Toitū te Waiora is seeking feedback on specialist family violence Skill Standards and Micro-credentials which align to Family Violence Risk and Safety Practice Framework (RSPF) ‘Essential’ and ‘Entry’ Level capabilities.
Skill Standards will provide the foundation for a structured Micro-credential pathway and will support frontline workers to improve how they understand, and safely respond, to risk and enable safety and wellbeing.
Following the Health and Wellbeing qualification reviews in 2024, Toitū te Waiora identified a gap in specialist family violence and sexual violence skills and knowledge across health and wellbeing workforces. To address this, Toitū te Waiora, in collaboration with the Centre for Family Violence and Sexual Violence Prevention, is developing two NZQCF level 4 and 5 Micro-credentials alongside underpinning Skill Standards based on the ‘Essential’ and ‘Entry’ levels capabilities which can be found on pages 36-41 of the RSPF. This joint project contributes to Te Aorerekura – the 25-year national strategy to eliminate family violence and sexual violence– Shift 3: Towards skilled, culturally competent, and sustainable workforces and aligns with Te Aorerekura Action Plan 2025-2030 under Strengthening Our Workforce – Training frontline statutory workers and Keeping People Safe – supporting a consistent approach to understanding family violence risk.
The RSPF is an extension of the existing family violence capability frameworks, the Specialist Family Violence Organisational Standards (SOS) and the Family Violence Entry to Expert Capability Framework (E2E). Its foundations, principles and capabilities are drawn from the SOS and E2E to provide a benchmark for a safe and effective approach to understanding, and responding to, family violence risk. The RSPF was developed by tangata whenua and tauiwi specialist family violence practitioners and academics and government agencies with expert advice from child and young people specialists, and representative from the Pacific Practitioners Forum, the Ethnic Communities Network, the interim Disability Reference group, the Older People Advisory Group, the Rainbow Violence Prevention Network and Hohou te Rongo Kahukura.
Skill standard – Recognise and respond to family violence risk and refer to appropriate services (Level 4) (10 credits).
Micro-credential – Family violence risk and safety practice (essential) (Level 4) (10 credits).
Skill standard 5a – Evaluate family violence risk (Level 5) (10 credits).
Skill standard 5b – Safe responses to family violence risk (Level 5) (10 credits).
Skill standard 5c – Make warm referrals and share information to support safety in family violence risk (Level 5) (10 credits).
Micro-credential – Family violence risk and safety practice (entry) (Level 5) (30 credits).
To see how the skills have been mapped across from the RSPF into the skill standards please review here.
We welcome your feedback, please send any feedback to: qualifications@toitutewaiora.nz
Deadline for submission: 5pm Wednesday 15th October 2025.
