transforming children’s services - wakefield · transforming children’s services with signs of...

Transforming Children’s Services

with Signs of Safety Practice

at the Centre

Munro, Turnell & Murphy

and Partnering Local Authorities

Innovations Programme Proposal

August, 2014

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Transforming Children’s Services with Signs of Safety Practice at the Centre

Munro, Turnell & Murphy and Partnering Local Authorities | Innovations Programme Proposal — August, 2014

CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary and Context 2. Signs of Safety Practice 3. Where Practice and Organisational Factors Collide — The Problems We Are Looking to Solve 4. Organisational Transformation — A Compelling Case

The MTM Transformation Framework o Structural arrangements o Learning strategies o Leadership imperatives o Politics and staying the journey

Organisational Consultancy Specific reforms on the continuum of children’s services

5. Theory of Change 6. Value for Money 7. Concurrent Engagement with Ofsted Inspection Framework 8. Information Management

Reforming managerial oversight and quality assurance — developing meaningful measures Reforming information management in direct work

9. Action Research 10. Delivery, Scalability and Spread

Delivering the bid — a unique mix of experience and skills Business model for scalability and spread

11. The Commitment of the Ten Partnering Local Authorities 12. Conclusion — Is This Project Innovative?

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONTEXT The Munro Review of English Child Protection Services [2011] concluded that the system had become locked into a defensive compliance culture, underpinned by unnecessary and overly bureaucratic procedures resulting in social workers spending less time working directly with children and families and more time — up to *80% — feeding the system. Professional expertise had become eroded and social workers found their role becoming progressively less clear. Her Review emphasised the need to redesign services around children and families and create a culture of continuous learning. A central recommendation was to draw on robust evidence that supported effective ways of working with children and families and encourage workers to think critically and foster a stance of inquiry. This proposal, at its heart, is to do with transforming children’s services with Signs of Safety at the centre. It directly addresses the challenges identified in the Munro Review and, importantly, gives greater clarity to the role of social work, as well as making it more accountable. The evidence strongly suggests that in those jurisdictions where Signs of Safety has been adopted outcomes for children and families have improved. Signs of Safety is based on a robust theory of change, has a strong evidence base, can have a unifying impact across the whole system, supports more effective partnerships and is value for money. Ten local authorities will work with MTM in this innovation project — Brent, Bristol, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Tower Hamlets, Wakefield, West Sussex and Wokingham — a rich mix of urban, rural, big city and London borough. There is corporate support for this proposal and the Chief Executive and the Lead Member in each authority has signed a Letter of Commitment. For each local authority the project will align policy and procedures within the Signs of Safety framework; identify their specific information requirements as part of a quality assurance system to measure the impact of better working with children and young people; build capacity to train the workforce in the new practice method and develop an action research programme to evaluate the implementation of Signs of Safety and the outcomes for children. The implementation of Signs of Safety will be led by Munro, Turnell and Murphy (MTM) — three internationally renowned experts in the field of child protection. They have in turn assembled an equally strong team of trainers and information systems experts to support their work.

2. SIGNS OF SAFETY PRACTICE Signs of Safety is an integrated framework for how to do children’s services work. It sets out the principles for practice; the disciplines for practitioners’ application of the approach; provides a range of tools for assessment and planning, decision making and engaging children and families; and describes the processes through which the work is undertaken with families and children, including work with partner agencies (Turnell and Murphy 2014, Turnell 2011). This practice returns child protection intervention to being the catalyst that initiates behavior change by families. Signs of Safety is now used in some 100 jurisdictions in 13 countries and has a strong evidence base (see Value for Money section below). There are 41 authorities engaged with Signs of Safety in the United Kingdom, including 38 in England. The three principles address key challenges of the work:

1. Working relationships are paramount: to enable honest and respectful discussions of concerns and worries. Research shows that, irrespective of the type of intervention, professionals see better outcomes when they have a shared understanding with the family of what needs to change, agreement on what they are aiming to achieve and the family feel an affective bond with the worker.

2. Thinking critically: to minimize error a culture of shared reflective practice and a willingness to admit you may be wrong is needed. Risk assessment is a core task and requires constant balancing of the strengths and dangers in a family to avoid the common practice problems of drifting into an overly negative or positive view of the family.

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3. Based on everyday experience: assessment and safety planning is grounded in the everyday lived experience of the child.

The core assessment tool is the ‘Three Columns’, an easy to understand framework that is completed by the worker, family and other key professionals exploring 4 key questions: What are we worried about? What’s working well? What needs to happen? Judgment, typically, on a scale of 0-10 considering how serious do the professionals, the family and

key people believe the situation is for the child? The Three Columns assessment is illustrated below with all analysis categories.

