Safety Action Meetings – Local Co-ordination Point (LCP)

The Local Coordination Point(LCP) is hosted by the Coffs-Clarence Women’s Court Advocacy Service in Coffs Harbour. The LCP consists of experienced domestic violence case workers who undertake a comprehensive review and assessment of a woman’s level of threat.

The LCP case workers receive all female victim referrals from NSW Police for every domestic violence call out they attend regardless of any police action taken. Referrals can also be received from other external groups and services.

The case workers attempt to call all women who are referred and are the first point of contact, where women can learn about the services available to them or be referred to other specialist services (for example, Staying Home Leaving Violence, Warrina Women’s refuge and outreach, income support, financial counselling, court support, housing, youth or family support). During the initial conversation, the case workers will assist women to develop safety planning and offer information to support and increase their safety.

The LCP also acts as a referral point for Safety Action Meetings for victims at serious threat.

Safety Action Meetings(SAM) are a fortnightly meeting which are attended by local government and non-government services. The aim of the SAM is to prevent or reduce the risk of serious threat for victims and their children of domestic violence. The SAM operates by the sharing of relevant information to support the development of time specific ‘Safety Action Plans’.

Safety Action Plans are a list of actions that service providers can take to reduce the threat to a victim’s safety. The safety action plans are only actions for service providers, not victims.

The objectives of the SAM are to:

• prevent domestic violence-related deaths, illness, injury and disability;
• prioritise responses to victims at serious threat and their children;
• reduce re-offending by perpetrators;
• manage threats collaboratively across relevant service providers;
• improve service provider accountability for their response to victims, children and perpetrators; and
• increase the safety of staff working with victims and perpetrators.

Victims do not attend these meetings; nor do perpetrators. This is because the meetings are designed for service providers to commit to actions that support victims and reduce the threat to their safety. The meetings do not result in a plan or document with which the victim must comply.

The meetings focus is on a ‘whole of community’ response to support victims and their children.

Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm
Phone Coffs Harbour: 02 6650 0302

Phone Grafton: 02 6642 5493
Email coffs@nccas.org.au