Questions: The Heart of Signs of Safety
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“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 model are the questions practitioners, supervisors and managers ask. 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.
In an exact parallel to the casework organizations implementing the Signs of Safety need to build their agencies and the workers’ capacity to adopt a questioning rather than expert approach. This workshop will focus on building participants’ capacity to ask questions and lead rigorous conversations that go straight after safety for children, in even the most contested child protection cases.
In this workshop Ktunaxa Kinbasket CFS staff will begin the program giving an introduction to the Signs of Safety, explain why KKCFS has adopted the approach and describe some of the agency’s excitement and struggles arising in their ongoing implementation. Andrew will then en- gage 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. The workshop will conclude with the most important segment in which Andrew will interview KKCFS staff to find out how they are using questions to improve their practice and create stronger safety for children.
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.
