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Family Safety Victoria

Leading the implementation of many of the government’s family violence reforms. Family Safety Victoria (FSV) was created on 1 July 2017 to drive key elements of Victoria’s family violence strategy and coordinate support for families to help them care for children and young people. FSV is now a division of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

Our vision

A future where all Victorians are safe and children grow up in environments built on gender equality and respectful relationships.

Our role

Family Safety Victoria works to:

The family violence system we are building is inclusive, culturally safe and gives children and young people a voice.

We are united by a common goal: to keep women, children, young people and families safe.

Our structure

Program and Service Development

This branch translates policy into program and service development to improve outcomes for family violence victim survivors, create more effective engagement with perpetrators, and deliver Victoria’s family violence reform agenda.

Policy and Design

This branch develops statewide, whole-of-system policy, design and operating models for key family violence initiatives, such as The Orange Door and MARAM, and related response service systems, workforces, interfaces and pathways. The branch also leads FSV’s communications and strategic engagement activity ensuring all voices, including those with lived experience, inform reform activity.

Office for Prevention of Family Violence and Coordination

This branch is responsible for overseeing work to reform Victoria’s family violence system in delivering its 10-year agenda to build a Victoria free from family violence. The Office collaborates to ensure a coordinated approach to prevention of family violence efforts and works closely with Respect Victoria to enhance connectivity between prevention, behaviour change and response efforts.

Strategic Plan

The Family Violence Reform Rolling Action Plan 2020-2023 will guide us through the next phase of the reform in the context of the 10-year plan to end family violence: ‘Ending Family Violence: Victoria’s plan for change’.

The Family Safety Victoria Strategic Plan 2021-2024 outlines how we will continue delivering nation-leading family violence reforms with our strategic priorities based on the underlying principles of intersectionality, Aboriginal self-determination, lived experience and service system partnership.

The 3 priorities are:

The Strategic Plan is further supported by the Family Safety Victoria People and Culture Strategy.

Lived Experience Strategy

The Family Violence Lived Experience Strategy calls on government and the sector to embed lived experience across the full spectrum of family and sexual violence reform.

The strategy outlines the key phases of working together to transform a system to meet the needs of the people who use it.

Having introduced lived experience of family violence into government we are now learning from practice and testing new approaches as we move towards shared decision making, leadership and influence.

Find out more about the Family Violence Lived Experience Strategy.

Contact us

Family Safety Victoria

For general enquiries to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, phone 1300 475 170.

If you’re in immediate danger, dial 000. If you need family violence support or assistance with the care and wellbeing of children and young people, please visit The Orange Door(opens in a new window).

You can subscribe to email updates or connect with us on social media:

Information Sharing and MARAM

Open all

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic) (‘FOI Act’) gives you the right to request access to documents about your personal affairs and the activities of Family Safety Victoria.

Under the FOI Act, you can ask Family Safety Victoria to correct inaccurate, incomplete or out of date information that it holds about you.

Whenever possible Family Safety Victoria will make information available when requested. However, under the FOI Act, Family Safety Victoria can refuse access to information in certain circumstances, such as documents containing information provided in confidence; documents subject to legal professional privilege; or where the document contains information about the personal affairs of another person.

How to make a request

If you wish to make an FOI request to Family Safety Victoria, the FOI Act requires you to:

An FOI request cannot be processed unless both criteria are met. Please include in your request your contact phone number, address or email, so we can contact you and provide you with a decision.

If you are seeking access to documents held by Family Safety Victoria, containing personal affairs information about you, please also provide a copy of your certified photo ID, such as your driver’s licence or passport.

If you are seeking access to documents held by Family Safety Victoria on behalf of someone else (such as a legal representative or advocate), please also provide copies of:

your certified photo ID, such as your driver’s licence or passport

a letter confirming the basis that you are acting on their behalf and authority from the relevant person to release their information

Where to send your request

Your request can be emailed to foi@familysafety.vic.gov.au or posted to:

The Freedom of Information Officer

Family Safety Victoria

GPO Box 4057

Melbourne VIC 3001

Application fee

A statutory fee of $29.60 (as of 1 July 2019) applies for all FOI requests. We accept payment by cheque (by post), made out to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

If you are seeking a waiver of the application fee, please provide evidence that payment would cause you financial hardship, such as a health care card. Please note if you are asking for copies of your own personal documents, the application fee will not apply.

