1

Signs of Safety in Cheshire East Putting children and young people first

July 2017-2020

1

Contents

1. What we want to achieve 2

2. What is Signs of Safety 4

How Signs of Safety was Developed 4

Principles of Signs of Safety 5

Ways of Working 5

Practice Tools 6

3. Evidence Base for Signs of Safety 9

4. Implementing Signs of Safety in Cheshire East 10

What we will do 10

Timescales 11

Governance 11

Support from the Signs of Safety Consultants, Trainers and Community 13

Support from Partners in Practice 13

5. How we will know if we are successful 14

Measuring Success 14

Reviewing our Progress 14

Appendix 15

Signs of Safety Implementation Plan 15

2

1. What we want to achieve We want all our children and young people to be happy, healthy, and

safe, and to be able to live a life that is full of fun and opportunities to

learn and develop. Where possible, we want to support our children

and young people to remain with their families within a loving, caring,

safe and stable environment. When children are unable to remain in the

care of their families, we want to ensure they receive a permanent,

loving home as soon as possible.

Cheshire East is adopting Signs of Safety as our way of working

with families because this will support us to achieve the type of

service that children, young people, parents and carers have told us

they want.

Children, young people, parents and carers have told us they want:

To be listened to

To be part of developing their plans, to understand what the

concerns are and why they need a plan

For professionals to be clear with them about what is going to,

or could happen

We want to always put children and young people first and foremost

in everything that we do. Best practice is child-focused, solution-

orientated, and respectful and inclusive of families, and this is what we

want to achieve through adopting Signs of Safety.

We have four priorities in Children’s Social Care, which Signs of Safety

will support us to achieve and embed:

1. We always put children and young people first

2. We understand what impact the situation is having on the child or

young person

3. We take action to make positive change a reality

4. We work with families to achieve long lasting change. Children and

young people get the right service for them at the right time

We believe that using Signs of Safety will support us to deliver high

quality practice, and through working together in partnership with

families we will be able to achieve strong and sustainable outcomes for

children, young people and their families, and empower our families

and our professionals.

Through adopting Signs of Safety, we aim to achieve:

The very best outcomes for children, young people and families

Child-focused services that put the needs of children and young

people first

Inclusive practice – families are supported to develop their own

solutions leading to empowered families and sustainable

outcomes

Empowered professionals – professionals across the partnership

feel confident in having difficult conversations with families, are

supported in their decision making, and see the impact of their

work on families, leading to robust partnership working and

increased job satisfaction and strong recruitment and retention

3

As a result of using Signs of Safety, and delivering high quality

practice in partnership with families, we will expect to see:

fewer re-referrals, as we support families to be more

resilient, and develop their own solutions, which are tested

and shown to be sustainable within the family and their

support network.

more children safely remaining with their families

the right children coming into care

Where Signs of Safety has been adopted by other local

authorities it has been welcomed by families. Families have

reported that (often for the first time) they are clear about

what services expect from them. Families particularly like

that their views and strengths are acknowledged as well as

their weaknesses understood.

4

2. What is Signs of Safety? Signs of Safety is now widely recognised internationally as the

leading approach to child protection casework and has been

commended by Ofsted.

‘Signs of Safety’ is an innovative, solution-focused, strengths-based

approach to working with children, young people and families. It

provides a clear framework for how to do the work within children’s

services; how to build relationships with families and work effectively

with them to achieve better outcomes for children and young people.

It includes:

principles for practice which underpin the work

ways of working – what to do, how and when

a range of tools to support engagement with families, strong

assessments and plans, and for capturing the voice of the child or

young person

ways to support learning, reflection and development, such as

supervision and audit of practice that is aligned with the approach

How Signs of Safety was developed Signs of Safety was developed in Western Australia in the 1990s by

Andrew Turnell and Steve Edwards, drawing on solution-focused

therapy and the direct experiences of families and child protection

workers. Andrew and Steve worked with over 150 frontline practitioners

to develop and hone the approach, so it is based on what

practitioners know works well in real life cases. It is now being used

across the world.

