Glossary

Aboriginal

In this document the term ‘Aboriginal’ is inclusive of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Victoria.

Aboriginal self- determination

Aboriginal self-determination means Aboriginal people making decisions about matters that affect their lives and communities. It means that Aboriginal Victorians need to be at the centre of decision making and be supported to make informed choices. For The Orange Door, this means Aboriginal people being able to determine (with all the information they need, and knowing and valuing who they are) what they want and how to go about getting it.

The role of The Orange Door as an entry point to the service system is to facilitate that process. Aboriginal services and communities are part of the co-design process for The Orange Door, helping to ensure that all aspects of The Orange Door respect the needs of Aboriginal Victorians.

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)

Culturally diverse, and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), is used to reflect the diversity of the Victorian population that has resulted from migration. The Victorian Government is committed to delivering services that meet the diverse needs of people from multicultural communities, including people with refugee or asylum-seeking backgrounds.

Centres Against Sexual Assault (CASAs)

There are 15 CASAs across Victoria. CASAs offer free, confidential 24-hour emergency or crisis care for victim-survivors of sexual assault. This includes crisis counselling support and access to medical care and legal services, as well as counselling support for adults who were abused in their childhood. The Victorian Sexual Assault Crisis Line provides the after-hours service.

All CASAs have access to at least one Crisis Care Unit, which may be located in a multidisciplinary centre, hospital or a community-based agency.

Central Information Point (CIP)

The Central Information Point (CIP) is a new service operated by FSV that consolidates critical information about a perpetrator or alleged perpetrator of family violence into a single report for frontline workers to assist with family violence risk assessment and management.

The consolidated information available in a CIP report is provided by a co-located team of data custodians from Victoria Police, the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, Corrections Victoria, and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) (Child Protection).

Child Wellbeing and Safety Act

The Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (Vic) outlines ‘principles for children’ to guide the development and provision of services for children. These include an expectation that service providers ‘acknowledge and be respectful of the child’s individual identity, circumstances and cultural identity and be responsive to the particular needs of the child’. The Act has a number of purposes including establishing the Victorian Children’s Council, establishing the Children’s Services Co-ordination Board, and providing for the Child Safety Commissioner. Victorian organisations that provide services to children are required under the Act to ensure that they implement compulsory child safe standards to protect children from harm.

Child FIRST

Child and Family Information Referral and Support Teams (Child FIRST) provide a central referral point to a range of community-based family services within subregional catchments. Child FIRST organisations have statutory obligations under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic).

Children, Youth and Families Act

The Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) guides the actions of community services and the state in the best interests of vulnerable children. The Act promotes:

• children’s ‘best interests’, driving all planning, decisions and service delivery
• earlier intervention and prevention and greater targeting of secondary services to families most in need
• improved planning, coordination and delivery of services to families by increasing the emphasis on partnership and collaboration across and within the service systems
• a stronger focus on children’s cultural identities and cultural competence in all service delivery
• a commitment to maintaining Aboriginal children’s cultural connectedness

Early intervention

In this document, this refers to responding to the early warning signs of family violence, or families in need of support with the care, wellbeing and development of children and young people and intervening appropriately, with the aim of preventing harm, reducing reoccurrence or reducing longer term harm.

Emergency response

Response by emergency services – police, fire and ambulance - triple zero (000).

Family Safety Victoria

Family Safety Victoria (FSV) is an Administrative Office attached to DHHS, with dedicated responsibility for delivering key family violence reforms including The Orange Door. It ensures continued focus on delivering these reforms separate from the day-to-day service delivery operations of DHHS.

The key family violence reforms the FSV is responsible for include:

• leading the establishment of The Orange Door
• facilitating the coordination of family violence information-sharing reforms
• establishing and operating the Central Information Point
• leading the redevelopment of the risk management framework
• delivering the 10-year industry plan for family violence prevention and response
• continuing systemic reform to improve the way that government responds to family violence

Family services

Family services promote the safety, stability and development of vulnerable children, young people and their families, with a focus on building capacity and resilience for children, families and communities.

Family services target vulnerable children, young people and their families who are:

• likely to experience greater challenges – as the child/young person’s development has been affected by the experience of risk factors and/or cumulative harm, and/or
• at risk of concerns escalating and becoming involved with Child Protection – if problems are not addressed

Family services include family support, family preservation and family reunification services.

