Challenge

In 2015, Queensland saw the publication of a landmark enquiry into domestic and family violence services (D&FV) in the region. Quentin Bryce’s “Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an end to domestic and family violence in Queensland” made over 150 recommendations for changes to family violence services - and the government needed to respond.

Approach

A key part of the report was the recommendation of a co-design methodology. FutureGov was brought in to demonstrate the benefits of this approach across various systems and at scale.

Over four months, we worked with survivors of family violence and a wide range of organisations to fully understand the needs of users within the existing system.

By understanding the nuances of service culture and the complexity in the sector, we could design solutions that went further than simply responding to survivors’ needs. We saw an opportunity to drive systemic change across family violence services.

Throughout the project, FutureGov looked to enable the department to establish design-led approaches internally and to learn from our approach to ‘whole-of-systems’ redesign. We explored how the department might harness the power of technology to achieve radically different outcomes for people affected by family violence, as well as drive systemic change across D&FV services.

Impact

We recommended that the department establish an Innovation Lab to push innovation projects forward. Funding for the Lab was successful and the department is continuing the work required to put a stop to family violence.