Code of Practice

The Code of Practice for Specialist Family and Domestic Violence Services for Victim-Survivors was developed by the Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing in a Western Australian setting.

It is an important initiative to build the capability of the family and domestic violence sector at the organisational, manager and frontline practitioner levels.

The ten guiding principles

1. Risk and safety focused
2. Victim-survivor centred and trauma and violence informed
3. Confidentiality, privacy and information sharing
4. Bringing the person using violence into view
5. Child and young person focused
6. Aboriginal-led family safety responses
7. Collaboration and advocacy
8. Equity and access
9. Capable and sustainable workforce
10. Governance, leadership and accountability

Each principle has a set of standards and indicators that services can use to inform their service delivery and to support continuous quality improvement.

Access the Code of Practice and the Audit Tool

The Code of Practice sets out the standards. The Audit Tool is how a service checks itself against them — where it is meeting the principles in practice, what evidence it holds, and what it will do next.

Code of Practice training

WorkforceFDV is supporting implementation of the Code of Practice through statewide training. There are two types of training — Practitioner Live Online Training and the Train the Trainer Program.

Community of Practice

Community of Practice Sessions are for practitioners who have already attended Practitioner Training. They are designed to help strengthen participants’ confidence and capability in embedding the Code of Practice in their services.

These facilitated discussions provide a structured and supportive space for practitioners to reflect on implementation, ask questions and further explore real-world application.