Targets of the plan
- No woman or child is killed as a result of family violence.
- All Victorians will believe that family violence and gender inequality are unacceptable, and will hold attitudes that support respectful relationships.
- Victims survivors will be supported to remain safely in their homes and connected to their community.
- More women and children at risk of family violence will be able to access effective early interventions.
- A significant reduction in the number of child protection reports that are substantiated.
- Family violence reoffending will be eliminated.
- Workers in universal (non-family violence specific) services will feel confident to identify and respond to all forms of family violence.
Download the 10-year plan
Progressing the 10-year plan for change under the rolling action plan
We are four years into our 10-year reform and making good progress. The first Rolling Action Plan 2017-2020 laid a solid foundation with investment and activities implementing 167 of the 227 recommendations.
The second Rolling Action Plan 2020-2023 builds on this, with more new areas of focus, so that by 2023 we have a system that is more connected, sustainable and delivering better outcomes for victim survivors.
It provides an overview of where we have made progress, where we will improve, and what we will be working on.
Priorities for 2020-2023
We have identified 10 priority areas for 2020-2023 which are critical for enabling and progressing the reform. They include the continued rollout of major projects and cross-cutting themes that support consolidating the reform across government.
The actions and activities for the next three years for each of the priority areas are the core of the Rolling Action Plan. Each priority has its own page setting out why it’s important, what we have done so far and what we plan to do next.
The Rolling Action Plan does not capture all activity across the reform. This is particularly so for projects and programs that are already fully delivered and transitioning to business as usual.
The 10 priority themes and projects for 2020-2023 are:
1. Courts
Reforming the court response to family violence.
2. Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way
Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way – Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families 2018-2028: a 10 year agreement for delivery of family violence services for Aboriginal Victorians.
3. Housing
Access to safe, secure and stable housing.
4. Legal assistance
Improving legal assistance access, representation and integration across the family violence system.
5. MARAM and Information Sharing
An overarching legislative framework providing a shared approach to family violence risk assessment and management across justice, community, education and health .
6. Perpetrators and people who use violence
A system-wide approach to create an effective web of accountability .
7. Primary prevention
Effecting long-term behavioural change to stop family violence before it starts .
8. Research and evaluation
Coordinating research and evaluation across the family violence reform .
9. The Orange Door Network
Delivering an accessible and visible service for people experiencing family violence and children and families in need of support.
10. Workforce development
The development of a dynamic, collaborative and specialist family violence workforce based on Building from Strength: 10-year Industry Plan.
Perpetrator accountability
In November 2016, the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) established the Expert Advisory Committee on Perpetrator Interventions’ (EACPI) in response to recommendation 86 of the Royal Commission, to consider how to increase the accountability of perpetrators and shift the burden away from victim survivors.
The EACPI final report contains 22 recommendations that seek to improve the range, accessibility and robustness of Victorian’s perpetrator interventions.
It provides government with expert advice on how to shift the focus away from victim survivors being responsible for their own safety, to perpetrators, so they:
- can take responsibility for their own actions
- be held accountable for their actions
- receive messages from the service system and broader community
It also highlights that the service system and community must work together to hold perpetrators to account and keep them in view.
The report and its recommendations will guide next steps to reform the service system. Work has already progressed on many of the report’s recommended areas of focus, including:
- Trial interventions in community and justice settings for people who use violence from diverse communities and with complex needs have commenced and are being evaluated. This includes working with Aboriginal communities, diverse communities, people with cognitive impairment, and women, transgender, intersex and gender diverse people.
- The EACPI Principles for Perpetrator Interventions have been embedded in the men’s behaviour change program minimum standards and case management guidelines to strengthen practice.
- The ‘Tilting our Practice’ family violence model of practice has been rolled out to the Child Protection workforce to strengthen their understanding of how to work with men as fathers and perpetrators in a non-collusive way.
- The Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM) tool and practice guidance for perpetrators is under development and will provide workforces across a range of specialisations with the tools to work safely with perpetrators of family violence to maintain engagement and support change.
- Victoria Police has rolled out 31 Family Violence Investigation Units across the state to work with high risk family violence cases, and improve the safety of victim survivors through police responses. This is supported with tools to help identify risk and prioritise interventions.
- There are 5 specialist family violence courts opening through 2019-20 which prioritise safety, support and service along with built facilities that provide safe and secure environments for victim survivors and families. All specialist family violence courts include specialist Magistrates, larger multi-disciplinary teams of operational staff, practitioners, partner agencies and other court-based services to deliver a coordinated response.
- Family Safety Victoria's Centre for Workforce Excellence is finalising Strengthening the Foundations: First Rolling Action Plan to the family violence 10 Year Industry Plan. This will include initiatives to build the supply, knowledge and skills of the workforces that have a role in working with victims and perpetrators of family violence, including children. Initiatives will include accredited training courses for these workforces, and an attraction campaign and health and wellbeing framework for the specialist family violence workforce.
- The Perpetrator Accountability Steering Committee, a dedicated inter-departmental governance committee, has been established to help strengthen the focus of perpetrator accountability across our reform work.
Download the Expert Advisory Committee on Perpetrator Interventions report
Updated