The Act also allows us to charge, where reasonable, for access to documents. We will tell you if this applies and what the charges will be. Access charged will not apply if you are seeking your own personal records.

More information

For more information, visit the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner’s website(opens in a new window).

Find our Part II Statements.

The Public Interest Disclosures Act 2012 (‘the Act’) encourages and facilitates the process for people to make disclosures about:

Public interest disclosures used to be known as ‘protected disclosures’ or ‘whistleblowing’.

The Act provides for confidentiality of the content of public interest disclosures and the identity of people who make them. It also provides other protections for persons who make those disclosures.

Disclosures about Family Safety Victoria or any of its employees and/or officers can be made to a Public Interest Disclosure Coordinator for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. Visit the department’s website to find contact details and more information about public interest disclosures.

Family Safety Victoria is committed to ensuring that the experiences of individuals and families are valued, understood and acted on. We welcome your feedback as it helps improve how we work.

Family Safety Victoria is responsible for delivering family violence system reform, including overseeing The Orange Door(opens in a new window).

We can always do better. We will listen to and learn from your feedback about Family Safety Victoria, whether it’s a compliment, complaint, idea or suggestion.

How to submit feedback

To give feedback, please read the webpage about Making a complaint.

Please note the above contact details are monitored during business hours. Emails will be responded to during business hours.

If you need help with family violence support or you have concerns about the wellbeing of a child or young people, please visit The Orange Door. If you are in immediate danger, call 000.

What can you provide feedback about?

We want to know if:

What is a subpoena?

A subpoena, also known as a ‘witness summons’ or ‘summons’, is a legal document issued by a court or tribunal at the request of a party to a current case. A subpoena requires a person (or a person on behalf of an entity) to produce documents to the court/tribunal, attend court or the tribunal to give evidence or both. Subpoenas are used in court or tribunal cases to ensure that information relevant to the case is provided to the court/tribunal and the parties.

Who should a subpoena be addressed to?

If the subpoena is for documents relating to clients of The Orange Door, please address the subpoena to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or “The Proper Officer” of Family Safety Victoria, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000.

If the subpoena is for a person to attend court or tribunal to give evidence, it should be addressed to the individual who can provide relevant evidence (e.g. a witness account of events). Please note that workers at The Orange Door are not employed by FSV but Community Service Organisations and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.

Address for service

Please email a copy of the subpoena to the Principal Adviser, Legal, Office of the Chief Executive Officer at foi@familysafety.vic.gov.au.

Hard copies of subpoenas and any cheques can be sent care of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000.

Cheques

Any cheque should be made out to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

Please consider relevant safety issues

Given that clients of The Orange Door are using the service to seek help for matters relating to family violence, child safety and family wellbeing, it is possible that responding to a subpoena may raise issues and risks to the parties involved and/or workers at The Orange Door. For example, the documents might:

Clarify scope of subpoena

Family Safety Victoria therefore asks that in formulating the scope of your subpoena, you consider whether the following information is required or whether it can be considered out of scope:

If the above information is within the scope of the subpoena, FSV reserves its rights to lodge an objection to the subpoena.

The Orange Door might also need to undertake safety planning with the relevant client or staff member to ensure their safety and welfare is protected following release.

Can FSV refuse to respond to a subpoena?

There are some circumstances in which FSV may not be required to respond to a subpoena. These circumstances include when:

Queries

For queries please contact the Principal Adviser, Legal, Office of the Chief Executive Officer foi@familysafety.vic.gov.au.

Privacy policy

Family Safety Victoria will manage your personal information carefully and in accordance with relevant legislation. For further information, please refer to our privacy policy.

Updated 1 December 2025

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