Tips for conducting the qualitative review and analysing the responses
- Ask for openness. Emphasise the importance of being open and honest, and make sure people aren't concerned about reprisal. Consider making the survey anonymous.
- Be objective. Describe what has happened in objective terms, and then focus on improvements.
- Document success. Document practices and procedures that led to project successes, and make recommendations for applying them to similar future projects.
- Look with hindsight. Pay attention to the ‘unknowns’ (now known) that may have increased implementation risks. Develop a way of looking out for these in future projects.
- Focus on the future. Remember, the purpose is to focus on the future, not to assign blame for what happened in the past. This is not the time to focus on any one person or team.
- Look at both positives and negatives – identify key achievements and challenges when looking at lessons learnt.
Suggested qualitative questions
The questions are designed for a staff survey, they can be adapted for use in a workshop or other forum. The questions are only suggestion, and you should modify them to suit your organisation and the specific implementation activities under review.
If appropriate to your service, consider a survey or forum of service-users to ascertain their experience of how the organisation responded to family violence in their circumstances
Pillar 1: A shared understanding of family violence
Question 1
How would you rate your understanding of:
- what behaviour constitutes family violence
- the drivers of family violence
- the evidence-based risk factors
- how issues of diversity and intersectionality intersect with family violence
- the nature of perpetrator accountability
[Options: very low, low, medium, high, very high for each bullet point]
Question 2
Do you know where to find foundational knowledge about family violence within our organisation’s policies and procedures?
[Options: yes/no]
Question 3
Do you believe our organisation is welcoming and respectful to all people regardless of identity?
[Options: yes/no]
[Free text: if no, what could we do better?]
Question 4
Do you understand the term intersectionality?
[Options: yes/no]
Pillar 2: Confidence and skills in applying MARAM responsibilities
Question 1
Which of the following MARAM responsibilities apply to your role? Please select all that apply.
[Options: respectful, sensitive and safe engagement, screening all clients for family violence, screening for family violence where there are observable signs of trauma, brief risk assessment, intermediate risk assessment, intermediate risk management, information sharing with other services, secondary consultation, making referrals, comprehensive risk assessment, comprehensive risk management and safety planning, Contribute to coordinated and collaborative risk management including ongoing risk assessment]
Question 2
For each of the responsibilities chosen a question: how confident do you feel in performing this responsibility?
[Options: not at all confident, not very confident, a bit confident, very confident]
Note: only certain questions will be relevant dependent on the MARAM responsibilities held.
Question 3 (responsibility 1 and 2)
How confident are you in recognising observable signs of trauma that may indicate that family violence is occurring?
[Options: not at all confident, not very confident, a bit confident, very confident]
Question 4 (responsibility 1 and 2)
How confident are you in knowing what to do in your organisation if you believe family violence is occurring?
[Options: not at all confident, not very confident, a bit confident, very confident]
Question 5 (responsibility 3 and 7)
When completing a risk assessment, how often do you:
- ask the victim survivor for their own assessment of the level of risk, fear and safety
- assess against evidence-based risk factors
- request information from other agencies to inform the risk assessment
- give a risk rating based on structured professional judgment
- complete a separate risk assessment for children
- make referrals for the client
- record client identities
- use intersectional analysis
- ask identity specific risk questions (comprehensive assessment only)
[Options: always, most of the time, some of the time, never]
Question 6 (responsibility 4–8)
When managing a client’s risk of family violence, how often do you:
- re-assess risk on a regular basis
- share information with other agencies
- request information from other agencies
- coordinate risk management strategies with other agencies
- impose restrictions on perpetrators
- provide protective measures for victim survivors
[Options: always, most of the time, some of the time, never]
Question 7 (responsibility 5)
How confident are you in seeking secondary consultations?
[Options: not at all confident, not very confident, a bit confident, very confident]
Question 8 (responsibility 5)
How confident are you in making referrals?
[Options: not at all confident, not very confident, a bit confident, very confident]
Question 9 (responsibility 6)
How confident are you in identifying risk relevant information which should be shared proactively (without a request)?
[Options: not at all confident, not very confident, a bit confident, very confident]
Question 10 (responsibility 6)
How confident are you in following the procedures in place to share risk-relevant information internally/externally in response to a request?
[Options: not at all confident, not very confident, a bit confident, very confident]
Question 11 (responsibility 9 and 10)
How often are you working with external services to provide a coordinated and collaborative response to family violence risk assessment and management?
[Options: always, most of the time, some of the time, never]
Question 12 (all responsibilities)
What barriers do you experience in performing MARAM responsibilities? (allow multiple choices):
[Options: not enough time, inadequate training (MARAM-specific or supporting training), resistance from clients, lack of guidance from manager, lack of support from organisation, don’t know relevant services to work with, relevant services lack capacity, relevant services don’t exist, not part of my job role, other]
Impact of risk assessment and risk management practice on service users
Question 1
Do you think the family violence risk management process is helping to reduce risk to victim survivors? Why or why not?
Question 2
Do you think the family violence risk assessment and management process in your organisation gives victim survivors a better understanding of the level of risk they are facing from the perpetrator? Why or why not?
Question 3
Do you think the family violence risk assessment and risk management process is helping to keep perpetrators in view and accountable? Why or why not?
Question 4
Do you think the family violence risk management practices you use decrease the risk of the perpetrator committing family violence again? Why or why not?
Question 5
Do you think your risk management and information sharing practices are keeping perpetrators of family violence in view? Why or why not?
Question 6
What barriers do you think exist in decreasing the risk of perpetrators committing family violence?
[free text]
Policies, procedures, practice guidance and tools
Question 1
Do you feel supported by your manager and the organisation in responding to family violence in respect of service users? Why or why not?
Question 2
Have you received adequate training on the use of practice guidance and tools?
[Options: yes/no]
Question 3
Have you received adequate training in responding to children, Aboriginal and other diverse communities in addition to MARAM training?
[Options: yes/no]
Pillar 3: Understanding the MARAM responsibilities including training
Question 1
Do you understand what MARAM responsibilities apply in your role?
[Option: yes/no]
Question 2
Have you participated in any training on MARAM?
If yes
- who provided the training?
- how would you rate the effectiveness of the training?
[Options: very poor, poor, moderate, high, very high]
If no, have you experienced any of the following barriers to accessing MARAM training?
[Options: lack of time, employer not willing to support training and development, employer not able to support training and development (i.e. funding issues), lack of flexible training options (i.e. online training or after-hours training), Not aware of any training that exists, resourcing issues (i.e. inability for organisation to provide backfill for my role while I am on training, cost, location, child care, accessibility, cultural appropriateness, other, please specify]
Question 3
Do you feel confident in applying the knowledge from training into your practice?
[Option: yes/no]
[Free text – if no, what further training do you require? (examples, professional development, internal support, additional resources, face to face training, on the job training)]
Pillar 4: Impact of responding to family violence on staff members
Question 1
Are you aware of the supports in place for you, as a staff member, if you experience family violence?
[Options: yes/no]
Question 2
Have you participated in any communities of practice related to family violence risk assessment and management? If yes, please provide name:
Question 3
Do you know what data you are required to gather when family violence is identified?
[Option: yes/no]