SHS clients experiencing FDV whose need for FDV-related services was unmet

6.1 People impacted by violence and abuse have access to timely and ongoing supports, services, resources, and opportunities to support their long-term recovery and healing.

Increased access to affordable, accessible and safe housing.

Proportion of SHS clients experiencing FDV whose need for FDV-related services was unmet.

A decrease in the proportion of clients experiencing FDV whose need for FDV-related services was unmet is desirable. However, there are many reasons why a need for assistance may be unmet. SHS agencies differ in the services they are funded to deliver – some focus on assisting people experiencing homelessness; others deliver a broader range of homelessness and housing support and services; and some deliver support to people within a specific situation, such as those experiencing family and domestic violence.

This measure should be considered alongside other data from specialist homelessness services, including measures relating to unmet need for accommodation, and measures relating to persistent homelessness and return to homelessness.

2022–23

The number of SHS clients experiencing FDV who needed family or domestic violence-related services but were not provided or referred to another agency for that service at any time during the reference period.

Data element: Client—needs assessment service activity outcome, code N
Data source: AIHW Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC)
Data source type: Administrative

The number of SHS clients experiencing FDV who needed family or domestic violence-related services during the reference period.

Data element: Client—service activity type, homelessness code N[N]
Data source: AIHW SHSC
Data source type: Administrative

This measure is the number of SHS clients experiencing FDV who needed family or domestic violence-related services but were not provided or referred to another agency for that service type at any time in the reference period, expressed as a proportion of those who needed assistance for family or domestic violence-related services.

100 x (Numerator/Denominator)

For each reference period, nationally, by: 

• state and territory
• sex
• age
• country of birth
• disability status
• remoteness
• Indigenous status.

In the SHSC, a client is reported as experiencing family and domestic violence if in any support period during the reporting period the client sought assistance as a result of physical or emotional abuse inflicted on the client by a family member or if as part of any support period a person required family or domestic violence assistance.

A client can be formally referred to the SHS agency by a non-SHS FDV service. Note, the ability to include clients formally referred from a non-SHS FDV agency was introduced on 1 July 2019 and only applies to support periods starting on or after this date.

Assistance for family/domestic violence is a type of service activity for which a SHS client may seek support, or have provided to them, or be referred for. SHS clients may seek victim and/or perpetrator support:

• Assistance for family/domestic violence – victim support services are one-to-one discussion or group sessions with the client, focused on violence (for example, physical or emotional abuse) inflicted on the client by a family member, including a current or former spouse/partner. This includes referring the client for counselling to a family and domestic violence support group, or specialised domestic violence support service for victims of domestic violence. This includes children and accompanying family members if they themselves receive support services for victims. 
• Assistance for family/domestic violence – perpetrator support services are one-to-one discussion or group sessions with the client, focused on perpetrator support services for violence (for example, physical or emotional abuse) inflicted by the client on a family member, including a current or former spouse/partner. This includes referring the client for counselling to a family and domestic violence support group, or for specialised perpetrator support services.

Data on people affected by family and domestic violence may include those who needed, were provided with, or referred to perpetrator support services. For support periods starting prior to 1 July 2019 (some of which currently remain active), a general DV service item covering both victims and perpetrators was collected/reported in the SHSC.

Clients who identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in any of their support periods are considered as Indigenous clients.
It is important to note that these figures reflect people who receive some sort of service from SHS agencies and therefore does not reflect the level of unmet demand for support for the whole of the Australian population.

The SHSC holds data extracted from agency databases. These data change regularly as new periods of support are added and as existing records are updated. As a result, SHSC data can change over time, and the numbers reported by the AIHW for a particular year may be updated in later data releases.

Caution should be used when comparing Victorian client numbers over recent years. A practice correction to how some family violence agencies were recording clients as well as a phased shift of family violence intake to non-SHS services may result in an overall decrease in FDV client numbers since 2017–18.

Caution should be used when interpreting data about services needed, provided and referred for younger children. Many children and young people present to SHS as part of a group and the data collected about their services may actually reflect those of their household or presenting group.