Violence against women would be significantly reduced if all women experienced safe and respectful relationships. The Council highlighted the critical need for all people, particularly young people, to develop the skills to maintain respectful relationships. The Council recommended urgent action is taken to trial and evaluate respectful relationships programs for young people14 and build the capacity of the workforce delivering prevention education.15
Respectful relationship programs are education services that seek to develop the skills people need to treat their partners with respect. These programs complement the impact of strong role models in teaching young people about positive relationships.
A number of programs already operate in schools and other settings. The Australian Government is progressing a review of the National Safe Schools Framework with a focus on teacher training in positive student management, responses to victimisation and abuse, teaching of values, and the emergence of technologies and their impact on student wellbeing and protection.
The Australian Government is committed to increasing the uptake of respectful relationships programs in schools and services used by young people. The Government will work with the States and Territories through COAG to increase the take-up of respectful relationships programs as the evidence about the impact and effectiveness of these programs develops.
In addition, the Australian Government will invest $9 million to improve the quality and uptake of respectful relationships programs nationally.
Work on this initiative is already well progressed. This year 31 sites nationally will test six different programs. Programs will be implemented mostly in mainstream school settings and will reach up to 8,000 young people over a period of five years. Programs will also be implemented in non-school settings and will target vulnerable young people including those with intellectual disability, young people who have left school and young people living in remote communities.
The Australian Government will fund an evaluation of the leading South Australian respectful relationships program Keeping Safe. This program is currently delivered in all South Australian schools. The evaluation will form the basis of further work to develop best practice in the violence prevention education sector.
Evaluation of the trial sites and existing programs will provide frontline workers with the resources they need to run effective respectful relationships programs.