TENTH INTERNATIONAL Signs of Sa fety Gatheringsofs-events.s3.amazonaws.com/1607-gb-gathering/2016-uk... · 2016-07-14 · sophistication, we know that whilst practice is the very

Signs of SafetyGathering

ProgrammeGathering2016

Innovation and Couragein Children’s Services

T E N T H I N T E R N A T I O N A L

5–7 July 2016Norwich, United Kingdom



T E N T H I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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This Gathering will not be live-streamed however video of all sessions will be available to view for a limited time on the web page noted above from late-August.

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W E B S I T E

V I D E O

It’s with the greatest pleasure I welcome my close colleague and Signs of

Safety co-creator Steve Edwards to this Gathering. This is the first international

Gathering Steve has been able to attend. It’s a simple fact that there would be no

Signs of Safety approach without Steve and it will be a joy to share this Gathering

with him and hear his reflections at the close. I want also to welcome Pon Jedtha

and Ross Layton from Cambodian Children’s Trust (CTC) from Battambang,

Cambodia. CTC together with two other Cambodian children’s services agencies

have asked the Signs of Safety community to work with them over the coming

years in their important social and cultural work. CTC want to utilise and apply

the Signs of Safety approach in their work of developing community based,

family centred children’s services and challenge the orphanage business model

that undermines traditional child raising in Cambodia and across the developing

world. The same individualised child rescue model that is problematic in The West

has tragic consequences in poorer countries and I believe we in over developed

countries have much to learn from building our connection with Pon, Ross, CTC

and their partners. Thank you for joining us Pon and Ross. Finally, and most

importantly, I want to honour and thank all those who will make presentations at

this Gathering. You will be brilliant and you will make this Gathering and show us

what the Signs of Safety looks like in practice and in organisation!

Welcome to the Tenth International Signs of Safety Gathering!

Andrew Turnell

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Since the first Signs of Safety Gathering was held in England in 2005 (under the watchful eye of Gateshead’s

Angel of the North), an English Gathering always feels like coming home. That first Gathering was in a very

real way an international coming out for the Signs of Safety as well as the creation of a wonderful platform

for building and growing a community around the approach. The past 11 years have seen much change and

learning. Interest in the Signs of Safety has exploded, the practice model has continued to evolve and most

critically we have become more acutely aware that organisational alignment is crucial if the approach is to

significantly change outcomes for children and their families. This Gathering will, as always offer rich and

detailed stories from practitioners themselves about how the approach works in their cases and their agency.

It is the heart of the approach that always makes a Signs of Safety Gathering so inspiring. As the Signs of Safety

practice model has matured and as more organisations have taken on the approach our biggest challenge is

to grow our capacity to assist procedurally-habituated organisations to align themselves with the practice,

describing processes for learning, measurement, organisation, and leadership that allow the promise of the

Signs of Safety approach to be realised in consistently improved outcomes for children and families. The

2016 Gathering marks a moment in the evolution of the Signs of Safety approach where we report back on

the practice, organisational alignment and research work of the Signs of Safety English Innovations Project

and hear from others from around the world about how we are shaping and leading our organisations to use

Signs of Safety to put children, their parents and those naturally connected to them back at the centre of the

assessment, decision-making and planning. The learning continues! As well as welcoming all participants I

want to also offer two welcomes particularly special to me:

I’m very proud and excited to stand alongside my friend and mentor Andrew Turnell to welcome you to the

10th International Signs of Safety Gathering. When we held the first Gathering in 2005 in Gateshead, UK, I

thought “well it doesn’t get much better than this”, but it does and it has and this week all of the participants

will be showing us just how much better it has got. The early Gatherings focused on innovative practice and

we were inspired by what we heard and saw and it gave practitioners the courage and vision to try out these

new ideas with the children and families they were working with. Now, as we have grown in wisdom and

sophistication, we know that whilst practice is the very heart of everything that matters and is the main reason

we are all here, we also know so much more.

Viv Hogg

3Signs of Safety

GatheringInnovation and Couragein Children’s Services

We know that the practice we admire and strive for can only be achieved in organisations that understand

that everyone from the Chief Executive to the person answering the phone has a crucial role in leading this

practice; that a learning organisation is much more than a strap-line and that Rome wasn’t built in a day so if

we are serious about transforming our services, we need to be in it for the long haul.

