Advocacy, support and therapeutic treatment services (Volume 9)

In this volume, the Royal Commission identified the needs of victim survivors, including having access to advocacy, support and treatment and made recommendations for improving service systems to better respond to these needs.

The Victorian Government continues to deliver integrated and evidence-based advocacy, support and therapeutic treatment services to meet the needs of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, no matter the context of abuse. Work continues to improve how sexual assault service systems respond to the specific needs of individual victims and survivors, including the Aboriginal community.

Work to develop a Victorian Government strategy to prevent and address sexual violence, abuse, and harm continues, including considering recommendations made in the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s (VLRC) report on Improving the Justice System Response to Sexual Offences. The Victorian Government has committed to continue working closely with victim survivors, specialist and community sector services, government departments and agencies, law enforcement, and the courts to ensure that reforms are effective and sustainable, and that lived experience remains at the centre of this work. While the VLRC report did not focus specifically on the experiences of children and young people in the justice system, the strategy will include a focus on the needs of children and young people as a priority cohort.

In 2022–23, treatment service funding was supplemented by a $33.4 million investment over four years, which enables sexual assault and harmful sexual behaviour treatment services to meet increased demand. The investment also provides for additional brokerage funding, technology upgrades for the sexual assault crisis line, the operation of the peak body Sexual Assault Services Victoria, and community education to prevent sexual violence.

Victoria's state-wide sexual assault support services (SASS) provide high-quality, trauma-informed support, counselling and advocacy to victims and survivors of sexual assault, including victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. SASS are available across Victoria and collaborate with other relevant services to support victims and survivors if necessary. For example, SASS may collaborate with:

• specialist family violence services
• legal services, and
• schools (if the victim or survivor is a child).

The Victorian Government also funds Open Place (operated by Relationships Australia Victoria) and Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN) to provide state-wide support, advocacy, and counselling services for pre-1990 care-leavers, also known as the 'Forgotten Australians'. These services are available to people who, as children, were placed into institutional care prior to 1990, including child migrants and members of the Stolen Generation. Services also include records searches, family reunions and brokerage.

The government is working with Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (VACCHOs) to trial five Aboriginal sexual assault healing services. The trial will take place over two years, from 2022–2024, and is intended to provide culturally appropriate services for victim survivors of child sexual abuse (including in institutional settings) and sexual assault. These trial services are informed by the Nargneit Birrang - Aboriginal holistic healing framework for family violence

Family Safety Victoria is also partnering with the VACCHOs to document the service models, support evaluation, build an evidence base and identify measures of success which will inform the design of future service delivery.

In 2022, the Victorian Government funded inclusion and equity roles within the sexual assault services peak body, Sexual Assault Services Victoria, to build the capacity of sexual assault services to respond to people with disability. This includes support to develop Disability Action Plans.

The Victorian Government continues to fund the South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault to deliver Making Rights Reality, an enhanced support and advocacy program for survivors of sexual assault (including institutional child sexual abuse) who have a cognitive impairment or communication difficulty.

The government continues its efforts to identify and update policy frameworks or strategies as part of its commitment to adopting a trauma-informed approach in the delivery of its health and human services.

Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework

As part of the implementation of the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Management Framework (MARAM), the Victorian Government is training professionals across health, child and family services, education, justice and specialist family violence services to assess and manage risk in a trauma-informed way.

In 2021–22, the Victorian Government released the perpetrator-focused MARAM Practice Guides. It is also developing child-focused MARAM Practice Guides. These will provide a trauma-informed and age and developmental stage appropriate way to support children experiencing violence or using behaviours of concern at home and in dating relationships.

Strong carers, stronger children

Strong carers, stronger children is Victoria's strategic framework to guide and inform the direction of home-based care to improve the caring experience of Victoria’s kinship, foster and permanent carers and to support them to provide nurturing and therapeutic care. The 12-month Action Plan 2021–22 includes six goals and a range of actions to prepare and support carers in their role.

SAFER

In November 2021, the Victorian Government launched a new risk assessment framework for child protection practitioners in Victoria called the SAFER children framework (SAFER). SAFER brings together new and existing aspects of child protection practice and focuses on a guided professional judgement model of risk assessment and practice in Victoria.

SAFER was co-designed by the Office of Professional Practice and child protection practitioners across Victoria. At the centre of the framework are five practice activities of risk assessment, including:

1. S - Seek, share, sort and store information and evidence
2. A - Analyse information and evidence to determine the risk assessment
3. F - Formulate a case plan
4. E - Enact the case plan
5. R - Review the risk assessment.

These activities reflect contemporary thinking and practice to support child protection practitioners in identifying, assessing, and managing risks to children.

The MARAM-aligned SAFER framework was also designed to improve the quality of risk assessments and the articulation of those assessments within the child protection program, with children and their families, and other professionals.

To support the overall SAFER risk assessment, the MARAM assessment was built into the Client Relationship Information System which is used by child protection practitioners. This supports greater visibility of intersecting risk and a consistent response to family violence risk, including through increased information sharing and collaboration between services.

The Victorian Government will continue to embed SAFER in practice across the child protection workforce in 2022–23. This includes changes to better align SAFER with MARAM, such as including the new perpetrator-focused guidance.

A new Framework for trauma-informed practice for child and family services was published and distributed in February 2023 to the child and family services sector and family violence services. This framework will support delivery of trauma-informed practice in child and family services, including family violence services, working with children and young people, individuals and families. The framework can also be used to inform practice across all health and human services.

National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse

The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse (National Centre) was launched in October 2021 and its functions include:

• commissioning research
• designing and delivering training to improve responses to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, and prevent it from occurring in the first place
• evaluating interventions and therapeutic programs, and
• raising community awareness.

The National Centre is consulting with the Victorian Government, along with other jurisdictions, in the development of its first five-year strategy (2023–2027) and establishment of survivor-led colleges which will give voice to the experiences of survivors of all ages, life stages and communities and inform the work of the National Centre. More information on the National Centre can also be found in the Australian Government’s Annual Progress Report 2022