SIGNS OF SAFETY: AN EVALUATION ACROSS TEN AREAS IN ENGLAND SOCIAL - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
SIGNS OF SAFETY: AN EVALUATION ACROSS TEN AREAS IN ENGLAND SOCIAL CARE WORKFORCE RESEARCH UNIT KINGS COLLEGE, LONDON Mary Baginsky Jo Moriarty Jill Manthorpe English Innovation Programme MTM project 10 pilots Timescale
SOCIAL CARE WORKFORCE RESEARCH UNIT KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON Mary Baginsky Jo Moriarty Jill Manthorpe
English Innovation Programme MTM project – 10 pilots Timescale Judging outcomes
Contemporary Issues and Debates in Social Work Education, Research and Practice, 26 September 2017
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Direct work with young people had the
Young people benefited from more
Walker and Donaldson (2011)
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Three key principles:
working relationships are fundamental – honest and respectful relationships between
the worker and families and between all professionals involved to achieve a shared understanding of what needs to change and how this will be achieved within a culture where collaborative, appreciative inquiry methods are valued
stance of critical inquiry – critical thinking to minimise error and create a culture of
reflective practice, designed to minimise error, allow admission of errors, and support regular review of the balance of strengths and dangers so as to avoid drift, which may perpetuate an overly optimistic or pessimistic view of the family
locating grand aspirations in everyday practice – where the experience of the child is
at the centre and where families and front line professionals judge the effectiveness
A Signs of Safety assessment or Mapping:
past harm; future danger and complicating factors
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Realistic evaluation Longitudinal design Multiple types of data collection
Interviews Focus groups Case file analysis Secondary data analysis Value for money
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Wakefield Norfolk Wokingham Bristol Suffolk Lincolnshire Brent West Sussex Tower Hamlets Leicestershire New 2 years 2 years plus
10 pilots differed in terms of experience with Signs
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Interviews with key informants Interviews and focus groups with 185 social workers Survey 165 social workers Interviews with 270 families (recruited in 2 cohorts)
Analysis of 262 case records
Interviews and self profiling data from key informants Time diaries completed by 121 social workers Re-interviews with 184 families Analysis of 30 performance indicators
Reanalysis of case records
Time 1 Time 2
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Major challenge was to achieve consistency – move away
from ‘pick and mix’ approach
Parallel service reorganisations Different stages of SoS training – opportunities MTM project
Challenge of reducing caseloads at time of rising levels of
referrals and budget cuts
Compatibility (or not) with IT systems Opportunity to work with Professor Eileen Munro, Andrew
Turnell and Terry Murphy
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KEY INFORMANTS’ VIEWS AT THE END (1)
Commitment to further development of SoS Parallel reorganisations had added extra challenges Importance of support from senior management to instill
confidence in practitioners
Development of networks for practice leads and practice
champions alongside sustainability plans for training, leadership and alignment of practice and processes countered over dependence on individuals
High regard with which many individual trainers held but
not universal
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KEY INFORMANTS’ VIEWS AT THE END (2)
Collaborative working with trainers on tailored training Quality of trainer said to impact on attendance at events
for practice leads
IT challenges continued but were being addressed Exposing some skill shortage amongst their social workers Intransigent managers and senior social workers What, if anything, needs to go alongside SoS? Profiling
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Generally very positive about Signs of Safety in terms
But some inconsistencies with key informant views
extent of use of scaling, mapping, tools and appreciative
inquiry
challenges in using Signs of Safety with all families – some
reported had not/would not use it with some families. This was also reflected in the case records
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Majority valued training A minority thought ‘2 day’ insufficient Evolution of ‘5 day’ over time Consider other models? 3 day? Timing
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Confidence: On a scale of 1-10 most confident
responses from the ‘2 year’ grouping
Use of tools overall: nearly everyone in ‘2 year’
grouping; two-thirds in the ‘new’ grouping’ and half of those in ‘2+ year’ grouping
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SOCIAL WORKERS’ USE OF SOS WITH FAMILIES: SAFETY PLANNING AND MAPPING
Safety Planning:42% with all families; 56% with
some families and 2% not at all (all in ‘new’ grouping)
Mapping: 38% with all families; 58% with some
families and 4% not at all
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SOCIAL WORKERS’ USE OF SOS WITH ALL FAMILIES: DANGER STATEMENTS AND APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Danger statements: 48% with all families; 51% with
some families and 1% not at all
Appreciative Inquiry: 7% with all families; 24% with
some families and 69% not at all. [Highest in ‘2 year’ grouping and lack of understanding of what it meant!]
Use of safety planning + mapping + danger
statements increased between Cohort 1 and Cohort 2. Highest in ‘new’ and ‘2years+’ groupings
Contemporary Issues and Debates in Social Work Education, Research and Practice, 26 September 2017
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Three Houses: 20% used it with all c and yp; 75%
with some c and yp and 5% not at all
Words and Pictures: 5% with all; 57% with some and
38% not at all ↓
Social workers usually did it and gave it to families Lack of training / support to use Words and Pictures
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Family Network Meetings: 8% with all families and
41% with some.
A quarter of social workers in ‘2 year’ grouping
but two-thirds in ‘new’ grouping and in ‘2+’ grouping were not using it at all
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Assessments: data from social workers in groups and
interviews showed most thought SoS led to better assessments → leading to less risk averse practice.
Challenge focused on time required but with variation
(halving to trebling)
Supervision: 76% said they received SoS aligned
supervision – everyone in ‘2 year’ grouping; 4 out of 5 in ‘new’ grouping and half in ‘2+’ grouping.