Over this week, it is my hope and belief that practitioners will learn things that will make them become better

at what they do, that leaders will be inspired by what they hear to become stronger in their leadership and

that trainers will learn from every single one of you and will incorporate their learning into the training that

they bring back to your organisations. Since the last International Gathering to be held in the UK in 2014, much

has happened; Munro, Turnell & Murphy (MTM) have been working in partnership with 10 Local Authorities

in England under a Government innovation project. This project has really helped us focus on what it takes to

radically reform the way we do complex work within a complex system.

You will hear from 9 of the 10 agencies this week and you will also hear Andrew

Turnell & Terry Murphy offering some reflections about what we have learned

along the way. Every presentation will highlight individual and organisational

learning and because we are all so very well connected up nationally and

internationally, the ideas will spread and take hold and we will take courage from

each other to challenge our systems, to try out new ways of doing things and to

stake a claim for good practice. Have a great Gathering, learn lots and make

new friends.

Dylan’s story explains how the use of Words and Pictures has

contributed to improved parent, child and carer relationships for

him and his family. The presentation will include an outline of

the work, share samples and show film extracts evidencing what

difference the work meant for those involved. Hear about some

of the unexpected consequences! The work is captured in more

detail in the refreshed Creative Communications booklet which

will be available at the Gathering.

As a Trainer and Consultant the recurrent struggles among social

workers who are using Signs of Safety is to put aside their own

values and preconceptions, which they know sometimes prevent

them to focus on the safety within the child’s own family network

and also possible reunifications. To have a conversation about a

father and his goal to have drinks cabinet in the house without

emptying it might sound unacceptable or even horrifying for

some. How come some would explore this goal with a father

rather than rejecting it?

Danielle Marsden & Gill Graham

D A Y O N E

9.30



July 2016 - Norwich, United Kingdom

Dylan’s Story Leicestershire County Council

Ophelia Mac-Kwashie

Open Minded vs Own Personal Values En Hel By (An Entire Village) – Sweden

10.00

Morning Tea 10:30 – 11:00

Michael Rosen, Director Children’s Services David Ashcroft, Chair of Local Safeguarding Children Board, Norfolk County Council

Viv Hogg & Andrew Turnell

9.00

9.10

Welcome to the Norwich Gathering

Setting the Scene for the Gathering

5

Dylan’s story explains how the use of Words and Pictures has

contributed to improved parent, child and carer relationships for

him and his family. The presentation will include an outline of

the work, share samples and show film extracts evidencing what

difference the work meant for those involved. Hear about some

of the unexpected consequences! The work is captured in more

detail in the refreshed Creative Communications booklet which

will be available at the Gathering.

VZW Sporen always works with the whole family and focuses

on every child within the family. The presentation shows good

practice in cases from two of their units - De Pas en Traject and

MFC Traject. Unit ‘de Pas’ works primarily with adolescent boys

who stayed in the closed Government Institutions because of

delinquent behavior. This presentation is about a case where

the workers built a good partnership with the mother, how they

involved her network and what it meant to her. Unit ‘MFC Traject’

works with adolescent boys (12–20 years) and we will see how

the workers in a case adjusted the Signs of Safety tools in order

to talk with the children about difficult themes in the guidance.

Avi Versanov and Pene Turnell

11.30 Partnership – The Power Behind The PracticeCanada and Western Australia

Networks, Cartoons & Games – Being Creative With Families and Young PeopleVZW Sporen, Belgium

12.00

Lunch 12:30 – 1:30

Kevin Van Bedts & Denis Gorgon

Through the England Innovations programme, Suffolk has used

the Continuum of Services practice reform project to promote

their firm commitment to using Signs of Safety in all of their

children’s services. Some of their greatest challenges have been

to flex the model within some of their most highly regulated

services (adoption and fostering, residential homes, children in

care) while keep fidelity to Signs of Safety principles.

The presentation will showcase how Suffolk has approached

these challenges through three examples which demonstrate

how Signs of Safety is transforming the work they do.

Alison Hislop, Julia Ilott and Serena Emberley

11.00 Flexing with Fidelity: Adapting Signs of Safety Across Our Services Suffolk County Council

Safety planning is hard and scary work, both to do and to

describe. There is no manual that tells families and professionals

exactly whats needed to guarantee a vulnerable child will be

safe. In every situation, safety planning depends on quickly

building relationships between the family and professionals

where that can together wrestle with what safety will look like.

