National Family Violence Summit in June
A national summit on family violence will be hosted by Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley in Wellington on June 7. The Summit will support the work already underway as part of the Government’s family violence reforms, which includes the introduction of the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill to overhaul the Domestic Violence Act and strengthen family violence laws. Family violence is a significant and complex issue in New Zealand, with Police responding to an incident every five minutes, and costing the country over $4 billion per year, noted the ministers while annoucing the summit.
Family violence pilot helps over 24,000 people
- Integrated Safety Response -
The Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilot, which has been running in Christchurch since July 2016 and in Waikato since October 2016, has helped over 24,000 people through the development of more than 8,000 family safety plans, informed 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. 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.
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, added the ministers.
