Family violence pilot helps over 24,000 people

The Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilot has helped over 24,000 people through the development of more than 8,000 family safety plans, say Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.

The ISR pilot involves core agencies and NGOs teaming up to ensure that families experiencing violence get the right support to stay safe. It has been running in Christchurch since July 2016 and in Waikato since October 2016.

“More than 8,000 family safety plans were developed between July and the start of February through the ISR pilot, targeted to people and households that the pilot has identified as at risk of family violence,” says Ms Adams.

“The pilot has been making a real difference. There have been cases where serious harm or death was prevented as a result of the information sharing and inter-agency collaboration.”

Through the pilot there have been 776 cases reported per month in Christchurch and 951 per month in Waikato. Of these, between seven and 11 per cent are high risk cases which require intensive intervention involving Independent Victim Specialists and Perpetrator Outreach Services.

“Seeing the high volumes of family violence reported through the ISR pilot reinforces our Government’s commitment to building a better system for dealing with family violence,” says Mrs Tolley.

“The pilot allows us to test what works well and what could be done better so that we can ensure a new national model is robust, flexible and makes a real difference to the lives of victims and families.”

The ISR is expected to replace existing models of inter-agency family violence response as the Government maintains its focus on reducing family violence and protecting our most vulnerable.

Notes:

Table: Types of incidents reported throughout the Pilot between July 2016 and start of February 2017