Signs of Safety in Bromley A strengths based model for working with families Teresa Doherty, Gill Downton, Wendy Kimberley

Background Started in Western Australia in 1990s Collaboration between Andrew Turnell and Steve Edwards, developed on the ground Endorsed by Eileen Munro in England 2011 Desire to move away from overuse of policy and procedure to on the ground practice that makes a constructive difference for families and professionals and creates meaningful safety for children in high risk cases

A process of creating a map of the circumstances around a vulnerable child at home or in care Rigorous, sustainable, everyday child safety in the actual home and where the child lives and goes to school Rather than try and assert a definitive truth search for detail through rigorous questions and evaluating information in an disciplined way

The approach keeps the child in the middle of the work through case mapping and through use of the tools for involving children Words and pictures story board Three Houses: house of worries, house of good things and house of dreams What we are worried about What’s working well What needs to happen

Think of a child exercise What are you worried about? What’s working well? What needs to happen?

The Bromley picture so far

Implementation Project Group led by Anita Gibbons Head of Service QI and Principal Social Worker Almost 100% of CSC staff completed 2 day training with Resolutions Company – UK Licenced organisation Resolutions providing coaching Practice leads in each team Forms being changed to reflect model

Common Assessment Framework Early intervention and CAF Redesign of forms Pilot underway in Schools Launch event in July Screenshots of forms

Child Protection Conferences Developed signs of safety approach from strengthening families New conference format introduced 3 columns : What are we worried about? Past Harm/Future Danger/Complicating Factors What’s Working Well? Existing strengths Safety What needs to happen? (the plan) Scaling CP or CIN?

Scaling Question A simple way of gauging and measuring thoughts that children find very easy to understand On a scale of 0-10 where 10 is (best outcome) and 0 is ( worst outcome) where do you rate this situation Scaling exercise

Danger statement/safety goals Danger/what we are worried about Safety/what’s working well Bookends

Danger Statement The social worker and her manager are really impressed with the way that mum has stopped drinking in front of the children and is working had to stop using drugs but we are still worried that if Gemma is having a bad time she might buy heroin again and start drinking when the children are around. If she does this she may get upset and start shouting like she has in the past and this will frighten the children

Safety Goal What would you need to see to be satisfied that the children are safe? What would you need to be confident that things are going in the right direction?

Safety/Success Goals Safety Goals- an articulation of the exact things that professionals need to see to be satisfied that children are safe (Success Goals-what we need to be seeing to be sure we were functioning as well as we can as a service?) Safety Plan/Improvement Plan-setting out exactly how those goals can be achieved Requires skilful use of authority, purposeful questioning and vision building to motivate people to get the job done

Scaling Question On a scale of 0 to 10 where 10 is that we feel completely confident that Gemma will never drink or take heroin or be under their influence while she has the care of the children and that she won’t yell or scream around them so badly that they feel scared and 0 is that we are certain that Gemma is still using and drinking whenever she feels low and is so hooked into this way of life that she can’t stop and put the kids first and they are seeing her out of it, shouting and crying -Where are we?

Recap the approach builds Constructive working relationships; with families and between professionals Critical thinking; all processes that support and inform practice foster a questioning approach or a spirit of enquiry as the core professional stance Rigour, skilfulness and greater depth of practice; by locating it in what on- the-ground good practice with complex and challenging cases looks, smells and lives like

A culture of appreciative inquiry Focusing on successful, rather than problematic, behaviour is a powerful mechanism for generating change Focusing forensically on the detail of what works does not, as some fear, minimise problems and dysfunctional behaviour, quite the reverse Inquiring into and honouring what works (with families and practitioners) creates increased openness and energy to look at behaviours that are problematic, dysfunctional or destructive

Next Steps In small groups What do you like about what you're heard? What questions do you have?

Next Steps In year one of three year programme Workshops for multi-agency and school staff on CP conferencing. Option of schools buying in Resolutions trainer CLA Reviews will change and follow the case mapping mode Schools to consider using SoS in TAC meetings