Pillar 3: Fairness and safety

3.1.1 Preparing a needs assessment to understand additional support measures needed for at risk communities across the built environment. We will do this in partnership with government agencies, social services sector and communities.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

3.1.2 Improving accessible and culturally responsive information for at risk communities. This will include enhancing government communication and outreach procedures to meet the needs of diverse communities.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

3.1.3 Identifying pathways to increase the representation of people with disability, their families, and experts in municipal, regional, and state level emergency management planning. We will do this by listening to people with disability, exploring professional development opportunities to broaden our knowledge and working with the Emergency Management Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Group to ensure better representation of people with disability across emergency management sector organisations.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.1.4 Improving accessibility and representation of people with disability in public communications provided through Emergency Management Victoria. We will do this by working with people with disability to make communications more accessible and by ensuring representation is strength based and reflects the community. We will then share these practices with emergency management sector partners through forums including the Emergency Management Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Group.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.1.5 Advocating for data sharing from the Commonwealth of aged care, Home and Community Care, and NDIS client data.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.2.1 Working with the sector to finalise and implement a new outcomes framework for the Victorian Disability Advocacy Program. This framework will build a stronger evidence base and guide future program direction to maximise the impact and reach of the program.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.2.2 Building the evidence base, knowledge and intersectional capacity of the Victorian disability advocacy sector to better support the needs of all people with disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.2.3 Working with advocacy agencies to determine service gaps and identify improvements to ensure all eligible Victorians can access the NDIS.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.2.4 Identifying opportunities through the new Victorian Disability Advocacy Program outcomes framework to highlight and strengthen the important work of self-advocacy groups in speaking up for the rights of people with disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.2.5 Working with advocacy agencies and self-advocacy groups to explore ways to ensure more people with disability know about their rights and feel confident speaking up for themselves
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.6.2 Strengthening peer support groups for people from diverse and underserviced communities through the Disability Self Help Grants program.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.1 Continuing to involve people with disability in designing the new Social Services Standards, which will set out compliance obligations under the new Social Services Regulator. The new scheme will replace existing regulatory obligations, including compliance with the Human Services Standards. This includes engaging with the Victorian Disability Advisory Council, disability advocacy agencies and disabled people’s organisations.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.2 Strengthening protections for people with disability accessing social services by developing options to improve social services complaints functions.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.3 Co-designing with people with disability an online accessible safeguards information hub about preventing violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability. This will include resources developed over the past four years with key stakeholders and be targeted towards people with disability, their families, carers, and disability advocates.
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Providing online accessible safeguards information about preventing violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability through the Victorian Disability webpage for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. This will include resources developed over the past four years with community and sector stakeholders. In addition, Victoria will actively participate in national work, to be led by the Commonwealth Government, to create a centralised online platform to provide information on locally available supports and services, as well as safeguarding information.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.4 Identifying opportunities to strengthen safeguards to better protect people with disability who are at risk of abuse or neglect. This includes undertaking the Adult Safeguarding Legislative Review to support the National plan to respond to the abuse of older Australians (elder abuse) 2019 – 2023.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.5 Strengthening the authorisation process for restrictive practices and ensuring Victoria continues to meet the national principles for restrictive practice authorisation.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.6 Working with the Commonwealth, states and territories to improve the capacity and capability of behaviour support practitioners to ensure high-quality behaviour support plans are developed and implemented.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.7 Identifying and working to address gaps in legislative residential rights and protections for residents of, and people requiring, disability supported accommodation.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.8 Working with the Commonwealth, states and territories towards nationally consistent residential rights and protections for people living in SDA across all jurisdictions.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.3.9 Establishing a set of principles and functions to guide and modernise the role of community visitors within the context of the NDIS, as well as strengthening the role for state-based disability services through legislative reform.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.4.1 Developing practice resources to support the disability sector and others in primary prevention of violence against adults and children with disability in the home, building on action research.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.4.2 Strengthening the capability of the primary prevention, disability, and social service workforces in disability-inclusive primary prevention activity through Women with Disabilities Victoria’s Gender and Disability Workforce Development Program.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.4.3 Piloting the family violence and disability practice leader roles in The Orange Door areas between 2021 and 2023. Three initial pilots are underway, with additional practice leaders to be funded. These roles will build the capacity of family violence and sexual assault services to provide inclusive and culturally safe support to people with disability, including stronger linkages and referral pathways with disability services. Practice leader learnings will be documented and shared with specialist family violence services and sexual assault services statewide to inform systemic capacity building in delivering family violence and sexual assault services to improve outcomes for people with disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.4.4 Ensuring all core and cluster refuge redevelopment specifications align with the standards referenced in the Disability Discrimination Act.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.4.5 Continuing to build professionals’ understanding of different risk factors for people with disability experiencing or at risk of family violence as part of the rollout of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.4.6 Exploring the role of disability service providers in identifying and responding to family violence risk as part of implementing the MARAM Framework.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.4.7 Continuing to implement the Family Violence and Disability Crisis Response initiative.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.4.8 Continuing to inform, shape, and improve family violence and sexual assault policy and practice to include adults, children and young people with disability.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Family Safety Victoria

