Statement in response to VAGO audit of The Orange Door

The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) this week released its Managing Support and Safety Hubs(opens in a new window) audit report,  undertaken last year to assess whether hubs are providing effective and efficient service coordination for women and families. 

The Orange Door hubs are coordinated by Family Safety Victoria and was one of the recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Family Violence, with the aim of introducing transformational service and system reform of Victoria’s response to family violence.

In response to the VAGO report, Family Safety Victoria’s CEO, Eleri Butler said: 

“We welcome VAGO’s recognition that The Orange Door is a long-term program to transform family violence service systems in Victoria. 

“The Orange Door model brings together specialist family violence services, and children and family services, to deliver integrated assessment and access to support. This includes tailored support for women and children impacted by family violence, holistic support for Aboriginal families in local communities, help with the care and wellbeing of children, and work with perpetrators to manage risk and change behaviours. 

“We also welcome the Auditor’s recognition that we have engaged and consulted extensively with specialists and services to inform early development and delivery of The Orange Door and have demonstrated commitment to learning from feedback received. This approach helped us achieve improvements in project planning, recognised by the report as essential to support the development of more effective operations and practice across sectors. 

“The Government lay the foundation for learning from evaluation and review, by establishing an independent Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor that holds Government and its agencies to account for implementing the family violence reform.  

“We have no hesitation in accepting all nine recommendations made by the Auditor, as many of these were already identified by our own reviews, feedback from partners and the Independent Monitor. The resultant actions are central to our implementation plans for the next phase of state-wide roll-out of The Orange Door. 

“Having joined the Family Safety Victoria team only recently, I know how ground-breaking this work is. The Orange Door is a new way for people to access help and support, and we are working in ways that has never been done before. It is also essential this programme integrates and is informed by the wider system of family violence reforms underway across Victoria.

“I want to acknowledge how incredibly hard our teams and partner services have worked locally and across the state, to establish and deliver this integrated service response in our communities. In spite of recent challenges, we’re also on track to open The Orange Door in Central Highlands and Loddon this year.

“As we move into the next phase of delivery and roll-out, we will continue engagement with victim-survivors and to work with Peaks and services, to improve prevention and meet needs of families impacted by abuse across the state.”

You can find out more on The Orange Door website(opens in a new window) and find further progress on the reforms. 

A comprehensive summary of Family Safety Victoria’s proposed actions and relevant timeframes can be found in the appendix of the final report(opens in a new window).