Transcript MOU with Police

BACKGROUND
• NSW (1983) & Victoria (1987) domestic
violence legislation
• By 1987 only 3.2% of orders made in
NSW excluded the offender from the
family home
• 1990’s survey of magistrates
• 1996 Womens Safety Australia survey
• 1997 WESNET policy
BACKGROUND 2
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Pilots in Port Lincoln and EDVOS
Integrated model in ACT
Robyn Edwards research
2004: DOCS funds 2 NSW Pilots
Test conditions for women and children to stay
home safely
• Two year pilots
• 2007 NSW Labour Government commitment
What happens at SHLV
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Referral (can be self referral)
Doesn’t need an exclusion order/AVO
Risk assessment
Security audit of house
Safety plan developed with client
Security installed within 24-48 hours
Can stay with family/friends/refuge while
upgrade occurs
• Ongoing support: initially intense/reduces
Community Campaign
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Positive message
Need support of family/friends/work colleagues
Need to respond to needs of excluded partner
Media campaign
Mail information card to all households
Cinema/TV/Radio
Information Forum
DEMOGRAPHICS
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May 2005-January 2007
37 women and 63 children
37% with teenager or grown-up children
68% were in 30s and 40s.
Demographics 2
• 75% of clients were employed (despite only
51.6% of BVS working age population being in
workforce)
• Over one third of referrals were self, with only 6
coming from police
• Accommodation was evenly distributed between
private rental, public housing and home
ownership.
• 15 cases remained open.
• Access to program: Indigenous families, rural
isolation?
Eastern Sydney Demographics
In 1st 12 months of operation:
• 107 referrals of women seeking information and
support
• 38 referrals for women wishing to remain in their own
homes;
• 28 women became long term clients of the service,
• Of the other 10 women, 7 chose to return to their
relationships and 3 were unsuccessful in gaining an
AVO to exclude their partner from the home.
• Support periods have ranged from 2 to 12 months
SHLV Eastern Sydney
Eastern Sydney Demographics
Of 28 case managed clients in 2006,
• Their average age was 40, ranging from 22 to 56
• 13 living were in public housing, 8 in private tenancies
and 7 in privately owned homes
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14 were employed either full or part time
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3 are indigenous women
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9 are women from CALD communities
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5 are women living with disabilities
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3 were using alcohol or other drugs
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10 have previously stayed in SAAP accommodation
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15 have previously used a domestic violence support
service.
SHLV Eastern Sydney
MOU with Police
A non negotiable essential
Specifies role and responsibilities
of both agencies
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How, who and what
Communication:
Information sharing
Data
Confidentiality
Complaints and disputes
Monitoring of MOU (managers, crime
coordinator, VAW specialist)
3 SIMPLE STEPS FOR
ATTENDING POLICE
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Inform women about the SHLV option (provide card)
Police encouraged to seek exclusion (TIO)
Keep the woman informed after event
Consent and Referral to SHLV
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SOPS
Proactive policing: repeat offenders monitored
COPS entry (warning on location)
Locations discussed at Tasking and Deployment
How to get a MOU
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Negotiate
What’s in it for the police
Leadership
Training
Monitoring
OTHER MOUS
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HOUSING (upgrades, waiving debt)
COMMUNITY TENANCY
DOCS (referral)
COURT ASSISTANCE
COURTS (access to information/referral)
Eastern Sydney MOU with Police
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Police provide victims of DV with information card
and ask consent to make a referral to SHLV
SHLV makes preliminary assessment, provides
information and referrals
Where women wish to remain in their homes they
become long term case managed clients of SHLV
Police are encouraged to apply for TIOs with
exclusion conditions.
DVLOs update officers on victim location and other
issues
SHLV provides police with training
57% of clients have been referred by police under the
MOU
SHLV Eastern Sydney
Risk Assessment
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Need for risk assessment that focused on women
who were staying in their homes
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Different assumptions
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Developed with assistance from the Australian DV
Clearinghouse
SHLV Eastern Sydney
Risk Assessment Issues
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Which kind of assessment is appropriate?
When do we assess risk?
What happens if we assess the risk as high?
Women’s own assessments of risk?
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How does risk assessment inform our actions and
decisions?
SHLV Eastern Sydney
Risk Assessment
Risk of lethal violence
• Decision Making
Other risks
• Case Planning
• History of abuse in the
relationship
• Potential for serious
injury or death
• Escalation
• Safety of remaining in
the home
• Perpetrator history ,
D&A use, MH,
Criminality
• Homicide or suicide
threats
• Risk of harm to children
• Perpetrator
characteristics and
behaviour,
• Financial issues
• Tenancy and
housing
• Support needs
• Legal issues and
family law
• Health and mental
health
• Children support
needs
Safety Planning
• Security upgrade
• Safety strategies
• Emergency plan
• Safety in the
home, at work, in
public, with
children.
• Opportunities for
abusive contact
SHLV Eastern Sydney
Safety Planning
Key Questions
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Are the children at risk?
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To stay or flee?
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Is she able to contact police at all times?
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Is she able to wait safely while waiting for a police
response? (Issues for rural women)
Key Strategies
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Security upgrades
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Safe room strategy
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Emergency planning
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Informing police of the safety plan
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Ensure safety plan addresses the needs of the
children, and is age appropriate.
SHLV Eastern Sydney
Safety Planning Strategies
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Vitalcall alarms, attached to landline telephone in the
client’s home. The client wears a pendant with an
alarm button, and when activated the automatic
dialling unit contacts a call centre, who check the
response required and call the police.
Mobile phones,
Replacement locks,
Screen doors, where permissible by fire codes
Other hardware, including security chains,
peepholes, window locks.
High volume personal alarms, for attracting attention
in the event of an emergency in public.
SHLV Eastern Sydney
Worker safety
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Risk assessment is completed before any home visit
is undertaken
Home visits are conducted by two staff, or with Police
Before all visits, workers phone the client to ensure
that the abusive person is not present
Mobile phones
Vehicles
Initial phone contacts
Location of the offices
SHLV Eastern Sydney
WORK and HOME
• When you are employed, especially if you
have children, routine is everything. If I
went into the refuge, I would lose my
routine and would have to give up my job,
and I didn’t want to give up my job.
• (Bega ex-client, in conversation with
author 12/12/06)
EXCLUDED PARTNERS
• Accommodation
• Counselling
• Finances
• Only a tenth of the funding allocated by
Safe At Home for accommodation
brokerage for removed offenders has been
used.
SUSTAINABILITY
• Victims Compensation systems could be more
aggressively targeted to support housing
sustainability.
• Family Law settlements could be more
rigorously challenged: the WA Women’s Legal
Referral Service links women to pro bono
lawyers and financial advisers to help them get a
fair financial settlement.
• A more systematic provision of no interest loans
could be negotiated with the banks.
EVALUATION
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Chose action research
3 stages
Client demographics
Client Outcomes: four possibilities
Data from Police
Court Data: 75% reduction in final orders
FUTURE
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What sort of program?
Outreach gap-service specifications
Train mainstream domestic violence agencies?
Part of a complimentary program?
Central support unit to implement specialist
areas and NSW advisory committee
• Statewide integration
• Role of VAW
• SOPS and Generic MOU
COMMUNITY ATTITUDES
• If a random sample of 2000 Victorians is a fair
indicator of Australian attitudes, then the
Australian community now expects that it is the
physically violent partner who should be made to
leave the family home. (VicHealth, 2006: 91% of
respondents).
• This is excellent progress from the 1990’s,
when, perhaps with the exception of the ACT,
Australians generally, and the legal and support
system particularly, expected the victims to
leave.