This includes:
- addressing the compounding effects of abuse and violence
- improving support and recovery for victim survivors
- engaging with perpetrators of violence to help them to change their behaviour
- ensuring the wellbeing of children and young people in care.
Objective 2 objective indicators
To succeed, we will:
- reduce abuse and neglect of children and young people
- increase safe, respectful family relationships
- improve development and wellbeing for children and young people
- increase the stability of care services placements
- increase connections to culture, family and kinship systems for Aboriginal families including for Aboriginal children in care
- reduce over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in care services
- reduce the incidence and impact of family violence, including over-represented cohorts of women and children
- increase safety for victim survivors of family violence.
Objective 2 initiatives
To meet this objective, we will:
- implement the Supporting Stable and Strong Families scheme, a new legislative obligation that requires all Victorian Government Ministers to table their first plans outlining practical actions to improve outcomes for children and young people under child protection orders and their families, and recent care leavers, by September 2027.
- lead and coordinate implementation of the Until every Victorian is safe: Third rolling action plan to end family and sexual violence 2025 to 2027 under Ending Family Violence: Victoria's 10-year plan for change
- build support for the next stage of primary prevention of family and gendered violence in Victoria, including by supporting Respect Victoria to implement the Respect Ballarat initiative and providing longer-term funding to core prevention activities
- advance statewide family violence risk assessment and information sharing by revising the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) framework and Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) guidelines to ensure they continue to reflect evidence-based best practice and progress statewide implementation
- develop a family violence crisis and emergency accommodation strategy with the specialist family violence sector
- implement the Sexually Abusive Behaviour Treatment Service. This initiative supports children and young people (under the age of 18 years) displaying or using harmful sexual behaviour.
- strengthen safety and support for children and young people experiencing family violence through direct practice and risk assessment, supported by the MARAM practice guides and tools for working with children and young people
- understand and demonstrate the impact of our work to prevent and respond to family violence by strengthening implementation of the Family violence outcomes framework.
- continue to modernise the Family Services platform to provide a more sustainable, evidence-based and targeted system of support across Connecting, Strengthening and Restoring Families
- continue therapeutic supports for children and young people in residential care homes and modernise home-based care, including introducing therapeutic foster care and enhanced supports for carers
- continue to deliver tailored supports to young people transitioning from care services, including through Better Futures, Home Stretch and Housing First. This work contributes and supports care leavers which is a focus of Supporting Stable and Strong Families.
- deliver Victorian Redress for Historical Institutional Abuse to provide redress and formal acknowledgment of the harm and lifelong impacts of abuse in institutional care in Victoria
- improve service delivery and practice by continuing to expand and embed evidence-based approaches across programs that support children, young people and families
- improve our use of insights from people with lived and living experience including from the Minister for Children’s Youth Advisory Group.