SIMON Corbell says the ACT Government has accepted as a whole the findings of three recent reports on the impact of family violence on the ACT community.

“The government’s response to the Glanfield Inquiry, the Death Review and the Gap Analysis, which were released earlier this year, formalised the government’s systemic approach to tackling family and domestic violence in the community,” Simon said.

“The ACT Government has already begun to implement a wide range of measures backed by $21.4m in funding in the 2016-17 ACT Budget, which will have a significant impact on community attitudes, integration of service responses and law enforcement approaches to family violence in the community.

“Measures announced in the 2016-17 ACT Budget will be primarily supported by an annual Safer Families Levy of $30 per household. The response highlights four key priority actions for the ACT Government:

• appointing the first, full-time Coordinator-General for Family Safety to lead change and provide accountability across the service system;
• implementing a collaborative and integrated approach to services through a dedicated Family Safety Hub;
• authorising information sharing and collaborative practices via a new legislative framework; and
• developing a skilled and educated workforce, especially frontline staff, responding to the needs of adults and children experiencing family violence.

“The response also makes 37 individual commitments in key areas of leadership and cultural change, prevention and early intervention, information sharing, collaboration and integration and transparency and accountability.

“Family violence is a complex and challenging area of law, policy and service delivery.

“A fundamental part of the ACT Government’s response is working in partnership with non-government agencies and the community to address family violence.

“As a government we acknowledge the significant effort of people working in the family violence and child protection service sector every day. Now is the time to build on that commitment with an integrated, collaborative response to keeping families in the ACT safe.

“Work has already begun to deliver on the recruitment of a full time Coordinator-General to lead the response. In the interim, Mr David Matthews will act as the Coordinator-General for Domestic and Family Violence.

“Mr Matthews has been part of the executive team at Community Services Directorate for a number of years, and has worked across government on initiatives such as the Better Services agenda for human services and the Public Housing Renewal program.

“A key priority for the Coordinator-General is to work with service providers and consumers to strengthen collaboration and integration through a dedicated Family Safety Hub. Design work on the Hub will begin in July.

“The response supports the Second Implementation Plan for the ACT Prevention of Violence against Women and Children Strategy 2011-2017 which articulates the ACT Government’s commitment to leadership and cultural change.”

The government’s response is to the following three reports:

• Report of the Inquiry: Review into the system level responses to family violence in the ACT by Laurie Glanfield AM;
• Review of Domestic and Family Violence Deaths in the ACT by the Domestic Violence Prevention Council; and
• Domestic Violence Service System Gap Analysis Project Final Report by the Community Services Directorate.

The government’s response and the three reports are available at cmd.act.gov.au