Family Violence Summit
A Family Violence Summit was held at Te Wharewaka in Wellington on Wednesday 7 June 2017, chaired by Sir Wira Gardiner and co-hosted by Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.
The Summit supported work already underway as part of the Government’s family violence reforms, which includes the introduction of the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill.
Participants came from broad cross-section of groups involved in combating family violence – NGOs, support workers, victims, and former perpetrators. They participated in workshops about earlier intervention, supporting vulnerable population groups, helping children and their whānau live without family violence and kaupapa Māori whānau-centred approaches.
The Summit themes were: i) Helping children and their whānau to live without family violence,ii) Kaupapa Māori whānau-centred approaches, iii) Taking opportunities to intervene earlier iv) Supporting seniors, people with disabilities and migrant communities.
New Family Violence Frameworks
At the Summit Minister Anne Tolley launched two new frameworks to support the family violence sector to provide consistent and effective help to victims and perpetrators:
 The Family Violence Risk Assessment and Management Framework promotes a common approach to screening, assessing and managing risk |
 Family Violence, Sexual Violence and Violence within the Whānau; Workforce Capability aims to build workforce and community sector capability to respond safely and respectfully to people experiencing, affected by, and perpetrating family violence, sexual violence and violence within whānau |
A video of the Summit morning session and PDFs of the framework documents are online on the Family Violence Summit webpage.
Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill
Submissions on the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill closed in on 24th May and more than one hundred written submissions were received. The Justice and Electoral Select Committee are hearing oral submissions and are due to report back on 11th October. The NZCCSS submission supported the overall purpose and principles of the Bill but expressed disappointment the draft changes did not include an explicit reference to a framework for a national preventative strategy.