Most women who phoned helpline hung up before calls were answered

Most women who called a Queensland government-funded domestic violence helpline in October last year did not get an answer, an independent review has found.

Only two in five calls to DVConnect’s WomensLine were answered that month before the callers hung up.

But Amanda Camm, the minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, said there had been signs of improvement, including positive results from the trial of a new peak-time triage method in May and June this year.

The number of calls being abandoned by women seeking help had dropped, she said, as she commended the new chief executive, Joanne Jessop, who took on the role in April this year and had a “a tumultuous start to her tenure”.

“Every unanswered call represents a victim-survivor that wasn’t getting the support that they need,” Camm told media on Friday.

“I am committed to working with DVConnect to make sure that we improve this service for victim-survivors and ensure that when someone who needs the support of the 24/7 [helpline] that their call is answered and they receive the standard of service and response that they desperately deserve.”

The review, conducted by consultants BDO, was commissioned by the LNP government in the months after it took office, following concerns the service was “potentially struggling” as demand surged.

Camm said the report found no issue with the level of funding being provided by government to the service, which increased as the service began to receive more calls.

“They have an adequate workforce. It was around the way in which they were utilising that workforce,” she said.

“It was around clarity of their role, what their role is under the contract arrangements, which my department has now further clarified.

“The review also speaks to a period of time where staff were rostered on and not working or not turning up ... and I would suggest that there were some issues internally within the organisation.”

The events had led to trust being broken between the organisation and her department, Camm said, but she declined to be drawn on her support for the then-chief executive Beck O’Connor to continue as the state’s first victim’s commissioner after her appointment by Labor last year.

“I am confident in their [the DVConnect board’s] selection of their new CEO, and they have demonstrated in working proactively with our department that they are on the right track. But I will say we have a long way to go on the journey,” Camm said.

Comment has been sought from the Labor opposition and O’Connor.

With Matt Dennien

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