Inadequate education, training and support can lead to practitioners: • reinforcing societal myths about disability, family and sexual violence • neglecting to understand the complicated lives of victims, with the result that victims are not identified, or are re-victimised or blamed • interfering with victims’ strategies to escape violence • not holding perpetrators accountable for their behaviours • discriminating against victims in a manner that impacts on their access to crucial services • being over-confident in assessing situations when there is a lack of evidence to inform practice.148 Despite the risk to the safety of victims that this poses, very little training is offered to either the family, sexual violence or disability sectors about disability and family and sexual violence.149 A study of refuge services identified that very few refuge staff have the necessary skills to support a woman with complex physical care needs. When there are skilled refuge staff, there is no formalised register of this knowledge or way to share skills, and informal sharing of skills is rare.150 A lack of staff knowledge and skill about violence has also been identified in disability services,151 including in disabled people’s home settings. Conversely disabled women who live at home, who are not receiving any health or disability services, often have no oversight or monitoring of their situation, leaving them at risk of abuse.152 In June 2017 the government released a Workforce Capability Framework153 that describes good practice across a range of issues related to working in the violence sector. This framework is currently (2021) being updated and disabled people are being consulted as part of the developmental process. This consultation exemplifies good practice that should be included in all government policy development and implementation. Twin track two: specialist services Lack of culturally appropriate services Overall, there are no violence prevention and response services that are responsive to, or that incorporate, disability-specific intersectional cultural needs. There are no: • kaupapa Māori services developed to respond to violence against tāngata whaikaha Māori • services for the Deaf community and limited access to NZSL speakers and interpreters • services for Pacific peoples and people from other ethnic minorities in Aotearoa • services for people in the rainbow community. No national integrated safeguarding response People First have identified that there is a gap in both service and justice responses for people in Aotearoa who are unable to remove themselves from violence, abuse or neglect: There is currently no statutory organisation or framework in New Zealand… that supports different agencies to work together to protect adults who because of their situation or circumstances may be at risk of abuse and neglect (defined in the Crimes Act as ‘Vulnerable Adults’).154 Acting now for a violence and abuse free future 43