Interagency collaboration
Dealing with domestic violence (like dealing with child protection) is a responsibility of the whole community and one shared by government and non-government agencies.
No single agency has all the knowledge, skills or authority to safeguard victims of domestic violence and prosecute alleged offenders.
Domestic violence work requires the best expertise and resources available and this is only achieved by collaboration and coordination.
These Interagency Guidelines are one strategy for improving cooperation, coordination and collaboration across agencies in responding to domestic violence. Other strategies involve legislation, policy, organisational structures and training.
As a basis for interagency domestic violence work, it is expected that practitioners and agencies will share the following:
- An understanding of the aims of intervention and of what is good practice
- An appreciation of and respect for different roles and different contributions of practitioners and agencies
- A commitment to partnership between the government and non-government sectors in achieving good practice responses
- An understanding of the context in which agencies work and acknowledgment of their constraints
- Preference for coordinated effort rather than unilateral action by a single agency or uncoordinated action by a number of agencies
- A willingness to learn from each other
- A belief in accountability to clients, to each other and to the community (recognising that in some instances clients will include offenders).
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Forums and meetings
The principal forums for meetings and interagency collaboration are:
- NSW Strategy to reduce Violence Against Women - State Management Group
- Apprehended Violence Legal Issues Coordinating Committee (AVLICC)
- Violence Against Women Regional Reference Groups (RFG)
- Local Domestic Violence Committees
- Local Court User Forums
- Victims of Crime Bureau Interagency Committee.
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