Coventry is now in its 3rd year of a 5 year Signs of Safety Implementation Planning journey. Years 1 and 2 focussed on introducing the model to social care children's services, working predominantly with child protection chairs, front door services (MASH) and introducing the model into neighbourhood teams.

The trajectory for Years 3 and 4 is to fully embed Signs of Safety within children's social care, and introduce / plan training events for colleagues from Multi-Agency LSCB partner agencies such as Education and Health and Police. Furthermore, develop and start to roll-out training events to all multi-agency children's services colleagues, and offer a range of training provision across the services.

Today in Coventry, over 90% of social care children's services workforce are confident in using Signs of Safety in everyday practice. Relevant colleagues from Education and Health have either attended training or have booked onto training between now and March 2019. There have also been several 1/2 and 1 day presentations to Community Paediatricians, Housing Officers, Head Teachers and CAHMS professionals. Coventry currently has a cohort of around 55 Signs of Safety Practice Leads who are tasked with sustaining good practice with their own service areas, supporting colleagues, and driving improvement. The current trajectory focusses on building confidence amongst LSCB partner agencies, continuing to embed Signs of Safety across social care children’s services, developing consistency of practice and driving ongoing training and development.

It is forecast that by late 2020, all professionals involved within multi-agency children’s services in Coventry will have a good understand, and be practicing Signs of Safety within their daily practice.

Since May 2018, a training provision has been scoped, created and developed. There are now two day training events taking place every month until March 2019. The training is available to all Coventry Social Care employees, as well as practitioners from our partner agencies such as Health, Education, Police and Youth Justice. Over 90% of all children’s services social workers have attended the two day training. There are also a number of one day training events taking place from September to January 2019. Spaces on all training events are filling quickly so please book on through  www.coventry.gov.uk/safeguardingbookingform

Plans are now in place to develop a number of half day Signs of Safety training events. These will be available from October onwards.

Coventry social care now has five Signs of Safety Accredited trainers. They are Kerry Oddy, Louise Paterson, Joanne Woodfield, Dinesh Ranchhod and Robert Russell. They are tasked with presenting the 1 and 2 day training events throughout 2018 /2019. There are also a number of Signs of Safety Practice Leads who have attended the five day advanced training. This will enable Practice Leads to develop and present individual workshops or training events within their own service area. There are ongoing plans to encourage our partner agencies such as Health and Education to attend five day Practice Lead training events in order for them to become Signs of Safety ‘Champions’ within their particular service area.

Coventry is considering hosting a five day Practice Lead advanced training event in March 2019. If you are interested in attending this, please speak to your line manager. The current co-hort of Practice Leads are in the process of developing individual ‘workshops’ which will focus on particular elements of the model, such as

• Developing words and pictures
• Creating danger/worry statements – safety goals
• Family network meetings
• Developing meaningful questions

It is hoped that by the Autumn we will be in a position to offer some dates across multi-agency Children’s Services to attend the workshops.

Every month, we would like to use this part of the newsletter to showcase good practice. Social Workers generally shy away from showcasing good work, despite the fact that they are demonstrating some excellent practice which results in positive outcomes for our children and families. We want to start by showcasing some work which was completed by Jackie Bryan (Families for All Hub).

Jackie took part in a ‘group supervision’ exercise with Bharti Patel and her team. Participants were asked to develop their own worry statements and safety goals with the information that was shared regarding the family. Jackie was able to capture the worries in such a sensitive, emotive and simplistic nature, that anyone reading them would instantly be able to understand the worries and safety goals. Excellent work Jackie.

Worry Statement 1 - Mum feeling sad and unhappy

Early Help Practitioner from Families for All Hub is worried that Mum is feeling very sad and unhappy and thinks there is no one to help her. Mum is trying to keep it all together for Z but sometimes it gets too hard for her and she gives up trying. Early Help Practitioner is also worried that when Mum gives up trying, the house becomes very dirty and unsafe and isn’t a nice place for Z and Mum to live.

Wellbeing goal 1 - Mum feeling sad and unhappy

Mum you are the only person looking after Z and it is really hard for you at times to do everything you need to do; especially when you’re not feeling well yourself. Mum, you and Z need to live in a safe and clean house and have people that you both can turn to, to help out. For this to happen Mum you need to tell people what you need and what you think will help you, and not be scared that people are thinking badly of you as a mum. If this doesn’t happen Mum you will get more stressed and not be the best mum you can be to Z; the home will get dirtier and it won’t be safe for Z to live there; if he lives away from you, with his nan maybe, he will be sad, upset and angry.

Worry Statement 2 - The home

Early Help Practitioner from Families for All Hub is worried that Z and Mum are living in a home that is full of rubbish; mouldy food scraps, packets and tins, overflowing bin bag and dirty clothes and these are on the floors and furniture. We know that mice are in the home as we can see their droppings and there are lots and lots of flies buzzing around. Flies and mice spread germs which will make Mum and Z poorly. Z is worried that he doesn’t want to be away from his mum for a long time and told Early Help Practitioner “I want this all to be sorted very quickly”.

Well-Being goal 2 - The Home

Mum, you and Z need to be living in a safe, warm and happy home together where you can enjoy being a mum and Z can be in his normal routine. Mum, you can make small steps forward so this can happen, by letting other people like your sister into the home to help you. With Z helping too this will make him feel important and proud of himself. If this doesn’t happen, Z will have to stay with Nan and this will make you both very sad, upset and worried.

Worry Statement 3 - Z going to school

Early Help Practitioner from Families for All Hub is worried that Z’s school attendance is only 66%. Z is a very clever lad but isn’t in the top set anymore. If he’s not at school he can’t learn and he misses out on doing stuff with his friends. Early Help Practitioner is also worried that Z’s friends may make fun of him as his clothes are sometimes dirty and don’t smell very nice.

Well-Being goal 3 - Z going to school

Z needs to be happy and doing lots of great things in school and Mum will be so proud of him. Z is starting Year 11; a really important time for him to learn and do really well in his exams. Good exam results will give Z more chances to follow his dream of going to university.  For this to happen Z needs to be in school every day and look and smell good in his school uniform. If this doesn’t happen Z will get more behind with his work and will feel that he is not as clever as other children; this will make him feel bad about himself and he may give up trying.

Also a big thank you to Bharti and her team for taking on the new Signs of Safety Early Help Assessment trial in her hub.

There have been a number of parents who have recently visited Coventry social care to talk about their experiences and journeys as a service user. Parents talked about their challenges with social care alongside their positive experiences. These presentations were extremely powerful and such a good learning event for practitioners. We can learn so much from listening to the children and families we are working with, and in line with the core principles of Signs of Safety –‘Working relationships’ – ‘Grounded in everyday experience’ let’s get more families in to talk about their journey with social care.