Frequently asked questions about the MARAM Practice Guides

The MARAM Practice Guides support professionals to understand their relevant responsibilities under the MARAM Framework towards the identification, assessment and ongoing management of family violence risk as it relates to their specific roles. The MARAM Framework sets out 10 responsibilities for practice, and there is a guide for each of these. There is also a Foundational Knowledge Guide.

The MARAM Practice Guides currently include a victim survivor-focused set of guides and an adult perpetrator-focused set of guides.

The suite of resources within the MARAM Practice Guides include:

• The Foundation Knowledge Guide, which provides the basis for understanding your responsibilities under the MARAM Framework.
• Guides for responsibilities 1–10 when working with victim survivors.
• Guides for responsibilities 1–10 when working with adult perpetrators using violence.
• Risk assessment and management tools and templates to support practice.

The Foundation Knowledge Guide is required reading for all professionals across leadership and governance, management and supervision to direct practice roles. You should read it first before moving on to the relevant victim survivor or perpetrator-focused Responsibilities for Practice Guides 1–10. It focuses on the legislative context, roles and interactions within the service system, risk factors, key concepts for practice, and an overview of the gendered lens and drivers of family violence and presentations of risk across different age groups and Aboriginal communities and diverse communities.

Responsibility Guides 1–10 provide practice guidance across each MARAM responsibility:

• Responsibility 1: Respectful, sensitive and safe engagement
• Responsibility 2: Identification of family violence risk
• Responsibility 3: Intermediate risk assessment
• Responsibility 4: Intermediate risk management
• Responsibility 5: Seek consultation for comprehensive risk assessment, risk management and referrals
• Responsibility 6: Contribute to information sharing with other services (as authorised by legislation)
• Responsibility 7: Comprehensive risk assessment
• Responsibility 8: Comprehensive risk management and safety planning
• Responsibility 9: Contribute to coordinated risk management
• Responsibility 10: Collaborate for ongoing risk assessment and risk management

Professionals’ responsibilities will vary based on the nature of their role within a service or organisation. If you are unsure which MARAM responsibilities apply to your role, it is advised to check in with your manager.

You can access all the guides via the MARAM practice guides and resources page.

MARAM tools support practitioners to undertake Identification, Intermediate, Brief and Comprehensive level risk assessment, risk management and safety planning. They are underpinned by the MARAM Framework evidence-based risk factors.

As the tools progress from the Identification to Comprehensive level, they ask more detailed questions and provide prompts to get more information about the behaviour used by the perpetrator, the level of family violence risk and protective factors. The questions in the tools are designed to identify if risk factors are present.

Professionals responsibilities within the MARAM Framework will inform the tool they use and will vary based on the nature of their role within a service or organisation. It is expected that professionals will use the tool that matches their level of training, expertise, and relevant MARAM Framework responsibilities. Organisations may have embedded MARAM tools into existing processes or may directly use the MARAM tool templates provided.

If you are unsure which MARAM responsibilities apply to your role, it is advised to check in with your manager.

You can access all the tools via the MARAM practice guides and resources page.

An online system to host the MARAM assessment tools (Tools for Risk Assessment and Management or TRAM) is also available.

Organisations prescribed under the MARAM Framework interested in using TRAM can contact the TRAM team by emailing tram@familysafety.vic.gov.au.

The MARAM Practice Guides for Responsibilities 5 and 6 equip professionals with the skills to determine what is risk relevant information, informed by the MARAM evidence-based risk factors for the purpose of responding to family violence risk.

For specific guidance on the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme you should refer to the FVISS Ministerial Guidelines. The guidelines can be found here.

For specific guidance on the Child Information Sharing Scheme you should refer to the CISS Ministerial Guidelines.

Organisations and services prescribed under the MARAM Framework are required to align their policies, procedures, practice guidance and tools to MARAM. This is a legal requirement following the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence to support consistent practice in family violence risk assessment and management.

Many professionals who have not traditionally had a role in assessing and managing family violence risk with victim survivors or perpetrators will now need to be familiar with MARAM best practice. You are not expected to become a family violence expert – but you do have a role to play.

Given the prevalence of family violence, it is likely that most professionals and services across the community will come into contact with people experiencing and using family violence.

Your role will vary based on the nature of your organisation and the type of contact you have with people experiencing and using family violence.

You may find the MARAM Framework and the Practice Guides can improve your response to family violence and assist with intervening earlier and connecting service users to the family violence service system.

The MARAM Practice Guides and tools provide guidance for working with people who use violence and victim survivors that relates to your responsibilities and role within the system.

Your organisation is responsible for embedding the guides and tools into your specific work context. It is expected that this will be a process that occurs over time. If no tailored guidance is available for your sector, you should refer to the core MARAM Practice Guides via the MARAM practice guides and resources page.

MARAM training is available, including via online delivery owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Professionals should attend the most appropriate training for their level of responsibility in responding to family violence risk based on their organisation and sector.

For example:

• if a professional is mapped to identification responsibilities, they should attend screening and identification training
• if a professional is mapped to intermediate responsibilities, they should attend brief and intermediate training
• if a professional is mapped to comprehensive responsibilities, they should attend comprehensive training.

Training may be tailored by departments to specific workforces.

For more information on how to access MARAM training modules and what training to undertake, please see the training page of the information sharing and MARAM website.

As well as resources for practitioners, there are Organisation Embedding resources available. The includes a self-audit tool with specific key actions and activities organisational leaders can undertake to further MARAM alignment. This can be accessed via the MARAM practice guides and resources page.

Information about training to support implementation can be found on the training page of the information sharing and MARAM website.

Please contact us by emailing infosharing@familysafety.vic.gov.au.