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Homecare Medical has been awarded the contract to develop and operate the 24/7 national helpline for New Zealanders affected by sexual violence, say Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.

“The Government is focused on developing a more sustainable and integrated national system to ensure victims of sexual violence get the support and services they need at the right time,” says Ms Adams.

An evaluation of the Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilot has confirmed that families are safer and better protected as a result of the pilot, say Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.

The final evaluation report released today by Superu found that the level of seriousness and the frequency of family violence incidents reduced significantly in the six months after people came into contact with the pilot.

Short-term housing will be provided to perpetrators of family violence in the Waikato to help ensure victims are kept safe and can stay in their own homes, say Justice and Social Housing Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.

“The Government is putting $1.1 million into emergency housing for perpetrators at the Integrated Safety Response pilot sites in Waikato and Christchurch, because evidence shows it’s better to remove perpetrators than to uproot victims and children from the family home,” Ms Adams says.

Christchurch’s Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilot has helped almost 21,000 victims and perpetrators of family violence since it was set up, say Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.

“Today marks one year since the ISR pilot was established in Christchurch and already it is showing signs of being a significant game changer in the way that agencies and NGOs respond to family violence,” says Ms Adams.

New guides to support the family violence sector to provide consistent and effective help to victims and perpetrators are being launched today by Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley at the Family Violence Summit in Wellington.

Over 120 key players in the family violence sector are attending the Summit today to build on conversations to date about how to work together better to tackle New Zealand’s horrific rate of family violence.

Budget 2017 invests $37.2 million of operating funding to reduce the harm caused by family violence, Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley say.

$22.4 million will extend the Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilots for another two years.

The Government will be advising social service providers that their new contracts will not require the collection of individual client level data until a new data protection and use policy is in place, say Social Investment Minister Amy Adams and Minister for Children Anne Tolley.

“Our Social Investment approach is about intervening earlier to help change lives for the better. We want to be working alongside providers on ways data sources can help ensure our most vulnerable New Zealanders are getting access to the services that they need,” Ms Adams says.

The Integrated Safety Response (ISR) pilot has helped over 24,000 people through the development of more than 8,000 family safety plans, say Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.

The ISR pilot involves core agencies and NGOs teaming up to ensure that families experiencing violence get the right support to stay safe. It has been running in Christchurch since July 2016 and in Waikato since October 2016.

A national summit on family violence will be hosted by Justice Minister Amy Adams and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley in Wellington on June 7.

“We know that family violence is a significant and complex issue in New Zealand, with Police responding to an incident every five minutes. That’s why I’ve made helping to reduce family violence my core priority,” says Ms Adams.

Families grappling with violence will be able to avoid contentious meetings during children handovers thanks to a new pilot launched by the Government.

“In the absence of funded supervised hand-over services, some victims of family violence risk continued exposure to violent and abusive behaviour as they facilitate their children’s contact with an ex-partner,” says Ms Adams.

More frontline services and extra places in perpetrator programmes are on the way for the multi-agency Integrated Safety Response pilot, following an additional injection of funding, Ministers have announced.

An extra $680,000 will allow the Christchurch ISR pilot to continue its work to combat family and sexual violence.

“The ISR pilot takes a whole-of-family approach to stop family violence by identifying risks and intervening earlier,” Ms Adams says.