MARAM nominated staff

What are my responsibilities?

Nominated staff members in schools and services

The safety of victim survivors (children, young people and adults), and visibility and accountability of perpetrators requires a collaborative and coordinated approach across the service system.

As a nominated staff member, you hold the following responsibilities under MARAM:

• Responsibility 1: Respectful, sensitive and safe engagement (all staff hold this responsibility)
• Responsibility 2: Identification of family violence
• Responsibility 5: Seek consultation for comprehensive risk assessment, risk management and referrals
• Responsibility 6: Contribute to information sharing with other services (as authorised by legislation)
• Responsibility 9: Contribute to coordinated risk management
• Responsibility 10: Collaborate for ongoing risk assessment and risk management.

This means your responsibilities include:

• responding to disclosures of family violence
• screening for family violence (see the recommended Family Violence Screening Tool in Tools for MARAM nominated staff)
• planning for safety (see the recommended Family Violence Basic Safety Plan in Tools for MARAM nominated staff)
• following the Four Critical Actions, as soon as you witness an incident, receive a disclosure or form a reasonable belief that a child has, or is at risk of being abused. You must act if you form a suspicion or reasonable belief even if you are unsure and have not directly observed abuse.
• making and responding to FVISS and CISS requests (see Staff who use CISS and FVISS)
• collaborating with other services to provide ongoing support to the child, young person or their family
• keeping appropriate records
• working with other staff who suspect a child or young person is experiencing family violence, or who have received a disclosure from a student.

How does MARAM align with PROTECT in schools and services?

Following the Four Critical Actions will help you to meet your MARAM responsibilities. See the table in How does MARAM align with PROTECT in schools and services? in the All staff section for an outline of this. If the situation is not an emergency requiring response (Critical Action 1), schools and services must still consider Critical Actions 2, 3 and 4.

Nominated staff hold the same responsibilities as all staff as per the actions and responsibilities outlined under How does MARAM align with PROTECT in schools and services? in the All staff section. In addition, nominated staff hold the following additional responsibilities.

How do I screen for family violence?

This section supports you to meet your obligations under the following MARAM responsibilities:

Use the Family Violence Screening Tool on the Tools for MARAM nominated staff webpage if you:

• receive a disclosure of family violence
• observe signs of trauma that may indicate a child or young person is experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing, family violence, family violence risk factors, narratives (e.g. statements or stories) or behaviours that indicate an adult is using family violence
• have completed or received a completed Family Violence Identification Tool and/or Family Violence Screening Tool from a colleague.

If you have received a Family Violence Identification Tool (see Tools for All staff) from another staff member, refer to the relevant information in the tool to support your engagement with the victim survivor. You can ask screening questions directly of a child or young person and/or adult victim survivor – if safe, reasonable and appropriate to do so.

The Family Violence Screening Tool is intended to be used as a living document, as family violence is defined by a pattern of behaviour, meaning it is likely to require ongoing support. Your school or service is in a unique position to record and collate new observations that may otherwise go unnoticed.

You may use CISS or FVISS to share the Family Violence Screening Tool when referring the victim survivor to a specialist family violence service, which will provide comprehensive risk assessment and management.

What are protective factors and why do I need to record these as nominated staff?

Protective factors are strengths or factors that increase a child or young person’s (or adult’s) safety from family violence.

Protective factors can include a person’s involvement with school community, community involvement (sports etc), protective family members, independence (employment, finances, vehicle), or having ‘eyes-on,’ that is professionals who see the person experiencing family violence, such as teachers, childcare workers, community welfare workers, or community health workers.

Nominated staff can use the ‘Record more information relevant to the above…’ section of the Family Violence Screening Tool to record protective factors.

Misidentification of the predominant aggressor

It may be difficult to determine who the ‘predominant aggressor’ or perpetrator is in a family violence situation, particularly if more than one person is using violence.

It is not your role to identify the predominant aggressor when identifying and responding to family violence, including when completing the tools in this resource. The information you record in the tools will support specialist services to correctly identify the predominant aggressor, and tailor their response accordingly, to avoid misidentification.

Misidentification may occur when the predominant aggressor:

• falsely accuses a victim survivor of using violence or misrepresents the victim survivor’s self-defence as evidence of violence
• tries to convince service providers that they are the victim, or use a range of behaviours to avoid or deflect their responsibility for using family violence
• cites substance abuse by the victim survivor as evidence to support their claim that the victim survivor is the perpetrator
• undermines a victim survivor’s presentation or behaviour as resulting from mental illness or misrepresents a victim survivor’s disability as drunkenness or being drug affected.

