After Hours Senior Specialist Family Violence Practitioner

About the role

Opportunity to work after hours oncall/recall (casual). Salary packaging, gifted leave at Christmas and Easter, paid parental leave. Work across the Bayside Peninsula Region.

Role Purpose

The Senior Specialist Family Violence Practitioner –After Hours is an integral member of the family violence team. This role will work in our After-Hours program delivering high quality face to face and over the phone support to women and children who are experiencing family violence across the Bayside Peninsula Region.

The family violence responses will be provided at diverse locations within the region and may include service delivery sites, motels, police stations, hospitals, and other accommodations clients may be residing. This role requires a practitioner who can work independently and is able to apply framework and theories to provide the most appropriate and safe response to women and children experiencing family violence.

This role aims at supporting women and children to increase their safety through risk and needs assessments and safety planning. It also involves a holistic approach by providing additional support as required. This role will also provide support to other workers supporting family violence services including consultation and debriefing.

Key Responsibilities

- Assessing afterhours referral from different sources and providing a family violence response

- Provide a specialist family violence response afterhours to victim survivors both adults and children

- Assessing the immediate situation, safety risk and support needs of women and accompanying children using the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM)

- Complete risk assessments as required

- Complete safety planning and liaise with other services and stakeholders to increase safety of victim survivors including adults and children experiencing family violence

- Provide psychoeducation and emotional support

- Support with the provision of emergency accommodation to victim survivors escaping family violence

- Complete afterhours outreach to victim survivors in diverse locations

- Providing material aid that promotes safety, wellbeing and addressing victim survivors’ immediate needs

- Work collaboratively within a team and independently as well

- Completing all administrative duties linked with providing an afterhours response

- Attend meetings, supervision and other professional development activities as required

- Additional tasks pertaining to the provision of an Afterhours response in the family violence program

About you

- Appropriate tertiary qualification in Social Work, Psychology, or a related tertiary discipline meeting Recommendation 209 or Graduate Certificate in Family Violence

- Demonstrated capacity to provide outreach case management including the ability to carry out comprehensive risk and needs assessments and respond appropriately

- Experience working in the family violence sector

- Demonstrated experience working with women and children presenting with complex needs and behaviours (e.g. trauma, substance abuse, mental health, parenting issues, disability) and/or from CALD or Indigenous backgrounds

- Demonstrated knowledge of the impacts of family violence and the capacity to apply appropriate theoretical frameworks to practice

- Demonstrated experience in preparing written reports, maintaining records, including case notes and data base reporting

- Ability to apply protective behaviours techniques which reduce children’s vulnerability

- Demonstrated commitment to personal professional development including knowledge of the Royal Commission into Family Violence Recommendations and the broader impact of the current reforms on the family violence sector

- A current Full Australian Driver’s License

- Family Violence Minimum Mandatory Qualifications under Recommendation 209

As per the minimum mandatory qualifications requirements via https://www.vic.gov.au/mandatory-minimum-qualifications-specialist-family-violence-practitioners

All candidates wishing to apply for this role must be able to demonstrate that they:

- are considered EXEMPT under the policy OR

- hold a Bachelor of Social Work or other equivalent qualification OR

- have minimum 5 years relevant professional experience, OR a related qualification as per the mandatory minimum qualification requirements OR

- hold significant cultural knowledge and experience or lived experience, and have faced barriers to educational pathways

Please note that candidates wishing to enter the specialist family violence workforce via a related qualification or 5 years related professional experience pathway, OR the significant cultural knowledge and experience or lived experience pathways will be required to work towards an equivalent qualification within specified timeframes (as per the mandatory minimum qualifications policy). If you believe these pathways may apply to you and would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact recruitment@goodshep.org.au to discuss this further.

Benefits

- Salary packaging - which can add up to $15,900 in tax-free pay per year

- Employee Assistance Program, a free and confidential counselling service

- Eligible for participation in the portable long service leave program

About Us

Our 2023-2027 strategy outlines the world we want to see and our role in advancing it. We aspire for all women, girls, and families to be safe, well, strong, and connected. We strive for equity, dignity and social justice for women, girls and families by collaborating globally and acting locally, supporting our communities in Australia and New Zealand to thrive.

We want women, girls and families to live full and dignified lives, have dignified income and enjoy financial wellbeing. We aim to provide place-based, people-centred, holistic services while working at the system level to achieve bold and audacious reform. We currently offer microfinance programs and products, financial counselling and coaching, family and domestic violence support services, family and youth programs, playgroups, education programs and community houses. These services are complemented by research and strong advocacy to address the underlying structural causes of injustice, exclusion, and inequality.

Good Shepherd employees are committed to inclusive practice that responds to the specific needs, context, and circumstances of service participants. We embrace the diversity and intersectionality of individuals and recognise a person’s right to a unique identity comprising culture, language, ability, community, gender, sex, sexual orientation and lived experience.

How to apply

Please click 'Apply' to complete your application. Please upload your resume and a brief cover letter addressing the key selection criteria.

Applications are considered as they are received. APPLICATIONS CLOSE: 5th October 2025

To view the position description click please email recruitment@goodshep.org.au

Personal data held by Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand relating to employment applications will be used in accordance with our Privacy Statement, which is available on our website.

We recognise the rich diversity of people across Australia. We are committed to ensuring that our team is reflective of the diverse community we serve and to supporting a culture of equity, inclusion and diversity.

Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand is a Child Safe employer. Employment is subject to satisfactory referee checks, a current employment working with Children Check, National Criminal History check and proof of the right to work in Australia.

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