Signs of Safety 20th Anniversary

In November 1993, West Australian Child Protection Director John Hancock phoned Steve Edwards and Andrew Turnell and invited them to train all his staff in the Eastern Region in their model of doing child protection.

The only problem was at that time Andrew and Steve didn’t have a ‘model’. What they had was four years of experience collaborating as a brief family therapist and child protection social worker applying solution-focused brief therapy to child protection practice. To be able to train and lead the Western Australian eastern region social workers Andrew and Steve wrote up their ideas into the first workbook between November 1993 and February 1994 and christened their approach with the name Signs of Safety.

Last Friday a celebration was held to mark this 20-year anniversary. The reflections offered by Andrew Turnell, John Hancock and Terry Murphy at the celebration were video recorded and tell more of the story. You can watch the video above.