MARAM in Child Protection practice

MARAM in Child Protection practice

Child Protection has legislated responsibilities to screen, assess and manage family violence risk using the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) framework. MARAM in child protection practice is now aligned with the SAFER children framework.

What is MARAM?

MARAM is a contemporary, evidence-based risk assessment framework and replaces the Common Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF), as recommended by the Royal Commission into Family Violence (2016).

The aim of MARAM is to increase the safety and wellbeing of Victorians by helping workforces with a responsibility under legislation to identify, assess and manage family violence risk effectively by creating a shared understanding of family violence across the sector. 

MARAM will enable our frontline services to help keep families and children safe through: 

  • information sharing that enhances service delivery, enables earlier interventions, and encourages proactive information sharing to prevent trauma and harm for families and children 
  • identifying risk to families and children by replacing inconsistent questioning with evidenced based screening tools, and  
  • improving decision making by providing evidenced based risk assessments.  

The MARAM framework is underpinned by 10 principles and responsibilities, aimed at providing professionals and services with a shared understanding of family violence and facilitating consistent, effective and safe responses for people experiencing family violence (MARAM Foundational Knowledge guide). Services or professionals prescribed under part 11 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 have differing responsibilities depending on their role and specialisation in the service system. Child Protection has the following responsibilities:

 

Responsibility

CPP2

CPP3 +

1: Engage respectfully, sensitively, and safely

*

*

2: Identify family violence risk

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*

3: Undertake intermediate risk assessment

 

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4: Undertake intermediate risk management

 

*

5: Seek consultation with specialists

 

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6: Sharing information with other services

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*

7: Undertake comprehensive risk assessment

 

 

8: Undertake comprehensive risk management and safety planning

 

 

9: Contribute to coordinated risk management

*

*

10: Collaborate for ongoing risk assessment and risk management purposes

*

*

 

Details about the MARAM framework are located on the department’s Family violence intranet page. 

Embedding MARAM in child protection practice 

On 20 November 2021, MARAM was aligned with the SAFER children framework. Practitioners are now able to completed the adult and child victim survivor MARAM assessments on CRIS, as part of the child's overall risk assessment and review of the risk assessment. Family violence risk factors are recorded in the family violence Essential information field on CRIS. 

To further assist child protection practitioners using the MARAM in their practice, information sheets specific to Child Protection practice have been replaced with procedures and advice. These include: 

Assessing and managing family violence in intake - procedure

Assessing and managing family violence during investigation phase - procedure

Assessing and managing family violence during protective intervention phase - procedure

Assessing and managing family violence during protection order phase - procedure

Assessing and managing family violence in child protection - advice

The MARAM assessment  and screening tools have been redeveloped to remove the assessment sections. The MARAM prompt tools  can be used by practitioners when seeking family violence information from children and adult victim survivors.

MARAM prompt tools for Child Protection are located in SAFER and MARAM assessment tools - Tools and Checklists