3.5.1 Including people with disability in corrections policy and program design.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.2 Driving integration across the corrections system (custodial and community) with other agencies including the Forensic Disability Program and the NDIA.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.3 Embedding disability awareness and responsiveness in the corrections workforce.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.4 Improving access to appropriate therapeutic options for women and young people with cognitive disability involved in the criminal justice system. This will include exploring dedicated forensic disability residential treatment and specialist accommodation services.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.5.5 Fostering mechanisms to co-design and continually improve policies, programs and services with people with cognitive disability with lived experience of the criminal justice system through the Forensic Disability Program.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.5.6 Working with people with disability and partner organisations to better understand the prevalence, characteristics, pathways and experiences of people with disability involved in, or at risk of involvement in, the criminal justice system through the Forensic Disability Program.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.5.7 Convening the Disability Justice Operational Forum four times a year. The forum will provide a collaborative environment for Victorian and NDIS stakeholders working at the operational level to meet with people with disability who have experience of the justice system to learn together, share resources and identify ways to consider the voice of lived experience in policy and service design.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.8 Continuing the work of the youth justice case managers and specialist disability advisors to ensure young people with disability have timely access to appropriate services and support including specialist disability services and other support services. This includes a position dedicated to supporting Aboriginal young people and children with disability.
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Continue the work of Senior and Specialist Disability Advisors to provide secondary consultation and advice to youth justice staff and care teams. This work is designed to improve youth justice supervision and ensure young people with disability have timely access to appropriate services and supports, including the NDIS. This includes a position dedicated to supporting Aboriginal young people and children with disability.

Senior/Specialist Disability Advisors to deliver Youth Justice face-to-face training, including induction programs for new staff, which contains training related to the impact of disability and use of effective strategies to support children and young people with disability in the justice system, including people with a diagnosis of autism.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.9 Establishing the Disability Advice and Response Team (DART) within the Children’s Court of Victoria. DART will provide on-the-spot advice to the court in relation to a young person’s disability and the support they require, with the aim of diverting the young person out of the justice system at the earliest point. An Aboriginal DART worker will be available to the Koori Children’s Court and at Marram-Ngala Ganbu (Koori Family Hearing Day).
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.10 Delivering the Just Voices project which aims to strengthen the capability of frontline justice workforces, including within the adult and youth justice systems, to support people with disability by engaging people with lived experience of the justice system to co-design workforce development initiatives.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.11 Providing the Intermediary Program, which assists adults with cognitive disability and children to communicate their evidence through the criminal justice process. The Intermediary Program helps police, lawyers, and judges to plan their questioning so victims can understand, participate, feel more confident and provide better quality evidence. We will consult with people who use the program to undertake an impact evaluation and ensure their feedback informs future service development.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.12 Developing accessible information for clients in the Forensic Disability Program in formats appropriate to their needs. This will support them to better understand their rights and responsibilities and to participate in decisions related to them including treatment and behaviour support plans.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.5.13 Working with Aboriginal community partners to enhance responses to Aboriginal people with disability under the Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement through developing its next phase.
Status: Still to be progressed
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.14 Embedding cultural safety in all aspects of the Forensic Disability Program's services and promoting opportunities for self-determination for Aboriginal residents. This will include access to support from the Aboriginal liaison officer and exploring options for Aboriginal community-controlled specialist forensic disability accommodation services for adults and young people.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.5.15 Working in partnership with Scope Australia to provide police with the knowledge and skills to improve interactions with people with complex communication needs.
This action has been reviewed and revised to: Working in partnership with a range of Communication Access organisations to provide police with the knowledge and skills to improve interactions with people with complex communication needs.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Victoria Police

3.5.16 Updating and promoting the Voluntary Disclosure Process. This process allows people with disability to give police information about their support needs and how police can best engage with them.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Victoria Police

3.5.17 Establishing a network of police employees with knowledge and understanding of disability to champion good practice and services that respond to the needs of people with disability.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Victoria Police

3.5.18 Working with people with disability to co-design initiatives under the Victoria Police disability action plan.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Victoria Police

3.5.19 Working with victim’s services and the Office of the Public Advocate to increase policy awareness and use of intermediaries and independent third persons.
Status: Completed
Agency responsible: Victoria Police

3.5.20 Support the Children’s Court Clinic to undertake assessments that may identify autistic children and parents and lead to referrals to appropriate support services.
Status: New action
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.21 Ensure that people demonstrating signs of autism in the corrections system, including Community Correctional Services and young people in youth justice, are appropriately identified so that, where required, further functional assessments can be organised and the person engaged with the appropriate disability supports.
Status: New action
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.22 Continuing to drive improved coordination and service integration with disability services to ensure the appropriate supports are in place, facilitate the continuity of services and supports for offenders in corrections and young people in youth justice.
Status: New action
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.23 Continue to ensure the provision of housing information and advice for vulnerable people, including those with autism, transitioning from prison to release in the community.
Status: New action
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.5.24 Identify and support young people with disability in the justice system through early intervention at point of entry to select Children’s Courts, through the newly established Disability Advice and Response Team (DART). This includes a Koori DART worker.
Status: New action
Agency responsible: Department of Justice and Community Safety

3.6.1 Working with people with disability, the disability sector, the NDIA and the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Commission to address barriers to expression of sexuality and gender identity in group homes and other settings.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

3.6.2 Advocating to the Commonwealth Government and the NDIA and working with the disability sector to ensure people with disability can access sexual supports.
Status: On track
Agency responsible: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing