How We Work
Our Scope
As required by our terms of reference, the Royal Commission into Family Violence inquired into and reported on how Victoria’s response to family violence could be improved by providing practical recommendations to stop family violence.
Given our remit and timelines, we focused on identifying and solving system-wide issues, rather than investigating individual cases or allegations of family violence.
How to contribute
To obtain a better understanding about existing systems, and how they operate in practice, and to explore opportunities for improvement, the Royal Commission gathered information from individuals and organisations (including stakeholders) through:
- written submissions
- community consultations
- stakeholder and expert roundtables
- hearings
- research
- site visits
- data and documentation provided by key agencies (including government and domestic and international experts).
Written submissions
The closing date for submissions was Friday, 29 May 2015. This date was selected to enable the Royal Commission time to read and analyse all of the submissions in advance of the public hearings, and to enable us to follow up issues raised as part of our ongoing research and engagement processes.
To help guide people writing a submission, we released an issues paper on 31 March 2015. This can be accessed through our resources page.
We continued to gather information throughout the duration of the Royal Commission.
Community consultations
The Royal Commission into Family Violence concluded its community consultation program on Wednesday, 2 September 2015.
A total of 44 group consultation sessions were held for individuals affected by family violence and those who work closely with them.
Approximately 850 people participated in sessions across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria .
Specific groups consulted included older victims, culturally and linguistically diverse women, male victims, perpetrators, female prisoners, sex workers, Aboriginal representatives and services, children and youth services, women with disabilities, Islamic women and community leaders, and representatives from the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities.
Stakeholder and expert roundtables
The Commission held a small number of private roundtable discussions with stakeholders and experts on select topics in September 2015. The roundtables provided an opportunity for key stakeholders and experts to exchange and debate views with each other in a frank and candid way.
Hearings
The Royal Commission conducted two rounds of public hearings. The first round commenced on Monday, 13 July 2015 and concluded on Friday, 14 August 2015 with a further week between Monday, 12 October 2015 and Friday, 16 October 2015.
The focus of the public hearings was to examine and evaluate strategies, frameworks, policies, programs and services. For more information, go to our hearings page.
Law enforcement
During the course of our inquiry, we could provide information to law enforcement agencies and/or child protection agencies (as appropriate) where we believed it was necessary to prevent harm to any person.
Report and recommendations
The Royal Commission into Family Violence delivered its final report and recommendations on Tuesday, 29 March 2016.
For more details about how we work, download our How We Work document.