Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697632110599.pdf (Australia)
Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence To: Email: From: Contact: Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs House of Representatives family.violence.reps@aph.gov.au Barnardos Australia Dr Robert Urquhart Head of Knowledge, Outcomes and Research Subject Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence Date submitted: 21 August 2020 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 222 Barnardos Australia (Barnardos) thanks the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs for the opportunity to provide a submission to its Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence.
Background: Barnardos knowledge of this area Barnardos is a not for profit children’s social care organisation, providing family support and out-of-home care (OOHC) to approximately 15,000 children and their families in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and New South Wales (NSW) each year.

In our family support work, we aim to reach vulnerable children at risk of separation from their families, and homelessness is a strong feature of this work.
For close to 100 years, we have been working together with children, young people and families to break the cycle of disadvantage, creating safe, nurturing and stable homes, connected to family and community.

Barnardos’ suite of Safety & Prevention programs includes tailored support for children and their families who are impacted by family, domestic and sexual violence.

Appendix A provides a summary of our domestic and family violence safety and prevention work with children, young people and families.
Our approach is child-centred, multifaceted and evidence-based.

Where domestic and family violence is present, we utilise the Safe & Together Model, an internationally recognised suite of tools and interventions designed to help practitioners working with vulnerable children become domestic violence informed.
Three key principles guide the support we provide to children, young people and families experiencing domestic and family violence by: • keeping the child central • partnering with the non-offending parent, and • working with the whole family, including men who use violence.

In our experience, it is the impact of intergenerational and recurring experiences of trauma coupled with the effects of entrenched social and economic disadvantage, which is the reason families need our services.
Specifically, domestic and family violence is a crucial reason for referral for families entering our services.

In 2019-20 about 19% or one in five of our referrals for children, young people and families to Barnardos Children Family Centres was for support directly related to domestic and family violence.1 We note the very high level of vulnerability of the children and families who use our safety and prevention services.
For example: • In metropolitan Sydney, 28% of our referrals for families to homelessness programs are due to domestic violence.2 1 MyStory Referral Analysis Report for NSW (Barnardos Agency) and ACT Together Safety and Prevention programs, 2019-2020.

2 MyStory Referral Analysis Report.
Barnardos Australia Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence - Submission 2 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 222 • • In rural NSW, domestic and family violence continues to be the number one referral reason to Barnardos homelessness services, mostly for women with children.3 In Penrith, 90% of referrals of families to our intensive family preservation program (for families who have children at risk of significant harm and are at risk of placement in out-of- home-care) have domestic and family violence identified as one of the main reasons for referral.4 The way that health, housing, access to services, including legal services, and women’s economic independence impact on the ability of women to escape domestic violence (Terms of Reference d) The case studies in Appendix B demonstrate five overarching themes from our practice experience: • The need for removing multiple barriers to create an effective safety net around families (see Case B.1 “Justine”, p. 8) • How social isolation forms a barrier to services and support (see Case B.2 “Jessica” p. 10) • How perpetrators interfere with service access and support (see Case B.3 “Sophie” p. 11) • The intersection between domestic violence and mental health and substance use (see Case B.4 “Melissa” p. 12) • Lack of access to services and support for women attempting to escape domestic violence in rural and remote areas (see Case B.5 “Michelle”, p. 14) In Barnardos experience, women’s ability to seek support and advice from health, housing and legal services while remaining in a domestically violent household are highly constrained.
Women who are experiencing violent physical, emotional and sexual abuse feel disempowered to seek support or to find out what support is available.

Even where they are able to find information about services, women and families often find they may not fit into the specific criteria for service provision.

For example, Barnardos Auburn Children Family Centre intensive family preservation program worked with a mother, her husband and three teenage boys aged between 9-16 years of age.
There was significant domestic abuse occurring in the household with the father physically abusing both the 16 year-old son and mother.

We note that: • The mother was unable to seek housing support in refuge accommodation due to her sons being too old and male, as advised by housing services.

• The mother was led to believe by the father, that should she leave she would not get custody of the children as he was the father and would not be able to access financial support and would be left homeless.
The mother felt disempowered and was left without any choice but to remain in the household.

• The 16 year currently we deliver this service without external funding -old son, disclosed suicidal ideations to Barnardos workers due to the violence.

The young person was referred 3 MyStory Referral Analysis Report.

4 MyStory Referral Analysis Report.


Barnardos Australia Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence - Submission 3 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 222 to adolescent mental health services, who advised they were unable to assist due to the perpetrator still living in the household.