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270 in two cohorts: Cohort 1 – referrals from March to May
2015; Cohort 2 – referrals from August to October 2015
Interviewed twice T1 June – October 2015 and T2 Feb – July
2016
270 at T1 and 184 at T2 262 agreed to case records being examined Previous referrals: 204 of the 270 had previous referral(s) –
27% had involved dv and 26% neglect
Current referrals: 37% involved neglect and 26% involved dv
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Contact with social workers:
at T1 59% had had a change of social worker and
9% had worked with 3 by then; 1 in 5 had an agency worker
At T2 165 of 184 still with a social worker and 1 in 3
had had a change
Most families accepted change but less positivity
about handovers
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Feelings about social workers
43% were positive or very positive 37% were negative or very negative 17% had no strong feelings (+ small number no
response)
No specific differences re age, permanent v.
agency, gender
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FROM WRITTEN RESPONSES:
Shared understanding between families and social workers:
53% ‘yes’; 39% ‘no’ and 8% ‘not sure’
Why they had social workers: only 12% not sure why Agreement over change: three-quarters Agreement over goals: two-thirds
BUT FROM INTERVIEWS (and further exploration):
Fewer families believed they had the same goals (52%) and
it was obvious that 25% did not know what the goals were
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SoS may support greater understanding between social
workers and families and a more focused approach to goals:
Proportions of parents reporting congruence of goals higher
amongst those with more experience of SoS and higher for Cohort 2 than for Cohort 1
Proportions of parents saying they understood how progress would
be judged higher amongst those with more experience of SoS and higher for Cohort 2 than for Cohort 1
Cohort 2 families were more likely to say social workers worked with
their strengths
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Families awareness of:
Safety planning – just over half recognised the
term – slight increase Cohort 1 to Cohort 2
Goal planning – overall increase Cohort 1 to
Cohort 2
Development of professional support - overall
increase Cohort 1 to Cohort 2
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Families feelings about the future and
involvement with children’s social care:
Most (63%) of the families seen at T2 indicated they had fewer
concerns than at T1; 25% the same and 12% were more worried
48% rated overall contact with social workers as helpful, 18% mixed
views, 29% unhelpful, 5% did not answer
Highest level of satisfaction in the ‘2 year’ grouping – statistically significant
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BUT:
Fall in proportion of families believing social workers built on their
strengths between T1 and T2
A steep decline in proportion of families in ‘2 year’ grouping
considering their social workers were helpful
Only one-third thought social workers had helped them develop
personal networks (but relatively high level of antagonism to this)
No clear correlation between those who thought their life had
been made better as a result of contact with children’s social care and experience groupings
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Remember the context of complex and
longstanding situations
At least 75% families had been referred to children’s
social care in the past
Domestic abuse, neglect, mental health problems
and substance misuse were common
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SUMMARY: PARENT/CARER VIEWS ABOUT SOCIAL WORKERS
Importance to Signs of Safety of shared understanding
between parents and social workers
Majority of parents thought they and their social worker shared the same
views about their situation
Most felt the social worker had focused on their strengths But a quarter said they did not know what their social worker’s goals
were
Better levels of agreement in the pilot areas that were more
experienced in Signs of Safety and as other areas became more experienced at Time 2 and Cohort 2
But changes of social worker and high rates of agency social workers in
some areas have implications for further progress
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Quality of SoS recording improved over time Concerns about quality of assessments Is SoS enough? The relationship between Signs of Safety and
Just over half were not re-referred at Time 2 28 children removed from their parent(s) between Times 1 and 2 SDQ scores
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RESOURCES, OUTPUTS AND EXPENDITURE
Time spent on direct client contact does not appear to increase or
decrease as a result of Signs of Safety
There were indications of positive change within published
performance indicators:
Pilots had lower average rate of assessments per 10,000 children (362) than their Statistical Nearest Neighbours
(SNNs) (497) in 2015/16.
Assessments were significantly shorter (in 2015/16 the average duration was 19 days in pilots sites compared to
28 days in SNNs).
Pilots had a significantly lower rate of Initial Child Protection Conferences (ICPC) per 10,000 children (44) than
their SNNs (61) in 2015/16.
Pilots had a significantly shorter duration from the start of Section 47 enquiries to ICPC (13 days) in 2015/16
than their SNNs (14 days).
Pilots had a significantly lower rate of children becoming the subject of a child protection per 10,000 children
(29) than their SNNs (41) in 2015/16.
There was no evidence that Signs of Safety had resulted in changes to
expenditure patterns.
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FROM PROFILES: VIEWS ABOUT WHERE THERE WAS GREATEST PROGRESS IN DELIVERY
Embedding organisational commitment to Signs of Safety Using plain language Using tools to engage children and young people e.g. three houses; fairies and wizards Mapping cases by individual social workers and mapping in teams Using safety plans Providing advanced 5-day training for all managers Embedding Signs of Safety approaches and principles across all training Aligning Initial Child Protection Conferences with Signs of Safety Establishing practice leadership and supervision processes to support Signs of Safety
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Building constructive working relationships between professionals and family members Spending the necessary direct contact time with adults in families Being confident that the service is intervening at the right time Creating a culture where it is permissible to admit mistakes Supporting social workers with administrative tasks Recruiting high quality staff
Until everything had been aligned, SoS would still be a ‘bolt on’ to the
dominant processes and procedures
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Direct work with young people had the most
positive impact on outcomes
Young people benefited from more intensive, in-
depth support than from occasional support over a period of time
Walker and Donaldson (2011)
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www.gov.uk/government/publications/signs-of- safety-practice-in-childrens-services-an-evaluation
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This research was funded by the Department for
are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education
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