Some victim survivors may be misidentified as perpetrators due to:

• their use of self-defence or violent resistance during an incident or series of incidents of family violence, or for actions taken to defend another family member
• misinterpretation of their presentation or behaviour. This can be due to direct misrepresentation by the predominant aggressor, or due to bias on behalf of professionals and services, such as gender norms and stereotyped expectations of women’s behaviour. Women’s behaviour is often misinterpreted in relation to:
  • their response to the impact of violence on them (such as trauma responses)
  • having mental health issues
  • the influence of alcohol or other drugs
  • perceived or actual aggression toward police or at initiation of police contact.
• barriers to communication with the police or a service provider due to trauma responses, injury or from pre-existing communication barriers.

Certain cohorts are at greater risk of being misidentified as perpetrators - in particular, Aboriginal women, migrant and refugee women, women with disabilities, criminalised women and LGBTIQA+ people.

Collecting parent or carer information using the tools in this resource supports the mandatory reporting or referral process, including helping Child Protection to identify the correct children in their systems.

How do I plan for safety?

This section supports you to meet your obligations under the following MARAM responsibilities:

You can develop a safety plan using the Family Violence Basic Safety Plan template after completing a Family Violence Screening Tool that identifies current family violence and if the child, young person and/or adult victim survivor parent or carer is open to receiving support. See Tools for MARAM nominated staff for templates for the Family Violence Basic Safety Plan and the Family Violence Screening Tool.

The Basic Safety Plan consists of strategies victim survivors use to keep themselves safe. It should be tailored to their circumstances and consider their safety and wellbeing needs. Victim survivors should be included in the development of their own safety plan wherever possible, including reflecting their views and wishes.

If you are developing a safety plan for a child or young person and you cannot seek their views or input, you can develop one on their behalf by talking with their parent or caregiver who is not using violence.

You may use CISS or FVISS to share the Basic Safety Plan when referring the victim survivor to a specialist family violence service, which will provide comprehensive risk assessment and management. Specialist family violence services are responsible for comprehensive
safety planning. The school or service’s primary and ongoing responsibility is for the child or young person’s safety at the school or service.

Safety plans should be kept at the school or service. For safety reasons, do NOT provide copies to the child or young person, or the adult victim survivor. This can increase risk if the person using violence accesses it.

How do I provide ongoing support?

This section supports you to meet your obligations under the following MARAM responsibilities:

Family violence risk assessment and management is an ongoing process. As you provide ongoing support to a child or young person, you should continue to assess the safety of the child or young person and work with other services to keep them safe. Specialist services often triage reports and referrals, prioritising higher risk cases. Reporting and referral does not mean the risk has ceased. You should provide ongoing support and monitor if risk changes or escalates, requiring further support.

You are not expected to take on the role of police or child protection in determining whether family violence has occurred. You are not expected to provide ongoing support and advocacy to parents or carers.

You must act, by following the Four Critical Actions, as soon as you witness an incident, receive a disclosure or form a suspicion or reasonable belief that a child has, or is at risk of being abused. You do not have to directly witness the child abuse or know the source of the abuse.

Schools and services contribute to coordinated risk management by:

• participating in or establishing a multidisciplinary support team to coordinate ongoing support for children and their families where necessary. This team could be internal, comprised of staff working with the child and family, or have external services participate such as Maternal Child Health, The Orange Door or Victoria Police
• notifying other services if you identify any changes in risk or if a planned risk management strategy is not implemented or fails
• maintaining visibility of the perpetrator by sharing relevant information about the perpetrator with specialist family violence services for risk assessment and management purposes
• being open with the child, young person or victim survivor that you are working with other services to support them whenever it is safe, reasonable and appropriate to do so. This will support a person-centred approach so that they feel supported to share their views.

How do I keep records?

Records management

You must follow all data security and record management requirements that apply to your school or service.

Schools and services should keep appropriate records relating to referrals, information sharing and coordinated risk management. This may include:

• the services you are collaborating with
• information shared and received from other services
• records of consent or views to information sharing and referrals
• actions required of your school or service (for example, using the screening tool and basic safety plan)
• the child and family being informed of any updates.

Due to the nature of family violence records, schools and services must ensure that the records are kept securely. For example, if you have a hard copy file, you should make sure it is kept in a locked cabinet. If you have an electronic record, you need to make sure it is password protected and only staff members who need the information have access. Only school and service leaders and nominated staff should have access to completed Family Violence Screening Tools and Basic Safety Plans. Schools and services should ensure that these records are not destroyed as they may be needed at a later time (e.g. as evidence in future court proceedings).

Please see the record keeping template for staff who use CISS and FVISS on Tools for staff who use CISS and FVISS.

For further information, refer to Records Management — School records (for Victorian government schools).

Tools for MARAM nominated staff

To access the Family Violence Screening Tool and the Family Violence Basic Safety Plan, refer to Tools for MARAM nominated staff.