SHS clients experiencing FDV whose need for accommodation was unmet

6.1 People impacted by violence and abuse have access to timely and ongoing supports, services, resources, and opportunities to support their long-term recovery and healing.

Increased access to affordable, accessible and safe housing.

Proportion of SHS clients experiencing FDV whose need for accommodation was unmet (neither provided or referred).

A decrease in the proportion of SHS clients experiencing FDV whose need for accommodation was unmet is desirable. There are many reasons why a need for assistance may be unmet. This measure should be considered alongside other data from specialist homelessness services, including measures relating to unmet need for FDV-related services, persistent homelessness and return to homelessness.

2022–23

The number of SHS clients experiencing FDV who needed accommodation but were not provided or referred to another agency for this service at any time during the reference period.

Data element: Client—needs assessment service activity outcome, code
Data source: AIHW Specialist Homelessness Services Collection
Data source type: Administrative

The number of SHS clients experiencing FDV who needed accommodation.

Data element: Client—service activity type, homelessness code, code N[N]
Data source: AIHW Specialist Homelessness Services Collection
Data source type: Administrative

This measure is the number of SHS clients experiencing FDV who needed accommodation but were not provided or referred to another agency for this service at any time during the reference period, expressed as a proportion of SHS clients experiencing FDV who needed accommodation.

100 x (Numerator/Denominator)

For each reference period, nationally, by: 

• state and territory
• sex
• age
• country of birth
• disability status
• remoteness
• Indigenous status.

In the SHSC, a client is reported as experiencing family and domestic violence if in any support period during the reporting period the client sought assistance as a result of physical or emotional abuse inflicted on the client by a family member or if as part of any support period a person required family or domestic violence assistance. A client can be formally referred to the SHS agency by a non-SHS FDV service. Note, the ability to include clients formally referred from a non-SHS FDV agency was introduced on 1 July 2019 and only applies to support periods starting on or after this date. 
Data on people affected by family and domestic violence may include those who needed, were provided with, or referred to perpetrator support services. For support periods starting prior to 1 July 2019 (some of which currently remain active), a general DV service item covering both victims and perpetrators was collected/reported in the SHSC. 
The SHSC collects information on the needs of clients during their period of support from a specialist homelessness agency. Needs may be identified by the client and/or the service provider. Although this information is collected at the beginning of a support period, updated at the end of each month a client is supported and again at the end of each support period, each individual need is only recorded once in any collection month. For this indicator, the needs assessment is aggregated for the total financial year, that is, sometimes over multiple support periods.
For people who receive some support from a SHS agency, there may be a range of reasons an agency cannot provide all the assistance required. For example, the person may be seeking a specialised service not offered by that particular agency, the agency may not have the capacity to provide assistance at that time or the person may not be in the target group for the agency.
Clients who identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in any of their support periods are considered as Indigenous clients.
It is important to note that these figures reflect people who receive some sort of service from SHS agencies and therefore does not reflect the level of unmet demand for support for the whole of the Australian population.

Caution should be used when comparing Victorian client numbers over recent years. A practice correction to how some family violence agencies were recording clients as well as a phased shift of family violence intake to non-SHS services may result in an overall decrease in FDV client numbers since 2017–18.
Caution should be used when interpreting data about services needed, provided and referred for younger children. Many children and young people present to SHS as part of a group and the data collected about their services may actually reflect those of their household or presenting group.