Safety planning work demands courage because to be effective,

professionals and family must be able to discuss the very worst

possibilities of what may have or could happen and these

conversations need to be lead with compassion, imagination

and hope. Susie describes the relationships that sustains

effective safety planning as firm and hugely kind. Because safety

planning is anxious business and child protection work is so time

pressured there is always the tendency to avoid the relational

work, duck hard issues, avoid difficult conversations and resort

to standardised answers and set piece rules Drawing on two case

examples, Susie and Andrew will explore the interconnection

between the methods and relational foundation of effective

safety planning. Susie and Andrew want to articulate safety

planning as a journey not a product where creating an informed

network, a words and pictures explanation and a words and

pictures safety plan are seen as methods for building the depth

of thinking and relationship in which children will be kept safe.

Susie Essex and Andrew Turnell

D A Y O N E

2.00




The Journey of Safety Planning

Afternoon Tea 3:00 – 3:30

The presentation shows how Swansea Social Services are using

Signs of Safety in Child Protection Conferences to support

families to fully understand the worries where there is a risk of

significant harm to children and to support families to use their

own strengths and identify existing safety within their network

to develop and follow safety plans to keep families together in a

way that ensures safety and protection for the children.

Sarah Ford & Claire Lloyd

1.30 Learning from a Parent’s Experience in The Child Protection Conference ProcessSwansea Council

7

The presentation tells the story of Sophia, a young care leaver

who experienced secure accommodation because of Child Sexual

Exploitation, regular absconding and an inability to regulate her

emotions. At that time, Sophias experience of Childrens Services

was that it was service-led and problem-focused. When Sophia

falls pregnant with Zarah the service shows her a difference by

using a new practice framework to bring honest conversations,

family-led plans and a strengths based assessment.

Estelle Kelleway, Judith Ramsden & Julie Saunders

4.00 Zarah’s Life Begins....Wokingham Borough Council

The end to end journey - Front Door to Conferencing - in one

short year. Wakefield will demonstrate what you can achieve in

just one year, showing the highs and lows of each stage of the

journey and the impact they have made in the implementation

of Signs of Safety. The presentation will share practice on how

they took partners with them to achieve successful outcomes

and the difference this has made to the success of the project;

the move from basic training to application of the model; and

ensuring quality and consistency of Signs of Safety use through

the alignment of new documentation and support from child

protection conference chairs.

Mark Stonell, Anne-Marie Spencer, Sally Williams & Tami Mohans

3.30 One Short YearWakefield Council

Close 4:30

The presentation demonstrates how the Signs of Safety approach

was used as the overarching framework in establishing how to

best support a 16-year old girl where there were considerable

concerns of death by misadventure and an extensive history of

neglectful and abusive care. It showcases how Signs of Safety was

used by Social Care, Mental Health Services and Education working

together to establish a common understanding and language

surrounding the young persons needs and to create a plan of how

to meet her needs without restricting her freedom.

In 2013, Racheal went from being the acting Executive Director of

a Delegated Aboriginal Agency, to a mother requiring intervention

from CPS. This presentation will highlight some of the pivotal

moments that helped her work to resume full-time care of her

son. Although part of the story is personal, the general reflections

& learnings can be applied to many other cases. Often the focus

is on preparing a strong danger statements or safety goals;

however, this presentation will highlight the importance of both

vulnerability and hope in creating true change for families.

Tower Hamlets is transforming practice by applying Signs of

Safety across the childs journey within Childrens’ Services. This

presentation showcases how they have applied Signs of Safety

from the Front Door through to working with Looked After

Children. It will show how Signs of Something has been used

in work with education. The presenters will also talk about the

complexities of working with culturally and linguistically diverse

families and how Signs of Safety was used to address difficult

and sensitive issues with young people and families.

Nic Yeates, Karen Reynolds & Nicki Bramford

D A Y T W O

9.00




Beth’s Journey Compass, Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation NHS Trust

Racheal Nicholas

One Little Monkey Ktunaxa Kinbasket Child & Family Services, Canada

9.30

Rebecca Ellam, Rumi Mustofa & Amy Sands

10.00 Finding the Right Words London Borough of Tower Hamlets


9

Servelec Corelogic will talk about the current implementation of

Signs of Safety in Manchester City Council using the Mosaic case

management solution and how working in partnership to create

a system that reflects the model can make a radical difference

to practitioners engagement and the quality of their recording.

During the gathering there will be opportunity to see the system

being used and to talk to staff from Servelec Corelogic.