Currently there are nearly 200 agencies in 15 countries undertaking

some form of implementation of the Signs of Safety. This includes

large-scale, long-term, system-wide implementations in Australia, New

Zealand, Japan, Europe, Canada, USA, and Cambodia.

Signs of Safety is now 23 years old. It is a mature and yet still evolving

professional approach. Signs of Safety has continued its commitment to

listening to practitioners’ experiences of what works for families, and

continues to evolve to incorporate innovations from practitioners in the

international Signs of Safety community. Although the roots of the

approach were within Child Protection, Signs of Safety is successfully

used across the continuum of need within early help and cared for

services, and is increasingly being adapted to a broader range of

services including youth justice and community health.

5

Principles of Signs of Safety The approach has three principles:

1. Working relationships are paramount.

Relationships must enable honest and respectful discussions of

concerns and worries, draw on and honour everything positive,

consider multiple perspectives, and always incorporate skilful use of

authority. Research shows that, irrespective of the type of

intervention, professionals see better outcomes when there is shared

understanding of what needs to change, agreement on purpose and

goals, and family members feel their worker understands them.

2. Thinking critically and maintaining a stance of critical inquiry.

In order to minimise error, a culture of shared reflective practice and

a willingness to admit you may be wrong are vital. Risk assessment is

a core task and requires constant balancing of strengths and dangers

to avoid the common errors of drifting into an overly negative or

positive view of the situation.

3. Grounded in everyday experience.

Assessment and safety planning is always focused on the everyday

lived experience of the child. Service recipients and front line

practitioners are the key arbiters of whether practice works or

doesn’t.

Ways of Working

Research has shown that the best outcomes for children and young

people are achieved when there are constructive working

relationships between professionals and family members, and between

professionals themselves. This has been shown to be the case, both

nationally and internationally, at all levels of need and intervention.

In order to build effective relationships and work inclusively and

respectfully with families, Signs of Safety focuses on both the family’s

strengths and the safety of the child or young person. This recognises

that, despite current concerns and difficulties, all families have

strengths, and this gives the basis for understanding how we can

increase safety and address the areas of concern.

Signs of Safety practice makes a clear and rigorous distinction

between:

Past harm (what we know has happened), future danger (what we

are worried could happen given the past harm) and complicating

factors (the circumstances that lie behind the neglect or abuse,

commonly such as mental health issues, and drug and alcohol

abuse).

Strengths (positives about the family, such as their love for their

children) and protection (actual behaviours that demonstrate

capacity to protect the children, such as removing dangerous adults

from the household, or occasions when the parents felt as if they

could but did not harm the child/ young person).

This supports strong assessments and evidence-based judgements.

Assessment is always a work in progress (although this cannot

preclude taking action) and we need to continually evaluate what we

know in a dynamic way throughout the process.

6

Signs of Safety values both professional and family knowledge. Work

with families within Signs of Safety fully involves families in assessing

risks and developing solutions. The child/ young person’s experience

is central to this, and children, young people, and their families are

fully involved in developing and delivering their plans.

Professionals take a facilitative role supporting families to explore,

recognise and respond to concerns, skilfully using authority to ensure

action is taken while honouring the strengths within the family and

offering choices about how we work together. Professionals take a

questioning approach – there is ‘more asking and less telling’.

In Signs of Safety, robust analysis of strengths and risks leads to plans

which focus on specific actions and behaviours that families must do

to create an environment in which their children will be safe and can

thrive - as opposed to just signalling what must stop.

Good communication is key to developing constructive relationships,

and Signs of Safety requires that clear and simple language is used so

everyone understands what the situation is and what we want to

achieve. Statements focus on specific observable behaviours,

avoiding meaning laden, imprecise and poorly understood labels and

diagnostic descriptors.

Practice Tools

Assessment and Planning Framework The assessment and planning framework is used for “mapping” the

worries, strengths, and required safety, all in plain language, and is

included overleaf.

The map has four areas for enquiry and exploration; the ‘three

columns’ (What are we worried about? What is working well? What

needs to happen?), and the scaling question. These are used to

explore and understand both the strengths and protective factors

within the family, and the concerns and risks, and make it clear what we

are working to achieve, and what needs to happen to get there. The

scaling questions is used to show how all parties judge the risk to the

child or young person, and supports understanding on the level of

concerns to be developed between all parties.

