7. Safety planning for MARAM nominated staff
Schools must use MARAM processes to identify and respond to family violence, including safety planning. Using the Family violence basic safety plan ensures school staff are meeting their school’s MARAM responsibilities.
Nominated staff can develop a safety plan using the Family violence basic safety plan if they identify current family violence using the Family violence screening tool and if the child, young person and/or adult victim survivor parent or carer is open to receiving support.
The Family violence basic safety plan consists of strategies victim survivors can use to keep themselves safe. It should be tailored to their circumstances and consider their safety and wellbeing needs. A victim survivor’s Family violence basic safety plan should reflect their views and wishes and the victim survivor should be involved in its development wherever possible.
Nominated staff may use the Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes to share the Family violence basic safety plan when referring the victim survivor to a specialist family violence service, which will provide comprehensive risk assessment and management. Specialist family violence services are responsible for comprehensive safety planning. The school’s primary and ongoing responsibility is for the child or young person’s safety at the school.
Safety plans should be kept at the school. For safety reasons, nominated staff must not provide copies to the child or young person, or the adult victim survivor. This can increase risk if the person using violence accesses it.
School staff must follow all data security and record management requirements that apply to their school. For more information, refer to: Records Management – School Records.
Reviewed 10 September 2024