Child Safety's approach to domestic and family violence

Child Safety has adopted the Safe and Together model as the practice approach when working with children and families who live with domestic and family violence.

This overview of the domestic and family violence practice kit provides an introduction to Safe and Together—the principles and the critical components.

Application of Safe and Together uses the identification of perpetrator pattern focus of violent and coercive behaviour while identifying mothers’ actions to promote the safety and wellbeing of the child. This approach is relevant across all sections of this kit. 

Understanding the patterns of domestic and family violence behaviour is critical to interviewing, assessment, planning and documentation, as is partnering with mothers and interventions with fathers who are using violence.

The overview will also introduce the concept of ‘intersections’. Domestic violence, homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health are co-occurring but these issues don’t generally happen independently of each other. The Safe and Together model helps to understand how the domestic violence is impacting, causing and/or exacerbating these issues. For example, a father preventing a mother from attending mental health appointments by withholding transport and then contacting services with worries about her mental health. We flag intersections throughout the Domestic and family violence and other practice kits.

Child Safety is working with government and non-government partners to develop an integrated approach to domestic and family violence using the Safe and Together model.