The Royal Commission into Family Violence identified that the special circumstances of certain groups are not always sufficiently recorded in data collection. The Family Violence Data Collection Framework (FVDCF) is being developed to improve and standardise family violence data collection across government and collaborating agencies.
The FVDCF will provide consistent data definitions, standards and recording practices, including data collection about people with disabilities who are experiencing or perpetrating family violence. Where possible, the definitions and standards in the framework will align with national standards and classifications so that data can easily be compared.
The framework will include:
- a common set of agreed data definitions and standards
- a common set of recording practices for collecting demographic information across agencies who capture family violence data
- a set of performance indicators.
Focus will also be given to improving our data collection about:
- older people
- Aboriginal people
- people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
- lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender diverse and intersex people.
In developing the FVDCF, government will evaluate family violence data currently held in Victoria and data gaps, including a review of disability services' critical incident reporting. This analysis will identify how the collection of data relating to family violence can be improved, highlighting incidents of family violence involving people living with a disability. Government can then develop a plan to address the identified gaps including:
- examining the administrative data systems of relevant departments to determine changes required to collect data
- developing a capability-building plan that addresses the training of workers to capture and record data correctly in administrative data systems.