This project will transform the Victorian specialist family violence sector’s ability to create, access and use data to inform system planning, service design and sector advocacy. This is a multi-year project comprised of three phases:
Phase One: 12 months. The establishment of a FV data portal within the Peak, bringing together publicly available data sets with new data sets generated through information sharing agreements within the Peak’s membership (SFVSs across the State).
Phase Two: 6 months. The development of a SFVSs Client Outcomes Framework, to generate new evidence that centers the lived experience of victim survivors and can measure the social impact of SFVS provision.
Phase Three: 18 months. The implementation and evaluation of the data platform and client outcomes framework and building sector capacity to access and utilise data in decision making, service design and advocacy.
The absence of a “whole picture” of family violence incidents rates and systems responses has been well established for some time and was highlighted in the 2016 Royal Commission into Family Violence. A comprehensive understanding of family violence rates and the system’s ability to respond to family violence remains elusive and challenging. The absence of comprehensive and connected data to support decision making and understanding the full level of risk within the community results in limited visibility into the effectiveness of interventions and investment – this is unacceptable.
This project will create and implement a FV data platform that can create a real time “whole picture” of FV demand and service responsiveness across Victoria, supported by a Specialist Family Violence Services (SFVSs) Client Outcome Framework that can generate evidence about the social impact of SFVSs. The advantages of improved data collection, analysis and outcomes measurement are well established: better data leads to speedier and more accurate assessment and management of risks, timely and appropriate support, and continuous systems improvement. The establishment of a FV data platform and SFVSs Client Outcomes Framework within the sector peak body will embed evidence-informed practice development, service design and service delivery and promote continuous improvement and innovation within the SFVSs. This will also support the sector into the future as the state government transitions to outcomes-based models of funding, as indicated in the Ending Family Violence 10 Year Plan, released in 2016.
The final phase of the project is designed to implement the data portal and outcomes measurement framework, and evaluate it's efficacy. The outcomes of this evaluation and the data collected through this project will be made publicly available on our website, and actively promoted to our membership, the specialist FV services for victim survivors in Victoria.
It’s not always easy to convince someone a need exists, if they don’t have that need themselves.
Also known as Australian Women Donors Network (ABN: 28 141 197 471), Australians Investing in Women is a registered charity endorsed by the Australian Tax Office as a deductible gift recipient (DGR1) under a special listing, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.