Across Aotearoa New Zealand, dedicated teams of Government agencies, NGOs, iwi and community organisations work together to deliver coordinated frontline services and support for people experiencing family violence.
These teams (known as multi-agency responses) share information, assess risk, develop safety plans and risk management plans, ensuring workers provide appropriate support services. Using insight from their respective organisations, people working collectively can get a better understanding of what is happening for families and offer support to break the cycle of family violence.
There are strong examples of good practice in some regions, but multi-agency responses operate differently in each locality, meaning differing levels of service and inconsistent approaches to risk management. Keeping People Safe will support regions and localities to strengthen their governance, leadership and ways of working to deliver better responses to family violence.
How multi-agency responses are being strengthened:
Keeping People Safe will strengthen the core components of effective multi-agency responses and deliver a modern system for safe information sharing and collaborative case management. This will equip people with the tools, processes and knowledge to help people get to safety.
Government agencies will improve how they work together and with communities to better support families at high-risk of violence and those with complex needs - especially children and young people, and those at greatest risk of serious injury and death.
The target operating model (TOM) sets out how we will achieve our desired state.
It describes how multi-agency responses will operate in the future, with six critical practice steps.
The practice steps are not a linear process; they involve continuous cycles of risk assessment, understanding needs, coordinated actions, and evaluating outcomes to make informed decisions so people, families and whānau can thrive.
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To ensure people get the right help at the right time, effective multi-agency responses need six core components:
Effective governance and leadership
Flexible, targeted, and integrated investment
Innovation and continuous improvement
Child and victim-survivor centred responses
Safe and effective responses to risk and need
Collaborative ways of working.
The core components are evidence-based, backed by research and experts in the field, and lessons good practice from the multi-agency responses we’ve worked with to develop System Improvement Plans.
A hub and spoke model shows how local, regional and national teams will work together to bring the TOM to life.
The agreed structure sets out roles and responsibilities at the national, regional, and local levels.
Bringing the TOM to life
The key pieces of work informing how multi-agency responses will be improved, include: :
System Improvement Planning
We have partnered with 12 localities to strengthen their multi-agency response to family violence by developing System Improvement Plans. These plans identify opportunities for improvement and what is required to meet the target operating model for effective multi-agency responses.
Six of these plans have been completed, with six more on track for completion by the end of 2025.
Specialist Outreach
Specialist outreach models are being implemented in Auckland City and Rotorua to provide coordinated, collaborative responses to families at high risk of violence. Specialist outreach provides intensive and proactive specialist support for victim-survivors and whānau.
High-Risk Protocol
The high-risk protocol provides guidance for workers to increase consistency in statutory responses to people at the highest risk of severe violence.
It will inform a tiered approach to family violence and was developed through engagement with family violence specialists. It is evidence-based and draws from the Risk and Safety Practice Framework (RSPF).
The Prototype is expected to be published in December.
The Centre is increasing workforce capability to equip people with the knowledge and skills to recognise and respond to family violence and sexual violence through:
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