Strengthening and planning for Australia’s domestic and family violence workforce

Background

Family and domestic violence (FDV) is a widespread social issue in Australia with significant health, welfare and economic consequences. FDV disproportionately affects women, undermining their economic security, housing stability, and overall wellbeing (UNSW, 2019). Certain groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, people with disabilities, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, face increased risks due to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation (AIHW, 2024b). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, in particular, are 33 times more likely to be hospitalised due to FDV than non-Aboriginal women (AIHW, 2024c). While the FDV workforce is increasingly recognised, at both the Commonwealth and state/territory levels, as a key piece of the puzzle in addressing FDV in Australia, there remains limited understanding of the work itself, how it is done and experienced, why it is done in particular ways, and its structural and organisational contexts.

Funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery, DP210101214), this project sets out to understand the domestic and family violence workforce in Australia and the work that it undertakes. It focused specifically on how the work is done and experienced, why it is done in particular ways, and the structural and organisational contexts that shape this work.

Aim

Aims:

• To generate a coherent, qualitative evidence base on the nature and experiences of domestic and family violence work across three key domains: victim services, perpetrator services and Aboriginal specialist services.
• To conceptualise the domestic and family violence workforce with reference to the nature of the work across these three domains.
• To recommend workforce development strategies that are responsive to the context and needs of domestic and family violence work.

Methods

This project uses a layered qualitative design informed by rapid ethnography, a multi-method approach to data collection that generates extensive information from numerous sources and perspectives over a relatively short period of time. Rapid ethnography was chosen for its capacity to capture the complexities and conditions of work, encompassing both workplace culture and individual practices (Baines & Cunningham, 2011), as well as structural and discursive drivers. Thus, it enables a focus across the macro and micro levels, on the social relations, structures and institutions that organise the everyday world of individuals as evident in the micro-level experiences of workers.

In order to achieve an in-depth focus on the “local, ongoing practical activities of organising [FDV] work” (Acker, 2006, p. 442), and the ways in which these reproduce – or ameliorate – complex inequalities, the research team partnered with four key organisations operating across multiple sites in Australia. Data collection activities, for each site, includes:

• document analysis of key organisational policies and processes
• time spent in organisations observing daily operations; and
• multiple interviews and focus groups with 126 participants over the period August 2022 to September 2023.

Significance

While FDV has been extensively researched, relatively little is known about the nature of FDV work – beyond the listing of generic tasks including crisis management, risk assessment, group work, counselling, support, and so on – nor the workforce that undertakes this work. While the FDV workforce is increasingly recognised at both the Commonwealth and state/territory levels as a key piece of the puzzle in addressing FDV in Australia, there remains limited understanding of the work itself, how it is done and experienced, why it is done in particular ways, and its structural and organisational contexts. This is a knowledge gap that has also been observed elsewhere; in the US context, for example, Macy and colleagues (2009, p. 361) have referred to FDV service delivery as a “black box”, noting that the "inner workings of the services, the critical service practices, and the crucial components of effective services remain largely unknown". This research project seeks to address this gap. The complexity, nature and experience of FDV work has been both undervalued and largely unexamined by governments and funding bodies in Australia. Efforts to support and strengthen the FDV workforce, however, must be informed by detailed and contextualised data and robust theorising of the purposes, forms and contexts for the work. Continuing to rely on this, already stretched, workforce without understanding and directly responding to its complexities – beyond the narrow confines of capabilities and training – will reinforce, rather than counter, the structural, societal and cultural practices that constitute and perpetuate FDV as gendered violence.

Funding Body

ARC (Discovery Project DP210101214)

Funding Budget

$290,169

Project start date

January 2022

Expected completion date

January 2026