7

8

Signs of Safety assessment and planning is adaptable across the

continuum of need, from early help to services for cared for children

and care leavers. Signs of Something - Adaptations of the Signs of

Safety across the Continuum of Service sets out how the adjustment

of the analysis categories of harm, danger, existing safety and safety

goals, enable the framework and the methodology to be applied in all

service settings.

Tools for Engaging with Children and

Young People Tools for engaging with children and young people

enable us to capture the child’s voice, and most

critically are used as a catalyst for change to the family.

The three houses/ wizards and fairies tool (good

things, worries or bad things, dreams) is a child’s

version of the three columns, and is used to capture

their experience.

Words and pictures explanations are used for

parents to explain what has happened and what is

happening to the child/ young person. Words and

pictures serve as both the explanation that children

and young people need to understand their situation,

and as a catalyst for change for families as through

giving the explanation they become accountable to

their children for what has happened and for working

to make things better.

Child-centred Safety Plans are safety plans that are presented in the

words and pictures format so it is clear for the child/ young person

what will happen, what they can expect from everyone, and what they

can do if they don’t feel safe.

Variations based on these core tools that have been developed by

practitioners to suit specific needs and cultural settings.

9

3. Evidence Base for Signs of Safety There is a clear evidence base that shows that Signs of Safety is

effective and achieves better outcomes for children, young people and

families, and the approach has been commended by Ofsted. Qualitative

and quantitative evaluation and research, and data from organisations

which have already implemented Signs of Safety around the world,

have shown that it results in:

Better and more focused relationships with families

Families feel more empowered, and are more able to understand

and address the concerns of professionals

Practitioners are clearer on what the risks are, and what is

expected of all parties, resulting in better decision making for

families

A more individualised approach for families

Improved working between practitioners

Reduction in the number of children brought into care

Reduction in the time cases are open

Increased job satisfaction of the social work workforce

The evidence and theory base for Signs of Safety has developed

substantially within action research, collaborative and appreciative

inquiry, or broadly “practice based evidence”, and means the approach

is built from what is probably the strongest single knowledge base of

what works in actual child protection practice. More information on this

can be found at http://www.signsofsafety.net/signs-of-safety-

research/ and in the Signs of Safety Briefing Paper (4th Edition).

10

4. Implementing Signs of Safety in

Cheshire East

What we will do

Signs of Safety is a way of working, an approach, it is how we will

practice; it is not just training, or using specific tools. Therefore fully

implementing Signs of Safety will require us to make a cultural shift in

how we practice and how we think about practice. It will affect all

aspects of our organisation and partnership safeguarding work.

Therefore, part of our implementation will be aligning our organisation

to the practice – ensuring that we have the right policies, procedures,

structures, support and tools in place to support best quality practice.

Our implementation plan covers the first two years of implementation,

when we will make significant changes to how we work and to our

supporting processes and structures. However, fully aligning our

organisation to the practice and embedding Signs of Safety as a culture

of practice will be a journey we will continue on well past the first two

years.

Truly effective implementation of Signs of Safety will only happen if we

have the full commitment from all partners across Cheshire East at all

levels, and so we will be ensuring that the Cheshire East Local

Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), the Children’s Social Care, Early

Help, and the partnership workforce are involved throughout our

implementation.

As a major change to how we work, we will need to be agile and

responsive to circumstances, seeking continuous feedback and learning

to inform our implementation. The views of children, young people,

parents and carers, our workforce, and our partners are critical to

informing how we develop our services and evaluating whether we are

achieving our aims, and these will be actively sought throughout our

implementation. We will also audit the quality of our practice to

understand the impact of Signs of Safety on our work.

Our implementation plan sets out what actions we will take to adopt

Signs of Safety within Cheshire East. This covers the following four areas

as shown in the diagram above:

Learning: this includes training our workforce to use Signs of Safety,

including two day training for social workers; advanced training for

all managers including senior leaders; and a two year development

programme for Practice Leaders. It also includes introducing ways to

learn from and reflect on practice; such as appreciative enquiries;

and individual and group supervision aligned to Signs of Safety.

