Dr. Andrew Turnell has written extensively about working to ensure children’s safety. In this video he helps us see the difference between a service plan and a safety plan, building up a network of “safety people,” as well as the importance of including children in safety planning.
Turnell and his colleague Steve Edwards developed Signs of Safety in the 1990s in Australia in order to help social workers in child protection agencies make concrete plans to help all parties in the process know what to look for and how to keep children safe.
The Signs of Safety focuses on four questions:
- What are we worried about?
- What’s working well?
- What needs to happen?
- What is the scaled judgment (0-10) that would tell us the child would be safe in the home?
According to Turnell, agencies often focus only on the first question, creating service plans, but not safety plans. For example, if the child was removed due to a domestic violence incident both parents are required to complete a service: one a batterer’s group, the other would attend trauma based counseling. Following the parents’ completion of these services, it is not usually feasible to assess the safety of the home environment. Through Signs of Safety, specific rules are created with the family in order to have an agreed upon vision of what safety will look like within an everyday context.
A crucial part of creating this safety plan means that the child, as young as preschool age, is involved. Creating “safety people”—a strong network of friends and family—is a powerful aspect of the plan. This along with the “safety object” gives the child a voice, and demonstrates that he or she is not alone.
