAM and Information Sharing Working Group brings the MARAM business units together and provides an opportunity for the recognition of best practice and the exploration of continuous improvement through collaboration across the department.

Victim Services Support and Reform (VSSR) implemented additional data capture requirements for the Helpline and Victims Assistance Program (VAPs) to record information about diverse groups or communities. This will ensure additional barriers are identified and appropriate and tailored referrals are provided. VSSR will continue its inclusion work to deepen practice, share lessons learned and maintain Rainbow Tick accreditation.

The courts

In 2022–23, the courts grew their workforce to include additional roles in the Central Information Sharing Team, the CIP, and an additional capability development officer in the MARAM team.

These additional roles will assist courts to respond to increasing demand for information from ISEs, as well as continue to grow and develop courts’ use of MARAM-aligned, safe and effective family violence practice.

Victoria Police

Across May and June 2023, Victoria Police delivered four regional workshops for frontline and specialist members to promote a shared understanding around best practice responses. These workshops provide critical opportunities for Victoria Police to re-enforce MARAM alignment and enable further engagement with members around options for continuous improvement.

To further educate members and change mindsets when responding to family violence, Victoria Police also worked in partnership with the Victim Survivors Advisory Council to develop a series of short films covering the following topics:

• the difference a frontline officer can make

• why victim survivors are reluctant to report family violence

• coercive control

• the impact of living with family violence

• trauma-informed policing

• family violence in the context of priority communities.

These films are included in training and development programs to support a shared understanding around family violence.

Section C: Sectors as lead

• CHIA Vic launched a project to increase sector awareness and confidence levels of the CISS, FVISS, and MARAM schemes. The project included developing resources, a toolkit and training for the workforce. Survey results demonstrated increased awareness of MARAM from 20 per cent to 67 per cent, and application of it from 17 per cent to 33 per cent. Confidence in using MARAM also rose from 6 per cent to 37 per cent, with 89 per cent having done training. This project highlights the importance of clear communication throughout all levels of the organisation.
• The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) continued to support approximately 8,500 general practitioners (GPs) in Victoria to align their practices with MARAM, with over 500 family violence training units completed by GPs within the reporting period. The RACGP conducts monthly family violence learning sessions, which include discussions of family violence case studies, advice from a specialist family violence panel, and group reflective sessions. Four eLearn modules were also published, which included the MARAM animated videos series produced by Family Safety Victoria.
• CFECFW undertook a survey of Child and Family Services and allied sectors to identify MARAM knowledge gaps and information needs to identify proposed deliverables for 2022–23.
• VACCA, CHP and Aboriginal Housing Victoria established a cross-sector working group for the purpose of co-designing a culturally inclusive, sector-specific extended case study for the ACCO housing sector. The case study stepped out identification-level MARAM responsibilities to complement the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s MARAM victim survivor identification eLearn.
• SASVic distributed regular weekly and six-weekly newsletters to managers and member organisation staff, including 17 SASVic member services. Engagement with the communications was high, with a May update reaching 141 contacts of which 94 per cent were opened. In addition, a MARAM register was developed to capture service experiences and feedback.
• Safe and Equal participated in the five-year legislative review (MARAM, FVISS and CIP) and the MARAM five-year evidence review by engaging in focus groups directly with Allen and Clarke Consulting. In total, they undertook 17 one-on-one consultations with member services, and produced two comprehensive written submissions.

Summary of progress

MARAM Annual survey results indicate that the majority of responding organisations are progressing towards MARAM alignment. Funded sector peaks continued to support organisations to reinforce good practice through reflective practice workshops, regular communications, and contribution to the 5-year Legislative and Evidence reviews.

The release of the MARAM Maturity Model will allow prescribed organisations to self-assess and benchmark their progress in aligning to MARAM. While some implementation and change management challenges are foreseen in the short term, once implemented, the MARAM Maturity Model is expected to improve on the existing tools and add value for both organisations and government in the medium to long-term.