• The mother was referred to a women’s domestic violence counselling service however the service was at capacity and unable to provide support.
In addition, the mother was unable to leave her home at times making it difficult for referrals to be made to support services.

• The experience of this family highlights the importance of service providers being flexible in service delivery and the importance of empowering women with the correct information regarding services available, entitlements and rights.
The views and experiences of frontline services, advocacy groups and others throughout this unprecedented time (Terms of Reference j) Barnardos notes that working with families who are experiencing family and domestic violence has many challenges.

The recent COVID pandemic has added further complexities to what is already a challenging domain for frontline services who are trying to bring about change.
During the height of the COVID pandemic many family support services in NSW completely ceased home visiting and face to face contact, further isolating women and children who are experiencing domestic violence.

We note that the impact of the COVID pandemic on service delivery has included: • Domestic violence services only operating telephone service provision.

This has prevented women accessing drop-in services and face-to-face supports.
• Counselling services delivered by telehealth - we are aware of women cancelling counselling with the perpetrator being in the home during scheduled calls.

• Telephone services rely on victims being able to access a phone – we know for many victims this is something that a perpetrator often restricts.

• Anecdotally in our frontline services we have seen an increase in physical violence towards children during COVID-19.
To maintain essential services to vulnerable children, young people and families, to help maintain the visibility of children who have been traumatised by family and domestic violence, and offer support to their parents/carers who were otherwise increasingly isolated, Barnardos Children Family Centres were able to continue to deliver all funded client services via service delivery adaptions which included: • Essential service delivery via face-to-face contact including continued home visiting with social distancing (e.g.
meeting on the verandah or in the garden).

• Family time via digital platforms to build strong relationships for families working towards restoration.

• Essential packs for families including food hampers and children’s activities where families were struggling to visit local shops and as another means to maintain connections with families.
Barnardos Australia Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence - Submission 4 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 222 • Support for education to maintain children’s connections with their school community, particularly in rural and remote areas where technology is often unreliable or non-existent.

• Online evidence-based parenting groups.


• IT and digital support, including access to additional data and in some cases devices to ensure that safety planning with families could be undertaken where there were identified risks of abuse.

For example, the Barnardos Family Services team on the South Coast has always been in a unique position of assisting women and children who are experiencing family and domestic violence, as the program is not specifically identified as a domestic violence service.
Perpetrators rarely view workers as a threat to dismantling their power and the coercive control that they have established over their partner.

Perpetrators will often allow their partners to access the service, allowing the program to engage meaningfully with survivors, to effect real change and build safety for themselves and their children.
During the pandemic, Barnardos Substance Use in Pregnancy and Parenting Service (SUPPS) workers have continued to think creatively and adapt existing service delivery models to ensure families-maintained engagement and connection to services and reduces increasing isolation.

Front-line workers observed perpetrators to use the pandemic to further isolate women from family, social networks, service supports and their local community.
SUPPS workers continued face to face contact throughout the pandemic and at the height of the lockdown, adapted visits to ensure social distancing was maintained by meeting with families outside or speaking to families through their front window.

With the easing of restrictions, SUPPS workers are continuing to visit families in their homes with COVID safe practices in place.

From a SUPPS program perspective, the demand for family support through referral pathways increased during the COVID pandemic.
SUPPS holds a waitlist of complex and high-risk referrals.

We know that during pregnancy, violence often increases and that this can be an indicator of risk of mortality as a result of violence for women and children.

It is therefore imperative that women and children continue to engage during this pandemic.

As a service, cross-agency communication has been imperative to maintaining engagement and safety for families.
During the height of this pandemic, women and children are often isolated with the perpetrator twenty-four hours a day, increasing the risk of violence, reducing disclosure opportunities, therefore communication to assess risk is extremely challenging.

During any engagement, whether face to face or via phone, frontline workers are mindful that perpetrators would have more opportunity to be listening and monitoring their partners phones and conversations.
Front line workers continue to liaise with agencies such as Health, Police and the NSW Department of Communities and Justice to ensure women and children remain visible and supported during the height of the pandemic.

In addition, the SUPPS program has adapted the Learn to Live Again Women’s Domestic Violence program (L2LA), from a face to face to group program to a virtual online group model.

L2LA has run in the Illawarra and South Coast region since 2016.
The five-week virtual group program is aimed to provide women with support to maintain their emotional well-being, as well as community connection during the current pandemic.

