Working together to support victim-survivors of domestic and family violence
Best practice in integrated service delivery is when multiple organisations work together to help victim-survivors access holistic support and services in a more effective and comprehensive manner.
Working in this way delivers significantly better outcomes for victim-survivors, efficiencies for service delivery organisations, and benefits and savings throughout the entire system.
Many organisations work, or aspire to work, in an integrated way, but it can be difficult to implement and sustain this approach in practice and there are system level barriers given the siloed and highly fragmented nature of services and funding sources. It is an established way of working that the specialist family violence sector wants to see grow and develop.
In 2020 and 2021, Social Ventures Australia, funded by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, led a collaborative project to capture and illustrate best practice integrated service delivery.
This work was a collaboration between Social Ventures Australia, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as part of its Next Chapter program, and social sector organisations working to improve outcomes for victim-survivors including McAuley Community Services for Women, WEstjustice, EDVOS, Muslim Women Australia’s Linking Hearts program, Domestic Violence Victoria, Homelessness NSW and InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence.
The aim of the project was to build knowledge, resources and practical tools for organisations working at the intersection of domestic and family violence and other key specialist services required by victim-survivors (e.g. legal assistance, housing, counselling and primary care) to help organisations increase the level of integration of their services.
The project involved case studies, interviews, and reviewing selected literature to outline the benefits of integrated service delivery and provide practical insights and learnings from organisations that are working together to improve outcomes for victim-survivors of domestic and family violence.
The learnings and recommendations from the collaboration include:
An overview for social sector organisations on integrated service delivery
This document summarises the benefits of integrated service delivery and provides practical insights and learnings from organisations that are working together in this way. It is intended for use by leaders in service delivery organisations who are considering integrated practice.
A model describing how organisations can work together to support victim-survivors of family violence
This document synthesises the experience of three organisations working in an integrated way, other input from sector stakeholders, and the recent literature to provide practical insights on how to implement and operate integrated service delivery models, and the outcomes and benefits that they provide.
Information for Government and funding partners on how to support integrated service delivery
This document provides an overview of the key features of integrated service delivery for use when meeting with government representatives, and potentially other funding partners. It also identifies four key areas for action where changes to government funding and system management can better enable integrated practice. Content in this document can be used for the purposes of advocacy and funding requests.
Resources to support integrated service delivery
The documents listed in the table below are provided by the three case study organisations (McAuley Community Services for Women, EDVOS and Linking Hearts) as examples of templates and resources to support integrated service delivery. Service delivery providers may wish to adopt and adapt these resources to support integrated service delivery in their organisation. These resources have been generously shared by organisations to assist other service delivery providers in their implementation of integrated service delivery. Please adopt and adapt them as you see fit.
| Authoring organisation | Resource name | Description | Related section of the integrated model |
| EDVOS | An example case management procedure | EDVOS’ case management procedure outlining how holistic support is provided to victim-survivors. | 3.1 Elements of holistic support |
| VicHealth | Partnerships Analysis Tool Checklist | A resource for organisations entering into or working in a partnership to assess, monitor and maximise its ongoing effectiveness (recommended and used by McAuley). | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (organisational readiness) |
| EDVOS | Cost categories for integrated service delivery | Potential cost categories associated with integrated service delivery – based on examples provided by EDVOS. | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (costs) |
| McAuley | Example Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between McAuley and WEstjustice | The Memorandum of Understanding between McAuley and WEstjustice which describes their integrated service delivery partnership. | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (partnership goals and commitments) |
| EDVOS | Template Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) | A template used by EDVOS to create a Memorandum of Understanding with their partner organisations. | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (partnership goals and commitments) |
| McAuley | Example position description for a manager of integrated service delivery | Position description for the Manager Community Services (Skills, Employment and Health) role — a manager role responsible for front-line service provision of McAuley’s integrated and connected services for women and children. | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (partnership governance and management) |
| Victorian Government | Example of a common protocol from Victoria: Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework | The Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework ensures Victorian services are effectively identifying, assessing and managing family violence risk (recommended and used by EDVOS). | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (operational elements of the partnership) |
| EDVOS | Example client outcomes survey | EDVOS’ Client Service Outcome Feedback Survey, designed following the Victorian Family Violence Outcome Framework (VFVOF). | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (operational elements of the partnership) |
| Social Ventures Australia & WEstjustice | Example monitoring and evaluation framework for McAuley and WEstjustice | A monitoring and evaluation framework for WEstjustice’s Transforming Financial Security partnership with McAuley including program logic, evaluation questions, data collection plan, data collection tools and data analysis approach. | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (operational elements of the partnership) |
| Social Ventures Australia Consulting | Information on outcomes management | Summary information on developing an outcomes management process | 3.2 Partnership infrastructure (operational elements of the partnership) |
| McAuley | McAuley’s service offering | A diagram that provides an overview of McAuley’s service offering. | 4.1 Case study on McAuley |