‘#I AM ME’ is a handbook for Social Workers developed in

Swansea that brings important messages learned from working

with Words and Pictures and integrating these into the childs Life

Story Work. The presentation will share how the Signs of Safety

approach inspired the evolution of the workbook, how it aims to

change practice, challenges faced when changing practice and

feedback from workers in how the workbook is supporting them

to help parents/carers give their children honest explanations.

From a child welfare agency Ontario, Canada, the presenters

will take you along their journey since the last Gathering in

Minnesota (2015), stressing to you how their agency was inspired

by the Signs of Safety work happening all over the globe. Just

when we thought we got it, the Revolution was just that! It

shook us again but in the best possible way. We knew we were

on the right track, but we had not even neared the station.

This presentation will use a case example to demonstrate the

importance of joint learnings from a worker and supervisors

perspective as well as hearing from the voice of the family, legal

community and community partners. The significance of the

Signs of Safety community has permitted ongoing support and

growth as the field of child welfare continues to evolve.

Pippa Young & Angela Robertson

11.00 Signs of Safety – Making IT WorkServelec Corelogic

#I AM ME – A Handbook for Social WorkersSwansea Council

11.30

Theresa Vinokuroff & Katie Vachon

11.45 A Revolution in 2015... An Awakening in 2016 Children’s Aid Society of Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry, Canada

Vanessa Chambers

Group Photo & Lunch 12:15 – 1:30

Jack (17) violently robbed a snack bar. He needed the money for

his drug addiction. Now he is facing a Youth Probation order.

With his mother and his probation officer, Judith, he made a

words and pictures about his life prior to his offence, what

happened since and where he wants to go. This helps him to

keep grip on the justice process. Because of his mild cognitive

limitation this is important for him. This presentation shows

the work, findings and struggles in working with words and

pictures in Youth Probation.

This presentation describes how an external primary school has

implemented Signs of Safety into everything they do.

It follows the journey of three children and shows how using

Signs of Safety allowed the cases to be held in Early Help without

escalating to Social Care. There are practical examples of direct

work with the children, Words and Pictures, creative tools and

the significant impact this has had for the family.

The presentation also looks at how schools/education can

implement the model into their everyday way of working and the

success of doing so.

This presentation will consider how using Signs of Safety has

changed the trajectory for one family. The presentation will

include consideration of group learning, staff supervision and

supporting staff to try new skills. In the period before using

Signs of Safety the potential for a positive outcome was

questionable. Using Signs of Safety has enabled a fresh

prospective and approach and subsequently enhanced the

mother’s engagement and thinking.

Ruudje Kea & Judith van Boxtel

D A Y T W O

1.30




Imagine Success William Schrikker Group, Netherlands

Alison Russell

Signs of Safety In Early Help and Schools Parish Primary School, Lincolnshire

2.00

Afternoon Tea 2:30 – 3:00

Julie Davidson, Julie Maguire & Melissa Allen

3.00 Leading, Learning and Changing Trajectories Kent County Council

11

The presentation is about encountering an almost impossible

situation and being able to say “Don’t panic, we can fix this

TOGETHER” to the children, parents and other professionals

by using Signs of Safety. It gives a verbal and enthusiastic

account of the turmoil experienced by one family when the

father was removed by police from the home for a second time.

The account includes a description of an in-depth mapping

session which led to a safety plan to allow the father to return to

the home to keep the family together, and shows the investment

that the family placed in the Signs of Safety approach which

ensured a positive outcome.

The Signs of Safety EIP project involved 10 local authorities

in an intensive 18-month learning process researching the

implementation of Signs of Safety in the English context. It

focused on organisational alignment, information management,

four practice reform projects and action research. In this

presentation Andrew Turnell and Terry Murphy will detail the key

learnings and the most important achievements that have come

out of the EIP.

Tess Terzza

3.30 Bringing Daddy Home Norfolk County Council

Learning from England Innovations Project4.00Andrew Turnell & Terry Murphy

Close 4:30

West Sussex will take you on a journey of how they embraced

family led safety planning for an injured baby when it was not

known who in the family had caused the injuries. This was at a

time of redesign of service, new job roles and a context of high

anxiety and scrutiny across our system. By focusing on Signs of

Safety principles and practice, they will demonstrate how this

enabled them to work across local authority boundaries and keep

the child at the heart of their work. They will share their reflections

on past practice and learning for the future.

