Questions: The Heart of the Signs of Safety
Registraions Closed
“The single most important factor in minimizing error in child protection practice is to admit that you might be wrong”
Professor Eileen Munro
The Signs of Safety model is above all a questioning approach. This quite literally means the skills that animate the Signs of Safety are the questions practitioners, supervisors and managers ask. Child protection work creates enormous anxiety precisely because it is focused on societies’ most vulnerable children and the professional is always under pressure to be the expert in what is wrong and what should be done. Instead of telling parents what to do, the Signs of Safety approach calls professionals to ask sharp, rigorous, safety-focused questions while always honouring how hard it is to answer demanding questions about issues of child abuse. This workshop will focus on building participants’ capacity to ask questions and lead rigourous conversations that go straight after safety for children, in even the most contested child protection cases.
This will be an active workshop. Andrew will engage participants in exploring many case scenarios and have participants think through questions that would most effectively get professionals and families focused on the core issues of danger, harm, strengths and safety. Andrew will take participants through the full range of questions (appreciative, strengths-based, solution-focused, problem-focused, response-based and safety-organised) that underpin the Signs of Safety and also explore the conversational strategies and sequences that turn these questions into meaningful dialogue.
Handouts will be provided for all participants.
Duel Workshop Discount
A $40 AUD (Approx. $40 CAD) discount is available to attendees registering for both this workshop and the safety planning workshop (7-8 July). To register for both and receive the discount, please register at www.signsofsafety.net/1107-canada-duel
For more information about the safety planning workshop, please go to www.signsofsafety.net/1107-canada-safety
The Department for Child Protection in West Australia has chosen November 12, 13 and 14, 2012 for its second Signs of Safety Gathering. All 17 districts from around the state will present as well as three international presentations. This Gathering will provide an end-to-end picture of a comprehensive system-wide Signs of Safety implementation. Participants from overseas and elsewhere in Australia are welcome though places will be limited.