11

Leadership: this includes making a full organisational commitment

to Signs of Safety, with senior leaders being actively engaged with

practice; modelling the approach in management and leadership;

creating conditions for social work to thrive; and building shared

leadership at all levels of the organisation.

Organisational Alignment: ensuring practitioners are effectively

supported to achieve the best possible outcomes for children

through the having right policies, procedures, structures, support

and tools in place to support best quality Signs of Safety practice.

Ensuring that practitioners drive developments to services so that

the tools and support in place reflects what works for practitioners.

Meaningful Measures: We will align our audit and quality assurance

process with the Signs of Safety approach to ensure that what we

measure is what really matters to children, young people and

families, and drives improvements to practice. We will adopt an

inclusive model of auditing practice where audits are completed

with practitioners, recognising their strengths, and supporting them

to reflect on the quality of their work and identify areas they can

learn from and improve on in future work.

Progress against our plan will be reviewed quarterly by the Signs of

Safety Project Board to ensure we achieve our aims.

Timescales

As fully adopting and embedding Signs of Safety involves a culture

shift, full implementation is likely to take up to five years. Our

implementation plan covers the initial two year project period in which

we will make significant changes to our practice and organisation to

support this way of working. We will review and refresh this plan after

the first year to ensure we are taking the right action to successfully

embed Signs of Safety as our way of working.

Governance

Strategic direction and leadership for our implementation is provided

by the Signs of Safety Project Board. The Project Board is responsible

for developing the implementation plan and overseeing that the whole

of this plan is effectively delivered. It is directly responsible for

delivering the leadership and learning elements of the plan. Key

members of the LSCB are members of the Project Board to ensure that

Signs of Safety practice is led across the partnership. Dedicated support

to implementation is provided by a Project Manager, Project Support

Officer, and Signs of Safety Practice Lead for Cheshire East.

Three work streams report to the Project Board. These are shown in the

diagram overleaf. The Measuring what Matters work stream is

responsible for aligning our quality assurance processes with Signs of

Safety, and evaluating our progress in our implementation based on

feedback from audit of practice, families and practitioners.

The Policies, Procedures and the Child’s Record work stream is

responsible for aligning our organisation to the practice to ensure that

our structures, policies, guidance and child’s record system support best

Signs of Safety practice.

The Practice Champions Group is responsible for representing

practitioners’ views, troubleshooting issues, and developing practice

guidance and tools to support best practice. This group will ensure that

areas of best practice are shared and any issues are highlighted so that

these can be addressed swiftly.

The work of all these groups will be informed by the views of children,

young people and parents through existing engagement groups and

forums as they are the people who are best placed to know what works

for them.

12

Project Board

Strategic direction and leadership

Measuring what Matters

Quality Assurance

Policies, Procedures and the Child's Record

Polices, Procedures, Practice Guidance, and the Child's Record System

Practice Champions

Practitioner Engagement

Leading organisational and culture change

to establish services that always put children

and young people first.

Consistently good outcomes for our

children and young people

A culture and organisation that always puts

children and young people first

Effective adoption of Signs of Safety

Ensuring what we measure is what really

matters, and informs how we improve

outcomes for children and young people.

Collaborative audit process that supports

learning and development

Meaningful performance measures

Feedback from families, practitioners and

partners is regularly sought and informs

service development

The effectiveness of our Signs of Safety

practice is closely monitored enabling us to

support practitioners to use the approach

Ensuring practitioners are effectively

supported to achieve the best possible

outcomes for children

Recording and processes are streamlined,

maximising time with families

Policies, procedures and guidance support

best practice and empower practitioners to

be creative and innovative

Practitioners drive developments to services

so that practice guidance, training, support

and tools reflect what works for

practitioners.

Good practice is celebrated and shared

Practice guidance, resources and tools

support best practice

Practitioner issues are acted on and resolved

Practitioners are supported by good quality

training

Governance for Signs of Safety Implementation

13

Support from the Signs of Safety Consultants,

Trainers and Community

Our implementation will be supported by our Signs of Safety

Consultant, Agi Gault and Signs of Safety Trainer Haley Muir. Agi will

provide support, advice and guidance to support our implementation,

including delivering a formal learning and development programme for

our senior leaders.