Safety in Partnership is a local innovation that began in 2010,

following the introduction of frameworks such as Signs of Safety &

Building Safety & Strengthening Families within family and childcare

settings. As the approach evolved so did the thinking on ensuring

that the needs of children are met, improving workforce skills

and promoting a learning culture by improving relationships with

families as well as between social workers and other

professionals/agencies to generate greater safety for children.

This presentation will focus on the use of the Safety in Partnership

approach in situations where social workers are faced with having

to have difficult conversations with families. Focusing on two case

examples to explore the systemic thinking and practice used to

promote collaborative working, carrying out the mapping process

and reaching safety goals and safety plans.

Effective child protection is all about the practice. But it’s also all

about leadership. The ways in which organisations are led can either

support workers to do their best or set an obstacle course where

the work has to happen despite the organisation. Terry Murphy

will interview some of the practitioners who have presented their

practice to the Gathering, to reflect on the leadership they have

experienced and what it takes to support great practice.

Pauline Barrett & Stephanie Snow

D A Y T H R E E

9.00




Embracing Family Led Safety Planning For An Injured Baby West Sussex County Council

Natasha Duddy & Jennifer McKinney

From Difficult Conversations to Different Conversations: The Safety in Partnership ApproachWestern Health & Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland

9.30

Terry Murphy

10.00 Plenary: Reflections on Leadership—from the Practitioners Who Experience its Impact Western Australia

13

Brent is on a drive to transform outcomes for children and

is continuing to embed Signs of Safety across the service -

developing front line practice and reforming organisational

processes to be effective and support practice. The presentation

uses 2 case examples to show how front line staff are using

Signs of Safety in different areas of their work. Social workers

and managers talk on the practical ways of fostering genuine

collaborative relationships amongst families, children and

professionals outside of the Local Authority.

Without Steve Edwards there would be no Signs of Safety

because it was his 17 year’s direct field experience that provided

the foundation from which Steve and Andrew created the

approach. Andrew and Steve started collaborating in 1988, and

somehow 28 years later they find themselves in 2016 with their

work having transformed into an internationally recognised

child protection approach. In this presentation Steve will bring

his practitioner’s heart and connect what he has heard at

this Gathering to the history and development of the Signs of

Safety with his thoughts about how we continue to strive to put

children, parents and families at the centre of the work.

Emotional neglect and unsafe attachment are topics that are

difficult to address in assessments. The presentation shows a

case example where the focus is especially on creating helpful

questions directed to these issues and to creating a common

language in a context of social work with drug addicted

parents. It will demonstrate an understanding of assessments

as ‘situations of knowledge production’ where different forms

of knowledge have to be balanced and in making sense of the

questions at stake.

Emily Gwynn, Jennifer Faithfull & Justin Colman

11.15 A Flexible Approach – Using Signs Of Safety Across Our WorkLondon Borough of Brent

Are We There Yet? 11.45

Ulla Peters

12.00 Making the Invisible VisibleUniversity of Luxembourg

Steve Edwards


Lunch 12:30 – 1:30

This presentation demonstrates how Words & Pictures was used

to create an open understanding for parents with a learning

disability of the worries held by professionals about their ability

to safely care for their baby. It considers the impact that this

piece of work had upon the parents’ understanding of the

concerns and the positive change in their ability to meet their

child’s needs, which led to this child being able to remain within

their family. It will provide an opportunity to see how the work

influenced the progress made by the family, how it provided a

platform for all parties to express and talk about their worries

in a way that the parents could understand and the importance

of securing parents’ understanding and engagement when

assessing for and protecting against risk.

Professor Eileen Munro and Dame Moira Gibb connect messages

of the Gathering’s presentations to the bigger issues that always

swirl around, intersect and drive children’s service organisation,

policy and practice. This final session will help all participants think

more broadly about the connections between their own contexts

and current policy/social issues that face all child protection

practitioners and organisations, and will assist us as we seek to

build more participatory, human focused children’s services.

Some final thoughts on the Gathering and thank-you’s from

Andrew and Viv.

Darryl Clarke & Tina Morris

D A Y T H R E E

1.30




Inventive Words & Pictures Leicestershire County Council

Professor Eileen Munro & Dame Moira GibbReflections, Intersections and Directions 2.00

Andrew Turnell Viv Hogg3.00 Way Forward/Thanks

Close 3:30

Documents

TENTH INTERNATIONAL Signs of Sa fety Gatheringsofs-events.s3.amazonaws.com/1607-gb-gathering/2016-uk... · 2016-07-14 · sophistication, we know that whilst practice is the very