Footnotes

[13] Stakeholder groups included government bodies, Specialist Family Violence (SFVs), Aboriginal community-controlled organisation (ACCOs), multicultural and LGBTIQ+ organisations, experts and academics, housing and homelessness organisations, mental health and Alcohol and other drugs (AOD) services, organisations with practice or policy specialisation in working with people with disability and older people, sector capacity building grants working group, The Orange Door practitioners, victim survivor advocates and victim survivors, Risk Assessment and Management Panel (RAMPS), Principal Strategic Advisors (PSAs), peak bodies and hospitals.

Family Safety Victoria

Key WoVG priorities for 2023–24 for Family Safety Victoria include:

• piloting completed MARAM AUFV intermediate and comprehensive training packages, ahead of delivery in January 2024. NTV will deliver the training to workforces in either fully facilitated training delivery or hybrid sessions of eLearn plus partly facilitated training
• funding a two-year pilot program to reduce the use and impact of family violence on former, current, or future partners and family members of serious-risk perpetrators of family violence
• continuing to develop the child and young person-focused practice guidance and tools, including consultation and user testing, to release 2024
• testing and embedding the Maturity Model resources with stakeholders through workshops and communities of practice, to release mid 2024
• finalising the first 5-year evidence review for MARAM, for release early 2024
• developing a plan to implement the recommendations of the review of the MARAM legislation and five-year evidence review.

Department of Education

Key priorities for 2023–24 for the Department of Education include:

• continuing to deliver the Respectful Relationships whole-school approach to more than 1,950 Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools
• the Respectful Relationships Professional Learning for Early Childhood Educators, which will continue to be offered between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024
• developing an identification tool for any early childhood service staff to record information after receiving a disclosure of family violence, or record observations that indicate a child or young person is experiencing family violence
• developing tools for nominated staff to ask family violence screening questions, undertake safety planning, contribute to coordinated risk management and collaborate for ongoing risk assessment and management
• engaging with ACIL Allen to conduct an independent evaluation of the department’s implementation of MARAM. The findings, to be delivered in 2024, will be used to inform future program policy and budget direction, including further activities that may enhance MARAM implementation and strengthen intended outcomes.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

Over the next reporting period, key priorities for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing include:

• developing tailored multicultural MARAM guidelines to increase engagement with multicultural and multifaith communities
• supporting change management actions to align to MARAM through the upcoming MARAM Maturity Model
• delivering a new memorandum of understanding between Housing and Victoria Police to support the public housing workforce with information sharing protocols under the Supporting Safer and Productive Communities project
• piloting the future treatment program schedules for Forensic Disability Service clients who, due to their cognitive disability, experience barriers to accessing mainstream family violence services
• MARAM-focused amendments to the Secure Care Services manual intake and admissions documents will be incorporated into the Client Relationship and Information System (CRIS)-based Referral and Brief Behaviour Support Plan (BBSP).
• supporting state-wide operational guidance for The Orange Door using feedback received on the AUFV practice direction. This will include guidance documents including:
  • predominant aggressor identification and misidentification
  • safety planning with adults using family violence
  • risk coordination and management
• developing state-wide operational guidance for The Orange Door on engaging with children and young people.

Department of Government Services

Key priorities for the Department of Government Services in 2023–24 include:

• establishing a departmental MARAM Governance Working Group to support MARAM implementation and alignment across all prescribed business units and support funded agencies to maintain alignment with the MARAM Framework
• family violence training for Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program (TAAP) professionals and refresher training for the FCP workforce in the second half of 2023
• working with Women's Legal Service Victoria (WLSV) to review and update training contents tailored to the role of tenancy advocates and financial counsellors to target gaps in the Financial Counselling Program (FCP) and TAAP skillset
• working closely with the Department of Justice and Community Safety MARAM Training team to tailor contents of the working safely with perpetrators training to the FCP and TAAP workforces
• a review into funded agencies’ use of available resources and tools to identify gaps and provide support for developing tools and resources
• Family Safety Victoria’s working with perpetrator and adolescent practice guidance will be summarised and tailored for Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria (DSCV), FCP and TAAP staff
• WLSV will deliver refresher training and scenario-based interactive workshops to the FCP and TAAP workforce.