Family Violence Protection Act

The Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic) has 3 primary purposes:

• to maximise safety for children and adults who have experienced family violence
• to prevent and reduce family violence to the greatest extent possible
• to promote the accountability of perpetrators of family violence for their actions

The Act defines ‘family violence’ as behaviour that is physically or sexually abusive, emotionally or psychologically abusive, threatening or coercive, or in any other way controls or dominates the family member and causes that family member to fear for his or her safety or wellbeing or for the safety or wellbeing of another person.

The Act also defines ‘family member’ to include: a current or former spouse or domestic partner; a person who has, or has had, an intimate personal relationship with the relevant person; a current or former relative; a child who normally lives or has lived with the relevant person; and a child of a person who has, or has had, an intimate personal relationship with the perpetrator of violence.

Foundational model

The Orange Door represents a transformational change to the family violence and family services system. Given the scope and scale of reform, the implementation of The Orange Door is being phased over time. The term ‘foundational model’ refers to The Orange Door service model implemented from day one in the first five areas.

Hub design principles

The 11 Hub design principles set out in the Victorian Government’s Ending family violence: Victoria’s plan for change (2016).

The Orange Door team

The Orange Door team is the workforce delivering the functions of The Orange Door – recognising that a collaborative team approach is needed to deliver The Orange Door functions. Performing these functions draws on the skills and expertise held across the team (not just those held by an individual worker).

Intersectionality¹

Refers to the structural inequality and discrimination experienced by different individuals and communities, and the impact of these creating barriers to service access and further marginalisation. Intersectionality is the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of identity-based structural inequality and discrimination (such as racism, sexism, ableism and classism) combine, overlap or intersect, in the experiences of individuals or communities.[1] These aspects of identity can include gender, ethnicity and cultural background, language, socio-economic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, geographic location or visa status.

¹ Adapted from Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of intersectionality.

L17 (form)

The form used to make police family violence referrals.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, and/or intersex (LGBTI)

This initialism represents people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, and/or intersex. The Victorian Government recognises that these parts of our community have traditionally been aligned because of shared or similar experiences of discrimination relating to sexuality, gender identity and physical sex characteristics. However, these identities and characteristics are fundamentally different from each other. People in these communities should not be treated as though they form a homogenous group who all have the same experiences or needs.

Local area

The Orange Door is established for a particular geographical area based on the current administrative areas for DHHS. These areas form the ‘catchment’ that The Orange Door predominantly services – that is, the communities and geographical areas The Orange Door supports and the basis on which The Orange Door access network is organised and coordinated.

Local governance

The governance structure in each local area.

Mandatory reporters

The Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (CYFA) and the Family Law Act 2005 (FLA) require certain professionals to report child abuse to child protection.

Under the CYFA (s. 182), doctors, nurses, midwives, teachers (including early childhood teachers) and principals, and police are mandatory reporters. These are the only groups currently mandated under the CYFA. Although the CYFA makes provision for a number of other professional groups to be mandated, to date, no others have been gazetted.

Under the CYFA, mandated reporters must make a report to child protection if they form a belief on reasonable grounds that a child is in need of protection from physical injury or sexual abuse. To form a belief, the reporter must be aware of matters and hold any opinions in relation to those matters that lead them to reasonably believe a child is in need of protection (s. 186).

Under the FLA (s. 67ZA), the Registrar or Deputy Registrar of the Family Court of Australia or the Family Court of Western Australia, a Registrar of the Federal Circuit Court, family consultants, family counsellors, family dispute resolution practitioners or arbitrators, and independent children's lawyers are mandatory reporters. Under the FLA, mandated reporters must make a report to child protection if they suspect on reasonable grounds that a child has been abused or is at risk of being abused.

MARAM Framework

The Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework – the redeveloped common risk assessment framework or ‘CRAF’.

The aim of the MARAM Framework is to increase the safety and wellbeing of Victorians by ensuring all relevant services have a shared responsibility for the identification, assessment and management of family violence risk. The Framework has been established in law under Part 11 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008.

This requires organisations that are prescribed through regulations, as well as organisations providing funded services relevant to family violence risk assessment and management, to align their policies, procedures, practice guidance and tools to the MARAM Framework.

