Safety Planning- Children and Young People who live with domestic violence

A number of government and non-government agencies across NSW including family support, community health, legal services, NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS) and housing services are involved on a daily basis in working with the issues of domestic violence and child protection. For practitioners in this field, safety planning is a key element in their interventions with women and children experiencing domestic violence However, practitioners have often addressed domestic violence and child protection as separate issues resulting in intervention focusing on the safety of the woman while overlooking the safety of their children. This paper will explore the issues of developing safety plans for children and young people in domestic violence situation as identified in focus groups and interviews conducted with practitioners in NSW in 2001. For some agencies these strategies ranged from making a report to DoCS about the domestic violence to involving children and young people in developing their own safety plans. Other agencies in comparison had minimal or no direct intervention with children and young people and instead focussed on the mothers ’ needs. What strategies were developed were greatly influenced by legislation, the agency philosophy and policies and practitioners understanding of domestic violence and child protection. F. Waugh and M. Bonne