Better practice in responding to family violence

Businesses are not expected to be experts on family violence or to provide counselling as part of their family violence response. However, they are well placed to provide customers with information about support services that may be able to help. For example they can refer customers to family violence services, financial counsellors or services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.

Customer facing staff should only refer customers when they consider it safe, respectful and appropriate to do so; they are not required to offer referrals every time a customer makes contact. There may be instances where it isn’t safe or convenient for a customer to write down the number of another service. In making a referral staff should ask whether the customer is already receiving support (and from which kind of service) before referring them elsewhere. Employees will need to draw on their family violence training and take the customer’s circumstances into account to determine what’s best at the time.

Businesses should have a list of referral options for staff to use that makes it as easy as possible to know which service/s would be most appropriate for the customer. The Economic Abuse Reference Group recommends businesses consider the level of training staff have received and their ability to choose between services when developing their referral lists for staff. They also recommend businesses consider:

• developing relationships with particular services
• using the knowledge and skills of staff that have a higher level of training
• including specialist services in line with the nature of the business.

Water businesses and energy retailers are required to publish an up-to-date list of referral services on their website. Victim-survivors may use the website to access referral information when they don’t feel safe to speak to the business directly about their experience, but still need help.

In developing their family violence provisions, North East Water, Central Highlands Water and Western Water developed relationships with family violence and other services to encourage warm referrals and improve opportunities for supporting their customers.

Case study – North East Water

North East Water has developed relationships with local family violence organisations that provide advice on which services to include on North East Water’s public facing referral list. It now has a list of local and national family violence services that includes local Aboriginal corporations and the Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Prevention Service.

Case study – Central Highlands Water

Through feedback from customers and community leaders Central Highlands Water learnt that many victim-survivors were not aware of the support services available in the local area.

In response to this Central Highlands Water works closely with local welfare agencies and financial counsellors to provide an improved service to its customers.

These relationships work to strengthen and streamline referral processes to agencies in the local area. In doing so, customers can be better assisted on their path out of family violence or financial hardship.

Case study – Western Water

Western Water approached the community health family violence service in their area. It did this to establish a relationship and develop a ‘warm referral’ process for customers affected by family violence who had not already accessed support. This process connects customers with intake workers who assess the customer’s needs. They link the customer in with support, in the same way other clients of the family violence service would be assisted.

By taking this approach Western Water built positive working relationships with local service providers. It supported employees to feel confident in referring customers affected by family violence. It also ensured that customers in the business’s country community could access help in their local area, rather than needing to travel to Melbourne. The arrangement raised Western Water’s awareness of the challenge to keep up with demand for family violence support, as more victim-survivors speak up about their experience.