1 Gladys Rhodes White Interim Director of Children’s Services Manchester City Council

2 New ways of working for social work in Manchester Cultural shift and standards in social work practice in Manchester will require investment in practice and workforce development Significance of managers’ ownership and commitment to new ways of working, and the need for them to be trained and familiar with new methodologies. More families with significant need helped, through expert social care evidence based assessment input, to make the changes required to enable them to look after their children well and in a way that allows them to thrive and achieve.

3 New ways of working for social work in Manchester Signs of Safety will also enable sharper and quicker decision-making when the signs are strong that parents will not be able to make those changes and local authority care is necessary for the children involved Family members are able to contribute to finding a solution to the presenting difficulties as a strengths based, dynamic approach. A new outcome-focused Child Protection Plan model is proposed based on nationally recognised Signs of Safety. It is intended to help staff to consider risk management in a different way. The model focuses on engaging families (including wider family and friendship groups) and professionals as part of the overall solution in a plan agreed jointly. Adopting this model across children’s services and in particular within the Safeguarding and quality assurance function is critical to it’s success.

4 Signs of Safety is a new set of assessment processes for social work which are based on: Making a clear distinction between past harm (what has actually happened not fearful may happen); Future danger (based on past form, what may realistically happen in the future if no changes to current behaviour are made); and, Complicating factors (causal issues such as domestic violence and abuse, substance misuse and poor mental health).

5 Signs of Safety is based on the following principles A Clear distinction between strengths (parental love of their children) and protection (being able to remove/prevent danger from their children as appropriate; The use of plain language which is jargon free; The use of statements based on observable behaviour rather than assumption; The skilful use of authority by giving families choices about how to work with authorities; and, An assessment which acts as a dynamic, rather than a static process, as it continues for the duration of intervention, not just at the start.

6 2 On-going basic training 720 MCC + partners 2012 basic SoS training begins Signs of Safety Launch Feb 1 Feb Years 2- 5 Implemen -tation Plan On-going basic training 1400 staff (MCC & partner) trained Partners’ briefing programme Practice Lead training complete Signs of Safety - Manchester 2016 May July Jul-Sep 2016 JanMar 120 Practice Leads training to champion, deliver & lead SoS across partnership Practice Lead Coaching complete & Manchester based trainers in place Evaluation survey & interviews

7 SOS is a process of creating a map for a vulnerable child 7