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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-23 Daily Xml
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FAMILY SAFETY FRAMEWORK

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:01): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about the Family Safety Framework.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: I believe that the minister has spoken in this chamber before about the importance of collaboration and information sharing with reference to the Family Safety Framework. Will the minister provide the chamber with an update on this important initiative?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. Very briefly, I would like to inform the chamber that as from July the Family Safety Framework will enter its third phase and cover the entire metropolitan area, and a third country site will commence in Mount Gambier.

Members may recall that the Family Safety Framework seeks to ensure that services to families most at risk of violence are dealt with in a more structured and systematic way through agencies sharing information about high-risk families and supporting these families as they navigate through those services and systems.

The Family Safety Framework includes family safety meetings. These meetings are held at the local level and are focused on individual high-risk cases. The framework also focuses on a well-regarded common risk assessment, which ensures consistency in the assessment of cases. An evaluation of the Family Safety Framework at the initial three sites was conducted by the Office of Crime Statistics and Research within the AG's Department, and that was a very positive outcome, showing some very positive results.

Some of the agencies involved in the framework are: the Department for Families and Communities, the AG's of course, health, Correctional Services, education and children's services, the non-government domestic violence services, and obviously the police. In 2011 the administrative support for these meetings is being provided by the Victim Support Service, and we are very grateful for the support and commitment that they have shown to this initiative.

The meetings can achieve a variety of different outcomes. For example, actions that can arise from the meetings include domestic violence restraining orders, joint visits between SAPOL and DV services to engage with the victim, Families SA liaison with schools (children's safety in the continuity of the schooling is really important), monitoring of bail conditions, flagging of various systems as high-risk to prompt rapid responses, housing, financial assistance, security systems, etc.; the list is quite long.

Initially trialled at Holden Hill, Noarlunga and Port Augusta, policing boundaries in 2007, the framework in 2011 will cover the entire metropolitan area, with meetings held in Holden Hill, Noarlunga, Elizabeth and Port Adelaide. I am very pleased to advise the chamber that the Office for Women has already begun training with the relevant agencies, and the framework, as I said, operates in country areas, Port Augusta and Port Pirie. The new location of the Mount Gambier framework will commence training with the Office for Women in June this year. There will be a DVD, which the Office for Women has produced with SAPOL, to assist in the training, and that will be rolled out as well.

As I mentioned earlier, I am very pleased to advise members that the community organisation the Victim Support Service has come on board to administer support for the family safety meetings across all regions. The service is well placed to be involved in the family safety meetings. They are also funded by DFC to deliver the new domestic violence safety packages, which I have spoken about in this place before, and I know that you, Mr President, would not want me to repeat those. The service understands the complex nature of domestic violence and has already been proved to be a very valuable partner in this important work.

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