Support will also be available from other local authorities (LAs) who

have adopted Signs of Safety and are part of the Signs of Safety

community. Cheshire East will be liaising with these LAs throughout our

implementation and will also attend Signs of Safety leadership and

national events to learn from innovations and developments within the

practice.

Support from Partners in

Practice

Cheshire East is very fortunate to be receiving support for our

implementation from North Yorkshire County Council through the

Department for Education’s (DfE) Partners in Practice Programme. North

Yorkshire has been using Signs of Safety for six years and has been

identified by the DfE as an example of good practice. A senior manager

in North Yorkshire has been identified as the key contact to provide

advice, support and guidance on our implementation.

14

5. How we will know if we are successful

Measuring Success Ultimately we will evaluate our success against the difference we make

to the lives of our children and young people. We will use the following

sources to inform us on how well we are performing, what’s working

well, and where we need to take action to achieve change.

Qualitative Measures

We have a comprehensive audit programme in place. We will be

adopting an inclusive audit approach in line with Signs of Safety across

Children’s Social Care and Early Help, and the findings of these and our

LSCB multi-agency audits will be used to evaluate the quality of our

work and our implementation of Signs of Safety practice.

Performance Measures

Measures from our audits will be reported in a scorecard so we can

track our progress over time. Work will also be undertaken to ensure

our current scorecard reporting is focused on the areas that really

matter to children, young people and families in line with the Signs of

Safety quality assurance framework and these will be used to allow us

to evaluate the impact on outcomes.

Feedback from Families

Our mechanisms for gaining feedback from families will be reviewed

across services to identify any gaps and areas of good practice which

can be shared, and a systematic way of gaining feedback will be

developed in partnership with children, young people and families.

Feedback from Practitioners

Practitioners’ views will be sought through the Practice Champions

Group, the LSCB Safeguarding Children Operational Group, LSCB Board,

and staff and partner surveys.

Reviewing our Progress Progress against this Strategy and our plan will be monitored and

scrutinised on a quarterly basis by the Signs of Safety Project Board to

ensure we achieve our aims. Progress reports from each work stream

will be provided to the Project Board following each work stream

meeting.

The Project Board will also receive quarterly reports on the budget and

on training.

We will review and refresh our implementation plan after the first year

to ensure we are taking the right action to successfully embed Signs of

Safety as our way of working.

15

Appendix:

Signs of Safety Implementation Plan

Strategic Direction and Leadership Task Lead Start Complete

Leadership

1.1

Obtain strategic buy in from partners at the LSCB in May and establish

partnership leads for the Project Board to lead and drive partnership

implementation

Head of Service: Children in

Need and Child Protection May 2017 May 2017

1.2

Recruit a Signs of Safety Practice Lead for Cheshire East to support Signs

of Safety implementation - to champion and lead practice, identify and

share best practice, and support Signs of Safety to embed within teams.

Practice Development

Manager and Project

Manager

June 2017 Sept 2017

1.3 All strategic leaders to attend the two day Signs of Safety training. Key

Heads of Service to attend the five day advanced training Project Board Nov 2017 Nov 2017

1.4 All leaders to walk the floor with newly implementing teams and engage

with practice, recognising strengths and areas of good practice Project Board Jan 2018

Throughout the

project

1.5

All leaders to model Signs of Safety through use of three columns for

strategic planning and strategies, and ‘nothing about us without us’

