Towards a Science of Implementation for Signs of Safety

Joke Wiggerink (Executive Director of Signs of Safety International)Terry Murphy (Partner, Munro, Turnell & Murphy Child Protection Consulting)

Towards a science of implementation for Signs of Safety

Kansas Gathering, October 2017

Joke Wiggerink and Terry Murphy

• 70% of implementations fail• A word about implementation science:

Implementation can be more of an art BUT what can make it more like science?• Transparent logic• Replicable method• Being tested and able to stand up in the real

world

Mission critical - learning

Training – for a clear vision and specific contentBUT - 70:20:10 • 70% is in the doing

• 20% is in the reflection and networking and is the key to building impact

• 10% the training

SO - Strategies for the 20%• Signs of Safety learning methods - group supervision, appreciative

inquiry and learning cases to focus and engage the organization - in the workplace

Mission critical - leadership

Leading in a way that is consistent with how we expect worker to practice• Setting a parallel process • Modeling Signs of Safety in how you manage

and lead• Questioning, solution focused• Signs of Safety principles and disciplines• Mapping issues

Mission critical – organizational alignment

Forms and practice guidance that workers actually use• Workflow in agencies• What staff actually do with families• Matching Signs of Safety practice

Name/Age/ID# DateOpened

AbuseType*

MappingInternal

(noordate)

MappingwithFamily(noordate)

ThreeHouses

(noordate)

DangerStatement

SafetyGoalSafety

Scale(noorCPFSrating)

WordandPictures

NetworkProvidenumber

AdultSafetyPlan

ChildSafetyPlan(noor

date)

JaneSmith’sCases

AhHin Xeng’sCases

AlisonCamp’sCases

JemJoyce’sCases

Melli Majid13 03/01/16 N&PA 06/01/16 No 21/01/16 Yes Yes No No 2 No No

MaryTelis5 12/06/15 FDVEAN 19/06/15 23/06/15 21/06/15 Yes Yes 6 23/11/15 7 Yes No

Mission critical – meaningful measures

• Aligned QA • dashboard• collaborative audit• family and staff survey • core data (measuring agency goals)

• AND the big one - aligned Case Information System (IT)

A bit more on leadership development

• Set and forget is not enough - active endorsed senior leadership and strategies to distribute leadership

• Trajectory for organizational leadership as there is for practice leaders• cycles for exploring good practice and

collaborative audit • leadership goals and review • workshops on the mission criticals

A bit more on the leadership development trajectory

• Clear progression but a menu of learning and development activities from which we can draw

• Able to match development activities to the organization’s own priorities and progress

• Providing both implementation method and responsiveness to where the agency is

Implementation hits and misses in our experience

Western Australia• Hits: relentless and active leadership, the

beginnings of organizational alignment, integrating and bringing learning in-house

• Misses: learning organization arrangements not strong enough, inadequate alignment (workflows not adjusted enough) and IT debacle

Implementation hits and misses in our experience

Drenthe• Hits: active leadership with a great passion for solution

focused questions, aligning the IT system (somewhat)• Misses: Signs of Safety forms aligned in the IT system,

but the old forms were also there, did not have a system for different service teams to learn from each other (and so people treated Signs of Safety as a menu, taking only the bits they liked most)

Implementation hits and misses in our experience

England Innovations Project• Hits: organizational transformation being

grounded in practice, whole organization focus, comprehensive strategies

• Misses: alignment too haphazard and development of a QA system not collaborative enough and difficult to land

What makes this implementation “science”

• Transparent logic underpinning implementation content, methods and processes

• Documented content, methods and processes to assist it to be replicable

• Measurement reflecting the organization’s goals and Signs of Safety practice

Does this make it easy and straightforward? • Implementation is still as multi-facetted and complex as

the organization • But, it simplifies the complexity and keeps us on track

Are we there yet?• Like Signs of Safety practice, implementation learning and

development continues based on real life experience • Implementation theory, framework and trajectories are all

clearly documented with resources for trainers, consultants and agencies

• Solid infrastructure of licensed trainers and consultants with supervision and quality control

• All available for your agency! Knowledge Bank• Next steps – Signs of Safety agency accreditation 2019, and

the evolution to the Signs of Safety implementation framework, theory and trajectory V3 in 2020

Towards a Science of Implementation for Signs of Safety

Terry Murphy (Partner, Munro, Turnell & Murphy Child Protection Consulting)Joke Wiggerink (Executive Director of Signs of Safety International)