Multidisciplinary centres

Multidisciplinary centres (MDCs) collocate police, child protection practitioners and sexual assault counselling services on one site to provide integrated support for adults and children who have experienced sexual assault. Some MDCs include family violence services.

There are currently seven MDCs operating across Victoria – in Mildura, Seaford, Geelong, Dandenong, Bendigo, Morwell and Werribee.

Perpetrator

This is the term used in state and national policy to describe people who use violence. The aim in using this term is to ensure safety and accountability and to end the individual’s use of violence. This term is not limited to people who have been accused or convicted of criminal offences.

This term is not meant to define the perpetrator for life; the aim is to end the individual’s use of violence. The term can include women who are primary aggressors, but for the purposes of this document, gendered language is used (referring to a perpetrator as ‘he’ or ‘him’), recognising that most perpetrators of family violence are men. It is noted that practitioners use other terms that are personally or organisationally more appropriate; for example, ‘men who use violence’ is used by some services that work with men.

Perpetrator accountability

The concept of perpetrator accountability is broad and includes:

• understanding and responding to the needs and experiences of victims and their views about the outcomes they are seeking to achieve
• prioritising women and children’s safety through effective and ongoing risk assessment and management mechanisms
• promoting perpetrators taking responsibility for their actions, including the impact on their children
• providing a suite of options to help perpetrators gain insight and awareness of their actions, and to change their behaviour, with such options tailored to the risk profile of the perpetrator
• having a strong set of laws, legal and justice processes that incorporate clear consequences for abusive and violent behaviour and failure to comply with court orders and sanctions
• fostering collective responsibility and mutually reinforcing action among government and non-government agencies, the community and individuals for denouncing perpetrators’ use of violence

Perpetrator interventions

This incorporates a broad range of responses for perpetrators, whether ordered by a court or other programs, that provide opportunities for perpetrators to be accountable for changing their own behaviour, such as men’s behaviour change programs.

Practice Guidance (MARAM)

The MARAM Practice Guidance includes a Foundation Knowledge Guide and a Responsibilities for Practice Guide.

The Foundation Knowledge guide outlines key elements of the MARAM Framework, the service system, the evidence-based family violence risk factors that underpin all levels of risk assessment practice, and presentations of risk across different age groups and Aboriginal and diverse communities. The Foundational Knowledge Guide is required reading for all professionals across leadership and governance, management and supervision to direct practice roles.

The Responsibilities for Practice Guides 1-10 reflect each of the ten responsibilities set out in the MARAM Framework. These guides build on Foundational Knowledge to provide practice guidance from safe engagement, identification of risk, through to levels of risk assessment and management, secondary consultation and referral, information sharing, and multi-agency and coordinated practice. The practice guides also inform how the MARAM risk assessment tools are used.

Practice guides and assessment tools dealing with responsibilities for perpetrator behaviour and risk assessment will be added to the MARAM tools and practice guides.

Risk assessment and management panels

Risk assessment and management panels (RAMPs) bring together key agencies at the local level to contribute to the safety of women and children experiencing ‘serious and imminent threat’ from family violence. RAMPs share information to support comprehensive risk assessment and to develop and implement coordinated multiagency plans to lessen or prevent the risk to women and children and to increase perpetrator accountability.

The Hub: statewide concept

Released in July 2017, this is the point-in-time document that sets out the intent, scope, key functions and roles of the Hubs.

The Hubs

The Hubs were recommended by the Royal Commission into Family Violence to provide consolidated and comprehensive intake and risk and needs assessment, and safety planning for women and children experiencing family violence, perpetrators and children and families in need of support with the care, wellbeing and development of children and young people (Recommendation 37). The Victorian Government has agreed to establish Hubs across Victoria. The Hubs are branded and known as The Orange Door.

Universal services

Services that support the vast majority of Victorians, such as hospitals, schools, general practitioners and maternal child health services.

Victim-survivor

This is the term used to describe people who have experienced family violence, including children. It is used because it is consistent with the naming of the Victorian Government’s Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council. For some people the term ‘victim’ is problematic because it can suggest that people who have experienced family violence are helpless or lack the capacity to make rational choices about how to respond to violence. This document recognises that experience of family violence should not define victim-survivors and their futures.