approach

Project Board Sept 2017 Throughout the

project

1.6 Leaders will continue to work to create conditions for social work to

thrive Project Board July 2017

Throughout the

project

1.7 Workshops to be held to develop Signs of Safety leadership for senior

leaders Signs of Safety Consultant Nov 2017

Throughout the

project

1.8 Good news stories and case studies to be celebrated and communicated

through newsletters and practice and performance workshops

Practice Development

Manager and Cheshire East

Signs of Safety Practice Lead

Dec 2017 Throughout the

project

16

1.9 Create distributed leadership through identification and training of

Practice Leads across the organisation Project Board Nov 2017 Nov 2019

1.10 Engage in Signs of Safety leadership events to share and learn from best

practice Project Board Sept 2017 Dec 2019

1.11 Engage with other Signs of Safety local authorities and the Signs of

Safety community Project Manager June 2017

Throughout the

project

Communication

2.1 Produce regular SOS staff newsletters Project Manager July 2017 Throughout the

project

2.2 Give regular updates at Practice and Performance Workshops, CSC

Management meetings and Practice Champions Project Manager

September

2016 Quarterly

2.3 Communicate out to partners through newsletters and LSCB Sub groups

on the implementation of Signs of Safety in advance of the launch.

Project Manager and Partner

Leads Sept 2017 Dec 2017

2.4 Deliver briefings to schools through CEASH and ECAPH Head of Service: Children in

Need and Child Protection Sept 2017 Dec 2017

2.5 Formally launch SOS/ hold a launch event for SOS with staff and partners

in September Project Board July 2017 Sept 2017

2.6 Schedule regular project updates to key strategic groups Project Manager Sept 2017 Throughout the

project

2.7 Develop a page for SOS on the LSCB website with resources for partners Project Manager Sept 2017 Nov 2017

2.8

Produce a video of the Director of Children’s Social Care to introduce

SOS training and reinforce that we want practitioners to start using the

practice immediately

Project Manager and Senior

Communications Officer Sept 2017 Nov 2017

2.9 Celebrate good practice and good news stories through Team Voice Project Manager Sept 2017 Throughout the

project

17

2.10 Hold a celebration of practice event on World Social Work Day in March

to celebrate good practice

Practice Development

Manager and Cheshire East

Signs of Safety Practice Lead

Jan 2017 March 2018

Training and Learning Task Lead Start Complete

3.1

Develop a plan for training roll out

- Identify teams to be trained

- Identify order of roll out

- Identify Practice Leads

- Identify in house trainers

Project Board July 2017 Oct 2017

3.2 Agree dates for training and arrange venues

Project Manager, Signs of

Safety Trainer and Business

Administrator

July 2017 Nov 2017

3.3 Develop an e-briefing for staff and partners as an introduction to Signs of

Safety Project Officer June 2017 Nov 2017

3.4 Develop feedback questionnaire for practitioners to evaluate training Project Officer Sept 2017 Nov 2017

3.5 Develop and circulate guidance on training to practitioners Project Manager and Signs of

Safety Trainer Sept 2017 Nov 2017

3.6 Deliver 2 day training to phase 1 senior managers, key partners and

Practice Leads Signs of Safety Trainer Nov 2017 Nov 2017

3.7 Identify two Cheshire East cases worked with Signs of Safety for use as

case examples within training

Project Board and Practice

Leads Nov 2017 Dec 2017

3.8 Align LSCB training with Signs of Safety LSCB Training Officer Nov 2017 March 2018

3.9 Deliver 2 day training to phase 2 CIN/CP teams and Early Help Signs of Safety Trainer Jan 2018 Feb 2018

18

3.10 Deliver 5 day advanced training- first cohort Signs of Safety Consultant and

Trainer Feb 2018 Feb 2018

3.11 Develop guidance on expectations for practice leaders – roles and

responsibilities

Project Manager and Practice

Development Manager Jan 2018 Feb 2018

3.12 Deliver 2 day training to phase 3 Cared for teams Signs of Safety Trainer Feb 2018 March 2018

3.13 Deliver practice leads coaching sessions and training for in house trainers Signs of Safety Trainer March 2018 March 2020

3.14 Establish meetings for practice leads to share knowledge and good

practice SOS Practice Lead April 2018 March 2020

3.15 Practice workshops to be run by practice leads to enhance practitioners’

skills SOS Practice Lead May 2018 March 2020

3.16 Practice Leads to run SOS roadshows within partner organisations to

embed a joint approach and develop strong links and networks SOS Practice Lead May 2018 March 2020

