policy briefings

Designing Policy Briefings for Domestic Violence Systems

Policy briefings translate complex legal, operational, and data issues into concise decision-support tools for boards, executives, funders, and public officials. This page outlines structures and elements you can adapt for your own governance environment.

Who Policy Briefings Are For

Agency and coalition boards of directors.
Senior executives and program leads.
Government program managers and funders.
External oversight bodies, ombuds, or auditors.

Core Elements of a DV Policy Briefing

Context: What problem or system question is being addressed?
Current State: What do we know now (law, practice, data, lived experience)?
Options: What realistic paths or models are available?
Implications: What are the risks, costs, and equity impacts?
Recommendation: What concrete action is being proposed and why?
Implementation Notes: What’s required to move from decision to practice?

A good briefing is short enough to review in one sitting, but detailed enough that a board member or executive can explain the issue to someone else with confidence and accuracy.

Common Briefing Themes in DV Systems

Protection Order Reforms

Changes to criteria, duration, or conditions.
Interaction with criminal vs civil proceedings.
Implementation gaps for marginalized communities.

Information Sharing & Privacy

Clarifying when cross-agency sharing is permitted or required.
Impacts of privacy statutes and regulations.
Risk of over-collection or over-sharing survivor data.

Funding & Resource Allocation

Shifts toward prevention, housing, or specialized services.
Equity across regions and communities.
Stability of staffing and infrastructure funding.

Integrated Court or Police Models

Specialized DV courts, units, or dockets.
Risks of criminalization vs survivor-centered approaches.
Relationships with community-based services.

Structuring Briefings for Different Audiences

Boards & Governance Committees

Emphasize risk, accountability, and alignment with mission.
Include governance decisions required (policy approvals, thresholds).
Highlight fiduciary and ethical dimensions, not just legal compliance.

Executives & Program Leads

Focus on operational feasibility, staffing, and timelines.
Include multiple scenarios with resource implications.
Connect to evaluation frameworks and performance indicators.

Government & Funders

Clarify population impact, regional variation, and scalability.
Show alignment with existing mandates and strategic plans.
Include realistic monitoring and reporting expectations.

Data and Evidence in Policy Briefings

Briefings should combine qualitative and quantitative evidence without overstating certainty. Where data is limited, acknowledge gaps explicitly.

Use conservative language around causality and attribution.
Include lived experience insights and community feedback, not only system metrics.
Reference data governance structures that support responsible use.

Process Checklist

Confirm which decision the briefing is supporting.
Engage relevant internal leads (legal, privacy, operations, finance).
Validate key facts with subject-matter experts and community partners.
Circulate drafts for targeted review, not open-ended re-writing.
Record decisions and follow-up actions after the briefing is presented.

Policy briefings are not a substitute for formal legal opinions or community consultation. They are a structured way to help decision-makers understand trade-offs, risks, and implementation realities.