Department of Health

Planned Department of Health activities for 2023–24 include:

• dedicated project funding for eight public health services to implement Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence (SHRFV) and provide mentoring and support to other public health services across Victoria in a restructured ‘Regional Lead’ hub and spoke model
• supporting the SHRFV Statewide Leads to create standardised information sharing protocols and guidance for public hospitals and health services
• funding for the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (CFECFW) to deliver 72 face-to-face online and interactive tailored MARAM training sessions for health workforces
• manager training workshops delivered by Free From Family Violence (FVREE), the lead specialist family violence service in Eastern Metropolitan Melbourne, to increase the capability of people managers to sensitively respond to staff disclosures of family violence
• an evaluation of the additional family violence visit for Maternal and Child Health (MCH) has also been undertaken by the Centre for Evaluation and Research.

Department of Justice and Community Safety

Key Department of Justice and Community Safety priorities for 2023–24 include:

• VSSR will continue to support Victims of Crime Helpline, FVRJ and VAPs, with a primary focus on adult person using violence implementation and training
• Youth Justice, with the support of the FVMH Branch, will progress the Youth Justice MARAM Sector Support Project to strengthen MARAM alignment and practices of its funded programs through sector-specific capability uplift
• Intermediate MARAM training, as well as screening and identification MARAM training, will be delivered to Youth Justice community and custodial workforces
• CCS will complete the update of the CCS MARAM eLearn and implement the new version to staff who have not yet undertaken this training
• CCS will introduce the victim survivor training to its workforce, starting with training rollout to its leadership teams
• continue to develop, review and configure tools and guidance documentation across all areas of CJS, in preparation for their implementation
• complete the journey map for the entire corrections system, including CCS
• through contract managers, engage with CJS-funded service providers, to ensure MARAM alignment requirements are met.

The courts

Key courts priorities for 2023–24 include:

• courts will complete their implementation of the victim survivor tools and focus on the implementation of the adults using violence (AUV) and identification of the predominant aggressor tools and guidance
• in preparation for the release of the Courts Information Sharing (CIS) Portal, courts will develop a stakeholder engagement plan for sector and peak bodies that provides direction and guidance on the use of the new solution. Courts will also make user guides available on the CIS Portal website and will develop a short presentation for delivery to peak groups and regional implementation committees on information sharing in courts, and the CIS Portal
• capability development focused on intersectional approaches to understanding and managing family violence risk, with the preparation of bespoke training packages for courts workforces:
  • a specific package for Koori Family Violence Practitioners on the topic of understanding and responding to family violence risk with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (developed in partnership with the Koori Family Violence Principal Practitioner)
  • a package of training that explores the intersectional impacts of family violence on victim survivors / Affected Family Members (AFMs) from culturally and linguistically diverse, LGBTIQA+ and First Nations backgrounds, to enable mainstream practitioners to support these clients. This package was developed in consultation with the Koori Family Violence Principal Practitioner and LGBTIQA+ Practice Manager.

Victoria Police

Key Victoria Police priorities for 2023-24 include:

• information technology – enhancing platforms to support decision making at all stages of the family violence response
• training and practice – strengthening the accurate identification of the predominant aggressor through police training and establish clear authorisation pathways for rectifying and remedying misidentification when it occurs
• Policing harm, upholding the right: strategy for family violence, sexual offences and child abuse (2018–2023) – this strategy is in its final year of operation. This strategy was the first of its kind to bring together police responses to family violence, sexual offences and child abuse. A refreshed organisational direction will be developed to ensure continued alignment with the Victorian Government reform agenda.

Organisations prescribed under Phase 1.

