FAMILY AND DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE — SERVICE DELIVERY
604. Hon NICK GOIRAN to the Leader of the House representing
the Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence:
I refer to the article in The
West Australian of 3 June 2020 entitled ''WA facing DV funding
crisis'', which highlighted that the costs of delivering family and
domestic violence counselling, advocacy and support services have risen
considerably over the past six years and that state government funding has not
kept pace with these increased costs.
(1) Is the minister
aware that the department is negotiating service delivery cuts with 18
frontline FDV CAS service providers?
(2) How many FDV clients are
expected to be impacted by this?
(3) What does the
minister intend to do about this and the resulting reduction in service levels
during this time of reported increased demand?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The Department of Communities recently extended
service agreements with family and domestic violence counselling, advocacy and support service
providers for a further two years to 30 June 2022, with an option to
extend for a further 12 months. The extension was undertaken through a preferred
service provider procurement process and aligned with the government's
delivering community services in partnership policy, which ensures that
contracting arrangements are structured in a manner that supports sustainable
service delivery and recognises the importance of ongoing organisational
viability. As part of this process, service providers proposed the quantum of
service that could be sustainably delivered within the contract price. All 18
service providers for the 22 services will continue to deliver services to the
community.
(2) The new service agreements will commence on 1
July 2020 and service providers will submit progress reports to
Communities on a six-monthly basis. This will include reporting on the quantum
of services delivered.
(3) There is no
reduction in the number of services being delivered. Communities will work in
partnership with service providers to assess the capacity of contracted
services to respond to changes in demand. To ensure the safety of women and
children experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, family and domestic violence
during the COVID-19 pandemic, all FDV CAS service providers will receive grant
funding of $25 000 per service to ensure that services can continue to support
those who need it most during this time. The up-front payment was provided to
services at the beginning of June 2020.