Biography and Publications
Biographies
Dr Andrew Turnell
Andrew is an independent social worker, brief family therapist and child protection consultant from Perth, Western Australia. As well as international consultancy and teaching work, Andrew maintains a clinical practice working solely with families where child maltreatment has occurred or is suspected but the parents deny responsibility. Andrew has published extensively on the subjects of brief therapy and child protection, including his most well known works: Turnell, A. and Edwards, S. (1999) Signs of Safety: A Solution and Safety Oriented Approach to Child Protection Casework, New York, Norton. Turnell, A. and Essex, S. (2006) Working with ‘Denied’ Child Abuse: The Resolutions Approach, Open University Press. Andrew is currently preparing his third book, Building safety in child protection practice: working from a solution and strengths perspective, to be published by Palgrave-Macmillan. In 2007, Andrew completed his PhD at Curtin University which focused on practitioner and service recipient-defined constructive child protection practice.
During the 1990’s, Andrew and colleague Steve Edwards, in conjunction with over 150 West Australian child protection workers, developed the Signs of Safety approach to child protection casework. The approach has won two Australian social service awards for innovative practice. Andrew has also been closely involved in the development of statutory child protection risk assessment frameworks in Victoria and West Australia that are collaborative and participatory, that integrate best professional knowledge alongside local family and cultural knowledge, and that balance information regarding danger/harm alongside strengths and safety.
Andrew regularly gives lectures and workshops in Australia, Europe, North America, Japan and New Zealand. Having been involved in the creation of the Signs of Safety approach to front-line practice Andrew balances his time between working with front-line practitioners and supervisors developing the casework approach itself and working with senior staff in developing processes that enable the casework approach to be implemented across child protection systems. Andrew is currently employed by statutory protection organizations in New Zealand, England, The Netherlands, Canada and the USA Western Australia to provide ongoing support, supervision and consultancy in system-wide implementations of the Signs of Safety approach. The longest standing implementations of the Signs of Safety are occurring in Olmsted and Carver Counties, Minnesota, Gateshead Children's Services Authority, England, Barnardos Dundee, Open Home Foundation, New Zealand, Bureau Jeugdzorg Drenthe and Zeeland. Andrew is particularly excited to be involved in leading a system-wide implementation of the Signs of Safety in his home state of Western Australia in the Department for Child Protection (serving 1.8 million people). This implementation began in 2008.
Since Andrew’s consultancy work integrates both organizational and direct practice foci this in turn flows into Andrew’s ongoing endeavour to document and prepare new written and DVD training examples and resources on the application of safety-organised practice to different case, case management and organizational contexts.
Sonja Parker
Sonja is an independent social worker, teacher and child protection consultant from Perth, Western Australia. Sonja has used the Signs of Safety approach in her work a statutory child protection department, with a non-government reunification and family preservation program, and in a hospital-based child protection unit. Sonja’s work at Resolutions Consultancy focuses on training and consultation, as well as direct practice with families and she is also preparing practice and training resources. Sonja currently provides ongoing consultation to West Australian Department for Child Protection Learning and Development Centre and as such is constantly training practitioners and developing learning processes and materials to enable practitioners to better understand and use the Signs of Safety. Sonja combines her love of teaching and teaching background with the strong foundation she has in direct practice using safety-organised ideas, processes and skills. Sonja is also acting as the consultant for Uniting Care West, in its implementation of the Signs of Safety in its family preservation and reunification program in Western Australia. Sonja’s clinical work focuses on family conferencing, reunification, working with denied child abuse and on involving children in assessment and planning. Sonja is passionate about ensuring that family members, including children and young people, have a strong voice in planning for their future.
Publications, Papers and DVDs
Teoh, A. H., Laffer, J., Parton, N., and Turnell A. (2003).“Trafficking in meaning: constructive social work in child protection practice” in Chris Hall, Kirsi Juhila, Nigel Parton and Tarja Pösö (Editors) Client as Practice, Jessica Kingsley, London.
Turnell, A. (1998). The Signs of Safety: Reflections on the road toward a comprehensive partnership practice for child protection casework. 12th International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect, Auckland, New Zealand Sept 6-9.
Turnell, A. (2000). “Current International Developments in Risk Assessment: A Background Paper”. Family and Children’s Services, Risk Assessment and Risk Management Project. Perth.
Turnell, A. (2001). Humour in therapy; reflections from practice, Context. Winter: 18-22.
Turnell, A. (2005). Introduction to the Signs of Safety (DVD), Resolutions Consultancy, Perth. Available at: www.signsofsafety.net
Turnell, A. (2004). Relationship-grounded, safety-organised child protection practice: Dreamtime or real-time option for child welfare? Protecting Children, 19(2): 14–25.
Turnell, A. (2006). Constructive Child Protection Practice: An Oxymoron or News of Difference? Journal of Systemic Therapies 25(2): 3-12.
Turnell, A. (2006). Tecken på säkerhet - Signs of Safety på svenska. In M. Söderquist. & A. Suskin-Holmqvist, A. (Eds.), Delaktighet - Lösningsfokuserat förhållningssätt i utredningsarbete. Stockholm: Mareld.
Turnell, A. (2007). Enacting the interpretive turn: narrative means toward transformational practice in child protection social work, PhD Thesis, Perth: Curtin University.
Turnell, A. (2007). Solution-focused brief therapy: thinking and practicing beyond the therapy room. In F. Thomas and T. Nelson (Eds.), Clinical Applications of Solution-focused Brief Therapy, Bimmington: Haworth Press, USA.
Turnell, A. (2007). Words and pictures: informing and involving children in child abuse cases (DVD), Resolutions Consultancy, Perth. Available at: www.signsofsafety.net
Turnell, A. (2008). Adoption of the Signs of Safety as the Department for Child Protection’s child protection practice framework: background paper, Perth, West Australia: Department for Child Protection.
Turnell A. (In press). Building safety in child protection practice: working from a solution and strengths perspective. London: Palgrave.
Turnell A. & Edwards S. (1997). Aspiring to partnership: The signs of safety approach to child protection casework, Child Abuse Review, 6: 179 - 190.
Turnell A. & Edwards S. (1999). Signs of safety: a solution and safety oriented approach to child protection casework. New York: Norton.
Turnell, A., Elliott, S. and Hogg, V. (2007). Compassionate, safe and rigorous child protection practice with parents of adopted children. Child Abuse Review 16(2): 108-119.
Turnell A. and Essex S. (2006). Working with situations of ‘denied’ child abuse: the Resolutions approach. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Turnell A., Lohrbach, S and Curran, S. (2008). Working with the ‘involuntary client’ in child protection: lessons from successful practice. In M. Calder (Ed.) The carrot or the stick? Towards effective practice with involuntary clients, London: Russell House Publishing.
Turnell A. and Lipchik, E. (1999).“Empathy in brief therapy: the essential but overlooked aspect.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. 20(4): 177-182.
Turnell A. and Parker, S. (2008). Signs of Safety framework as a case consultation tool. Perth: Resolutions Consultancy.
The Gathering will feature presentations from agencies using the approach in North America and around the world. While no more places are available video of all presentations will be on the site from mid April.