CISS, FVISS and MARAM — all reforms

• Alcohol and other drugs services
• Child Protection
• Public housing
• Designated Mental Health Services
• Family Violence Restorative Justice
• Homelessness services (providing access point, outreach or accommodation services)
• Justice Health
• Justice Health’s funded or contracted services for young people
• Maternal and Child Health Services
• Multi-agency Panels to Prevent Youth Offending
• Care services (formerly out-ofhome-care services)
• Perpetrator interventions, including trials under the Family Violence Perpetrator Intervention grants
• Registered community-based child and family services (including Child FIRST)
• Risk Assessment and Management Panels
• Sexual assault support services
• Sexually abusive behaviour treatment services
• Specialist family violence services (including family violence counselling and therapeutic programs)
• The Orange Door (Support and Safety Hubs)
• Victims Assistance Program services
• Victims of Crime Helpline
• Victoria Police
• Youth Justice
• Youth Justice funded community support services or programs
• Youth Parole Board (Secretariat)\

FVISS and/or MARAM only (not CISS)

• Adult Parole Board
• Children’s Court
• Corrections and Justice Services-funded or contracted rehabilitation and reintegration services or programs, prisoner services or programs, and clinical services or programs for offender rehabilitation
• Corrections Victoria, Community Correctional Services and privately operated prisons
• Court-ordered family violence counselling
• Family Violence Restorative Justice Service
• Justice Health’s funded or contracted services for adults
• Magistrates’ Court
• State-funded Financial Counselling Program
• Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program

CISS or FVISS only

• Commission for Children and Young People
• Disability Services Commissioner

CISS only

• Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

Organisations prescribed under Phase 2

CISS, FVISS and MARAM — all reforms

• Government and non-government schools
• Kindergartens
• Long day care
• Relevant non-government school system bodies
• Out-of-school-hours care
• Student disengagement and wellbeing services and programs funded by the Department of Education
• The Department of Education, to the extent it delivers Child Health and Wellbeing Services
• Doctors in schools
• Ambulance Victoria (including contracted services)
• Community Health Services
• Community housing organisations, including Tenancy Plus Programs
• Community-managed mental health services
• Forensic Disability
• Complex Needs Coordinators (MACNI)
• Family Records and Intercountry Services
• Refugee Minor Program
• Homelessness support providers (other than those already prescribed under Phase 1)
• Publicly funded metropolitan, regional and rural health services
• Public health services
• Denominational hospitals
• Public hospitals
• Publicly funded Early Parenting Centres
• State-funded aged care services
• Supported Playgroups
• Multicultural and settlement support services
• Children’s Court
• Magistrates’ Court

FVISS and/or MARAM only (not CISS)

• Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
• Victorian Institute of Teaching
• Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority
• General practitioners
• General practice nurses
• Parentline (MARAM only)
• Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria

CISS or FVISS only

N/A

CISS only

• Government and non-government schools
• Kindergartens
• Long day care
• Relevant non-government school system bodies
• Out-of-school-hours care
• Student disengagement and wellbeing services and programs funded by the Department of Education
• The Department of Education, to the extent it delivers Child Health and Wellbeing Services
• Doctors in schools
• Ambulance Victoria (including contracted services)
• Community Health Services
• Community housing organisations, including Tenancy Plus Programs
• Community-managed mental health services
• Forensic Disability
• Complex Needs Coordinators (MACNI)
• Family Records and Intercountry Services
• Refugee Minor Program
• Homelessness support providers (other than those already prescribed under Phase 1)
• Publicly funded metropolitan, regional and rural health services
• Public health services
• Denominational hospitals
• Public hospitals
• Publicly funded Early Parenting Centres
• State-funded aged care services
• Supported Playgroups
• Multicultural and settlement support services
• Children’s Court
• Magistrates’ Court

Family Violence Protection Act 2008

The Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM) reporting process, legislated in the Act, has 2 stages:

1. Under s 192 of the Act, portfolio ministers prepare an annual report for the Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence on the prescribed matters relating to the implementation and operation of MARAM by 30 September (MARAM portfolio reports).
2. Under s 193 of the Act, the Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence must prepare a consolidated annual report of the prescribed matters to be tabled within 6 sitting dates after 1 January, in the financial year immediately following the financial year to which the report relates (MARAM consolidated report).

