Western Australia

Department for Child Protection's Implementation of Signs of Safety

DCP Director General Terry Murphy

At the beginning of 2008 the Western Australian Department for Child Protection, a jurisdiction that serves 2.1 million people, formally adopted the Signs of Safety approach as the organising framework for all its child protection practice across the state. The decision to do so followed a major review of the department resulting in a substantial reform program to which the adoption of this consistent practice framework was added. DCP’s Director General Terry Murphy describes the Signs of Safety framework as “the glue that holds our service delivery reform projects together”. Click here for a short video of Terry speaking about the importance of the Signs of Safety within DCP to 200 departmental staff on June 12, 2008.

Above: Terry Murphy
Director General, Western Australian
Department for Child Protection

Learning Journey and Background Paper

Resolutions Consultancy is working with DCP in undertaking a five-year system-wide implementation process to embed the Signs of Safety in all aspects of service delivery and to take all staff on a learning journey that enables them to build their depth of practice in using the approach. This implementation involves extensive and ongoing training for all staff in the Signs of Safety approach and framework, working with children and safety planning. Training only provides staff with exposure to the ideas and skills. Landing the approach in everyday practice requires ongoing processes for staff to be able to reflect on and grow their use and understanding of the approach. Click here for the detailed DCP Background Paper prepared by Andrew Turnell that describes the Signs of Safety model, the latest evidence base supporting the approach from jurisdictions around the world and the implementation processes that will support the five-year implementation.

Growing the West Australian Implementation in 2010/11

In April the Department for Child Protection Signs of Safety steering group drafted a forward plan to grow the Signs of Safety implementation. The plan called on each District Director together with their practice leaders and key staff to create a 2 year operational and strategic plan for growing and deepening the use of the approach in their District. The aim being to embed the ownership of the statewide implementation at the local level of each district. To facilitate this process all District Directors came together for a two day review and planning workshop on April 29 and 30, 2010. This was an exciting and energising gathering for all involved. To set the scene for the two days' work Terry Murphy (Director General) and John Hancock (Executive Director and Signs of Safety Steering Group Chair Person) recorded a 20 minute interview with Clara Kirika (Director Case Practice Country and Manager Signs of Safety Project) and Andrew Turnell (Consultant). This video explores what has been achieved in the implementation so far and outlines Terry and John's expectations for the continued development of the Signs of Safety implementation, focusing particularly on what the Steering group are looking for from the Districts. The video is available here.

Practice Leaders

To lead this ongoing learning journey 90 ‘practice leaders’ (team leaders, supervisors and other senior staff) have received intensive training in the approach. The practice leaders’ conduct regular group supervision and consultation, mapping cases, working on rigorous safety plans and undertaking appreciative inquiry to build a constructive culture around front line practice in their office and teams. Practice Leaders themselves need ongoing support in their role and hence they meet monthly in small groups to share successes and struggles and three times each year as a whole group. Seven Practice leader facilitators (Natalie Hall, Clara Kirika, Kat Etherington, Loretta St John, Tracy Nicholson, Jane Wilson and Sonja Parker) are assigned the job of provide ongoing support to the practice leaders and maintain ongoing oversight of the implementation across all districts and practice units.

Above: Thirty of the ninety DCP Signs of Safety Practice Leaders, 5 day training July 2008.
Back Row L to R: Claire Collins, Keith Shaw, Melanie Samuels, Jan Wilkinson, Mary Michener, Annabel Hales, Andrew Turnell, Paula Inch-Yates, Barbara Binks, Pam Symes, Kat Etherington, Jo Hooper, Julie McKenzie, Daphne Cross, Wendy Krievs, Loretta St John, Sue Clapton, Kristina Fraser, Jane Wilson, Inez Rosario, Stephen Middleton, Barry Luxton. Front row: Deb Paskos, Tracey Gillett, Hal Snyder, Ann MacKay, Margaret Quinn, Belinda Stotter, Kelly Colledge.

Above: Thirty more of the ninety DCP Signs of Safety Practice Leaders 5 day training, February 2009.
L to R: Natalie Hall, Amanda Sheppard, Agatha Schroeder, Sharon McAuliffe, Adam Tombs, Rosemary Perry, Suzanne Parker, Marilyn Willoughby, Mary Grace, Kathy Hellyer, Di Arnett, Deb McPherson, Leah Jennings, Tanya Shepherd, Maggie Rosete, Paul Burge, Justine O’Malley, Andre D’Antoine, Andrew Turnell, Julie Pelosi, Katherine Fendley, Jodie Gunn, Sharon Hutchins, Debbie Mussett, Carla Priest, Kim Reader, Alison Bruce, Vicki Harrod

Implementation: The experience of a Director and two Team Leaders

On November 15 2009, Andrew Turnell, Natalie Hall (Director Case Practice), Kim Reader (Team Leader, Northam) and Susan Quin (Team Leader, Rockingham) made a master class presentation on the Western Australian Signs of Safety Implementation at the Australasian Pacific Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. A video recording of Natalie, Kim and Susan's presentations is available here as well as Natalie's PowerPoint presentation.

Signs of Safety Meetings

As part of its system-wide implementation of the Signs of Safety, DCP is using Signs of Safety meetings as a key mechanism for building and focusing professional and family collaboration on child safety. The promotional brochure used to explain to professionals and family how these meetings work and what they will achieve is linked here. The first formal phase of using Signs of Safety meetings was focused on pre-birth planning with pregnant mothers facing high-risk situations. The outcomes of the first year's meetings have been evaluated and the outcomes impressive, including a 30% reduction in child removals for this cohort.
Phase One Evaluation

Phase Two in growing the system-wide use of Signs of Safety Meetings, which is now underway focuses on using these meetings as a court diversionary process, as this work develops we will provide further updates here.

More Information

For more information contact: Clara Kirika, Director Case Support Advice & Best Practice, Clara.Kirika@dcp.wa.gov.au