3.17 Roll out group supervision within teams SOS Practice Lead March 2018 April 2018

3.18 Deliver 5 day advanced training- second cohort Signs of Safety Consultant and

Trainer April 2018 April 2018

3.19 Review what targeted training is needed for specialist groups/ areas of

practice Project Board March 2018 July 2018

3.20 Implement appreciation panels to celebrate and share good practice SOS Practice Lead May 2018 June 2018

3.21 Develop a plan for transfer of SOS training from external to in house Project Manager, Signs of

Safety Consultant and Trainer Sept 2018 Nov 2018

19

Policies, Procedures and the Child’s Record Task Lead Start Complete

4.1

Prioritise elements of the child’s record system for review and alignment

with SOS

Before November 2017:

- Contact and referral – ChECS

- Contact and referral – Early Help Brokerage

- CAF assessment and plan

- C&F assessment, CIN plan and CP plan

- Strategy Discussions

Before February 2017:

- Cared for assessments and plans

Policies, Procedures and the

Child’s Record Work Stream May 2017 May 2018

4.2

Establish task and finish groups to review and refine elements of the

child’s record to make it more streamlined and aligned to SOS, test within

the system before formal launch with teams, and develop practice

guidance as appropriate.

Project Officer and Task and

Finish Group Leads May 2017 April 2018

4.3 Prioritise policies, procedures and guidance for review and development Policies, Procedures and the

Child’s Record Work Stream May 2017 May 2018

4.4 Create a short guide on how to align a document to SOS to support policy

development Project Manager May 2017 May 2017

4.5 Develop practice guidance to support the use of SOS tools Project Officer May 2017 Nov 2017

4.6 Produce a guide for clear communication – ‘jargon buster’ in partnership

with families

Practice Champions Task and

Finish Group May 2017 Jan 2018

4.7 Develop good practice examples of SOS work Practice Champions Nov 2017 March 2018

4.8 Develop family friendly guides to services and what to expect in

partnership with families

Practice Champions Task and

Finish Group Nov 2017 Jan 2018

20

4.9 Develop use of CheSHARE as a portal to share SOS resources Practice Development

Manager Sept 2017 Dec 2017

4.10 Communicate updates to policies, procedures and forms through P&P

briefings and SOS newsletters Project Officer Sept 2017

Throughout the

project

Measuring what Matters

Task Lead Start Complete

5.1 Develop a Signs of Safety performance scorecard that reflects the impact

of our practice on children, young people and families

Business Intelligence

Manager Aug 2017 Dec 2017

5.2 Align performance reporting within LiquidLogic to SOS scorecard

measures

Business Intelligence

Manager Aug 2017 Jan 2018

5.3 Introduce SOS collaborative audit within Children’s Social Care Audit Officer Sept 2017 Nov 2017

5.4 Revise Children’s Social Care audit report in line with SOS principles –

simple language, strengths and worries

Audit Officer and Project

Officer Nov 2017 Dec 2017

5.5 Develop a audit tool, process and scorecard aligned with SOS collaborative

audit for early help and CAF

Head of Service: Prevention,

Service Manager: Family

Focus, and Locality Manager:

Cheshire East Family Service

South

Aug 2017 March 2018

5.6 Map how we currently engage families across our service to identify any

gaps and share best practice Project Manager July 2017 Sept 2017

5.7 Engage with families to develop ways to gather feedback on our services

and the impact of SOS on practice Project Manager Aug 2017 Dec 2017

5.8

Develop questions around key SOS outcomes to incorporate within the

annual social work staff survey, and carry out the staff survey to set a

baseline prior to SOS implementation

Project Manager June 2017 July 2017

21

5.9 Annual social work staff survey to be repeated to evaluate impact on

culture and practice Project Manager June 2018 July 2018

5.10 Develop a mechanism for obtaining feedback from partners to evaluate

the impact of SOS on practice Project Manager Nov 2017 Jan 2018

5.11

Review how quality assurance information is fed back to teams and

partners, and develop clear communication pathways for all information,

looking to increase opportunities for celebration and reflection

Measuring What Matters

Work Stream Dec 2017 March 2018

22

Your thoughts matter If you have any views on this Strategy or how we can improve our services,

please contact us at SignsofSafety@cheshireeast.gov.uk