It should be noted that portfolio reports are not tabled but are subject to Freedom of Information requests.

Family Violence Protection (Information Sharing and Risk Management) Regulations 2018

The prescribed matters are:

• actions taken by a public entity or a public service body to support framework organisations and section 191 agencies, in relation to the implementation and operation of the approved framework
• a summary of the progress of implementation of the approved framework by framework organisations and section 191 agencies
• proposed future actions to be undertaken by public entities or public service bodies, to support ongoing implementation and operation by framework organisations and section 191 agencies with the approved framework.

Pillar 1

Shared understanding of family violence: Framework organisations demonstrate an evidence-based, shared understanding of family violence risk and impact

Pillar 2

Consistent and collaborative practice: Framework organisations use a shared approach to identification, screening, assessment, and management of family violence risk. Framework organisations use tools that are consistent with the evidence-based risk factors, and share information relevant to family violence risk assessment and management practice

Pillar 3

Responsibilities for risk assessment and management: Framework organisations understand their responsibilities in risk assessment and management practice

Pillar 4

Systems, outcomes, and continuous improvement: Framework organisations establish and use structures to implement the framework, collect consistent information about the evidence-based risk factors, and undertake activities to change organisational culture and practice

1. Family violence involves a spectrum of seriousness of risk and presentations, and is unacceptable in any form, across any community or culture.
2. Professionals should work collaboratively to provide coordinated and effective risk assessment and management responses, including early intervention when family violence first occurs, to avoid escalation into crisis and additional harm.
3. Professionals should be aware, in their risk assessment and management practice, of the drivers of family violence, predominantly gender inequality, which also intersect with other forms of structural inequality and discrimination.
4. The agency, dignity and intrinsic empowerment of victim survivors must be respected by partnering with them as active decision-making participants in risk assessment and management, including being supported to access and participate in justice processes that enable fair and just outcomes.
5. Family violence may have serious impacts on the current and future physical, spiritual, psychological, developmental, and emotional safety and wellbeing of children, who are directly or indirectly exposed to its effects, and should be recognised as victim survivors in their own right.
6. Services provided to child victim survivors should acknowledge their unique experiences, vulnerabilities and needs, including the effects of trauma and cumulative harm arising from family violence.
7. Services and responses provided to people from Aboriginal communities should be culturally responsive and safe, recognising Aboriginal understanding of family violence, and rights to self-determination and self-management, and take account of their experiences of colonisation, systemic violence and discrimination, and recognise the ongoing and present-day impacts of historical events, policies and practices.
8. Services and responses provided to diverse communities and older people should be accessible, culturally responsive and safe, client-centred, inclusive and non-discriminatory.
9. Perpetrators should be encouraged to acknowledge and take responsibility to end their violent, controlling and coercive behaviour, and service responses to perpetrators should be collaborative and coordinated through a system-wide approach that collectively and systematically creates opportunities for perpetrator accountability.
10. Family violence used by adolescents is a distinct form of family violence and requires a different response to family violence used by adults, because of their age and the possibility that they are also victim survivors of family violence.

Strategic Priority 1: Demonstrate clear leadership that cultivates trust across service systems and organisations

The Victorian Government, departments and sector peak bodies will provide clear and consistent leadership that encourages a shared understanding of risk, respects sector expertise and cultivates trust across organisations.

Strategic Priority 2: Facilitate consistent and collaborative practice

The Victorian Government, departments and sector peak bodies ensure service systems have operational procedures that enable the timely identification of risk, information sharing, and consistent and collaborative practice.

Strategic Priority 3: Build workforce and staff capability

The Victorian Government, departments and sector peak bodies ensure staff across sectors will be supported to build their capacity, skills and practice knowledge to identify and manage risks, and share information effectively, in line with their roles and expertise.

Strategic Priority 4: Recognition of good practice and commitment to continuous improvement

The Victorian Government, departments and sector peak bodies ensure mechanisms for sharing lessons learned across sectors are in place to reinforce good practice.