By doing so, the group aimed to reduce isolation and provide women with tools to reduce stressors which may Barnardos Australia Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence - Submission 5 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 222 be impacting on their parenting.
This group ran twice throughout the height of the COVID pandemic, with two separate groups of five women connected on a group phone call once a week for five weeks.

In addition to the virtual group each week and following each session, each woman received a pre and post group phone call.

The program was extremely successful in achieving its desired aims with 100 per cent attendance rates.
An audit of previous parliamentary reviews focused on domestic and family violence (Terms of Reference k) Barnardos has observed that the present inquiry is one of many wide-ranging public inquiries and parliamentary reviews that have been conducted into domestic and family violence in Australia.
We recognise that the impact of experiencing domestic violence events on children, young people and their families and the ongoing social and economic cost of domestic violence is already well understood, yet despite that knowledge, we are yet to meet the scale of that problem.

For this inquiry to be different and translate this knowledge into recommendations that will assist the most vulnerable and that will be sufficiently resourced, followed up and acted upon, we believe a fresh approach is required.
This approach would acknowledge how children currently experience domestic and family violence before and after separation, seek to understand the services and support children value, and focus national attention on the resources and solutions required to meet their needs.
For that reason we welcome in particular the present inquiry taking submissions from frontline services like Barnardos that work with and advocate for children, young people and their families who are impacted by family and domestic violence and those with lived experience of domestic abuse.

To contribute empirical knowledge to that approach, Barnardos is conducting a small qualitative study focusing on the perspectives of children and of who have experienced domestic and family violence.
In-depth interviewing and creative art activities will be used to collect data about support of children experiencing domestic and family violence.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis will be used to analyse the interview data.

It is hoped that findings from this (pilot) study will inform the scoping and development of a wider project which will encompass all of Barnardos domestic and family violence-related support services.
As part of the same project, Barnardos is also undertaking a national online quantitative survey exploring the views of adults on the long-term impact of the experience of domestic violence in their childhood.

We anticipate preliminary findings from the qualitative study and national online survey will be available early next year and can share these insights with the Committee at that time if that would help inform their report.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss any aspect of our submission.
Please feel free to contact , Head of Knowledge, Outcomes and Research on or Barnardos Australia Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence - Submission 6 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 222 Appendix A – Barnardos domestic and family violence safety and prevention work with children, young people and families Auburn Children’s Family Centre (Sydney NSW) Barnardos Auburn Children’s Family Centre provides a range of specialist family, domestic and sexual violence programs culturally and linguistically diverse communities living within its area including the Child and Adolescent Sexual Assault Counselling Program (a unique service in Western Sydney), and the Domestic Violence Support program.
Penrith Children’s Family Centre (Sydney NSW) Barnardos Penrith Children’s Family Centre delivers two programs where for 90% of families, domestic and family violence is identified as one of the primary reasons of referral.

The Intensive Family Preservation Program is an intensive family-based service aimed at either family preservation or family restoration.

Case management is for 6 to 9 months of service provision.
The program is based on Homebuilders, with the primary aim family preservation or restoration to keep children at home.

The client group targeted is families where high-risk child protection concerns are present, who are living in the Nepean Blue Mountains area.

The Family Supported Accommodation Program is a supported accommodation program for parents with children who are homeless and provides support for their parenting and sustaining long term accommodation.
We currently deliver this service without external funding.

South Coast Children’s Family Centre (Illawarra NSW) Barnardos South Coast Children’s Family Centre safety and prevention services support families with children in relation to domestic and family violence as needed.
In the Illawarra region, the South Coast Centre delivers unique perinatal family support case management service in partnership with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Maternity and Drug and Alcohol services, and the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.
This collaborative service (the Substance Use in Pregnancy and Parenting Service or SUPPS) is targeted to pregnant women who are drug and alcohol dependent and provides a sustained home visiting case management service for up to three years.

The Centre is also committed to delivering quality family support services to the Aboriginal community.

These services are staffed by Aboriginal people.


Western NSW All Barnardos Western NSW Safety and Prevention programs take referrals where domestic and family violence is a referral reason.

Barnardos provides a broad range of prevention, early intervention and intensive child, family and youth support services across Western NSW from Orange in the Central West as far west as Cobar.

A high proportion of the severely socially disadvantaged populations assisted by Barnardos are Aboriginal families.
The Domestic Violence Response Program based in Mudgee provides after hours telephone support for women with or without children who have left domestic or family violence that covers all Western NSW LGAs.

Barnardos Australia Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence - Submission 7 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 222