Signs of Safety - Impact

3-5 Year Implementation Plan

St. Helens has begun the 3-5 year implementation of the Signs of Safety strengths based model.

We are in the very early stages of setting criteria in order to measure outcomes and the impact on services, children and families; we are excited that this model will make our working practices much more effective and rewarding as we expect to see improvements in the lives of our local families. 

What has been achieved so far...

To date, staff within each of our Partners organisations have accessed the 2-day and 5 day training and have started the process of reviewing their services and embedding Signs of Safety within their day to day practices.

Social Care

The MASH team currently promote the signs of safety model within screening. Social workers use a risk analysis tool that includes the SOS questions 'what are we worried about' what is working well' and what needs to happen' and this helps to bring together the referral circumstances and remain child and family focused. These three questions are also within the service request form to support a consistent approach to signs of safety across our partner agencies.

There is a vision for the MASH team to develop and strengthen the use of SOS by using the danger statements within the screening, changing the language used with children and families, clear focus on family support networks at the initial point of contact to set the standard for SOS at the initial point of contact.

Our Child Protection Conferences have been remodelled to incorporate Signs of Safety - the full implementation of this will commence in January 2020. In preparation of this November launch, the CP Chairs have been working with a similar strengths based approach in order to make a smoother transition of processes to the SOS model.

We have been able to capture some of the feedback from our parents which has proved to be a positive experience for them. We will upload these very soon!

Education

Each of our schools, colleges and alternative provisions who have been trained, have started to use aspects of the model throughout their safeguarding practices. 

One of our Alternative Provision Units is also preparing to run a pilot whereby they will compete a genogram for every new student that comes into their care. They will be supported by two of our approved Practice Leads who will monitor the impact of this pilot over the next 6 months.