1. Signs of Safety in Bromley
A strengths based model for working with families
3.3.16
Teresa Doherty, Gill Downton, Wendy Kimberley

2. 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

3. 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
Any guess as to whose inspection?

4. and through use of the tools for involving children
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
We cannot get to good without;
SW visits being frequent & purposeful
Planning being good or better
Supervision being robust & reflective
Recording capturing the real work going on
Children being seen alone & their thoughts & views really being captured
We have worked hard this year to make;
ASYE experience better
Develop a robust training programme with EVALUATION standards high
Introduced a reflective supervision template to imbed expectation about reflective practice
Introduced more mangerial oversight & support with HOS now doing Drect Observations of practice.
Again this is to support practice improvement & use the knowledge and experience of the senior managers‘.

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

8. The Bromley picture so far

9. 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

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

21. 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?

22. 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

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

24. 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

25. 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?

26. 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

27. 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?

28. 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 QA
Role is NOT;
To act as arbitration between teams when you cant agree case transfers or plans.
Escalation is not a personal insult to you – cases can be escalated when your work on other cases is fantastic BUT if the work is not GOOD on a piece of work & informal discussions have not quickly resolved the problem then escalations MUST be used by Chairs & IRO (it is part of their statutory responsibility to make sure actions are prompt on all cases to ensure GOOD outcomes.
We all make mistakes – that is why we need to share be open and transparent
We are all busy BUT the work you do everyday with your children & families we are really positive makes a difference.
The better you do the better the LA is.
Bromley must Ensure that social workers have enough time, and the skills, to develop meaningful sustained relationships with children in need of protection and looked after children, so that they understand the children’s feelings, views and experiences, and this knowledge informs their assessments and plans.

29. 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

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

31. 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