Family Safety Victoria continues as part of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

Commencing from Monday 1 November, Family Safety Victoria (FSV) has joined Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH), continuing its key role in delivering the next phase of Victoria’s nation-leading family violence reforms.

This shift means FSV’s focus on victim support and response will be elevated across all DFFH portfolios – ensuring all service systems are playing their part to prevent and respond to family violence.

DFFH is dedicated to fostering a culture of equality, respect and safety across Victorian communities. FSV will represent a new division in DFFH, with Eleri Butler as Deputy Secretary and CEO of Family Safety Victoria.

FSV will continue to have a specialist role in achieving a Victoria free from violence. This includes continuing to lead the delivery of key reforms, such as The Orange Door network, the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM), the Central Information Point, and the ten-year family violence industry plan.

FSV will also continue to work in partnership with peak bodies, key stakeholders and people with lived experiences, to resource and support delivery of state-wide and local specialist family violence services, sexual violence services, perpetrator services, Aboriginal services, and children’s safety and wellbeing services in conjunction with DFFH.

The ongoing commitment to the principles and approach underpinning the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum’s Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way – Strong culture, strong peoples, strong families will continue to be a central priority for FSV.

FSV will maintain its corporate branding, which also includes The Orange Door network and its social media channels.

Bringing FSV into the same department as the Office for the Prevention of Family Violence and Coordination (OfPFVC), ensures family violence reform, response and victim support and prevention initiatives are fully aligned. The work of the OfPFVC will also continue, including:

• Family Violence Reform overseeing and reporting on progress against the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence and coordinating the implementation of Ending Family Violence: Victoria’s Plan for Change.
• Family Violence Prevention working in partnership with Respect Victoria and the family violence prevention sector to implement Free from Violence, our 10-year plan to stop violence before it starts in Victoria.

The move heralds a new phase of family violence reform, ensuring work to end violence family violence and violence against women is embedded right across the department and becomes a core part of the department’s function, as the finalisation of the implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations draws near.

This does not mean the work to build a family violence system is complete - we know there is more work to be done, and this structural change will better enable what is required next to respond to, and end, family violence in Victoria.