Auditing the water industry’s family violence response

The Victorian water regulator audits water businesses annually to check compliance with customer services codes.  This year’s audit, the Essential Services Commission (ESC) will focus on the family violence provisions of the code which must be implemented by 30 June 2018. 

The audit will test whether the minimum family violence requirements are addressed in company policies, as well as whether:

·        training has been delivered, and who was trained 

·        family violence included as an eligibility criteria for hardship assistance 

·        call handling processes for customer affected by family violence.

Progress will then be checked next year.

In 2018-19, the ESC is developing a qualitative reporting framework in partnership with the water sector, community groups and family violence specialists. This framework will seek to identify whether staff and customers who experience family violence are benefitting from water business policies and whether outcomes would be improved by further changes.