The ‘Three Houses’ tool is used to help workers learn from children what they think are the most important things that are happening in their home and family. This echoes the Three Columns with ‘the house of good things’, ‘the house of worries’ and ‘the house of wishes’. The case example below illustrates the power of this tool in communicating the child’s lived experience.

© Resolutions Consultancy

Signs of Safety Assessment and Planning Framework: Seven Analysis Categories

What s Working Well? What are you Worried About? What Needs to Happen?

0 10

HARM:&

!

DANGER&STATEMENTS:&

!

Complicating&Factors:&

!

Existing&Strengths:&

!

SAFETY&GOALS:&

!

EXISTING&SAFETY:&

!

Next&Steps:&

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Having developed a detailed understanding of how the family is functioning and a shared agreement of what needs to change, the next step is to undertake safety planning. This will usually involve families calling on the wider family and their social network to provide active support, being the people who are likely to play a more substantial and enduring part in the family’s life than professional interventions that tend to be of short duration and short term. The aim is to create a proactive, structured and monitored process that provides parents involved in child protection matters with a genuine opportunity to demonstrate that they can provide care for their children in ways that satisfy the child protection service. The safety plan is a specific set of rules and arrangements that describe how the family will go about and live its everyday life that shows everyone, the professionals, and the family’s own support people how the children will be safe in the future. The ‘Words and Pictures’ tool is for grown-ups (usually the parents) to explain what is happening to children and what is being done to make them safe, as illustrated below.

3. WHERE PRACTICE AND ORGANISATIONAL FACTORS COLLIDE — THE PROBLEMS WE ARE

LOOKING TO SOLVE To an outsider, the description of Signs of Safety given above might seem commonsense and we have already reported that 38 authorities in the UK are already using it, so the question arises: what more is needed? The problem is that people are trying to fit this practice framework into organisations that have evolved into the overly bureaucratic, defensive and compliance-driven places described in the Munro Review. We surveyed 420 social workers in 12 UK authorities and they reported that the two ways of working do not fit well together and that there are substantial inefficiencies as tasks are duplicated Many reported that they received conflicting messages with priority still being given to complying with process so that it seemed that lip service only was being given to higher quality work with families. Therefore Signs of Safety is not being embedded into the foundations of the organization and so not realizing its full potential. Indeed, it is vulnerable to withering away as front line workers find that they are not helped to have sufficient time to work closely with families. The goal of this bid is to work with ten local authorities to help them achieve whole system redesign that supports, effectively monitors and builds high quality Signs of Safety based practice with families. The project is greatly helped by the substantial changes made in April 2013 in government statutory guidance that create more room for local adaptability and by the changes in the Ofsted inspection framework that give greater attention to the quality of work being undertaken and the supporting evidence that it is leading to better outcomes for children and young people. These relatively recent changes create the conditions for radical change in local authorities.

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4. ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION — A COMPELLING CASE Practice occurs within a multi-faceted context, reflecting both internally how the agency is structured and externally how the agency is positioned within the wider service delivery environment. This network of inter-relationships creates complexity that needs to be managed to support, rather than impede, front line practice. Transforming child protection services involves continuously aligning these multiple and interacting organisational arrangements and systems through persistent and agile leadership over time. Child protection in England is at an important point. Munro dealt with the institutional blockages to better child protection services. The MTM Transformation Framework offers an approach to child protection work that deals with many of the practice, policy, systems and leadership impediments that have undermined child protection services historically. Its relevance is that is has significance to the wider England child protection system. MTM, from their unique experience of reviewing, consulting and leading the implementation of Signs of Safety world-wide are well placed to embed this framework to support the idea of continuous re-alignment and agile leadership at a local level. The framework is set out below. MTM Transformation Framework Structural arrangements To start

Project plan for implementing the practice framework (for multiple, preferably 5 years) Steering committee (or relevant governance arrangements) Child protection practice framework document Project director, team (desirable)

Over time

Case practice guidance (policies and procedures) alignment with the practice framework Annual or biennial whole organisation practice framework implementation reviews and plans Annual local area or team practice framework implementation reviews and plans Staff surveys on the practice framework

Key parallel organisational reforms Strong front door (intake and assessment capacity) Formal partner agency engagement, with e.g. Local Children’s Safeguarding Boards, Police and

Family Courts as well as service agencies (protocol agreements, collaborative structural arrangements, information sharing)

Relevant operational measurement and reporting, and formal arrangements to access feedback on how the organisation is functioning, including from families

Continual streamlining of all policies and procedures (and client information collection) Learning strategies To start

Basic training in the practice framework Practice leader / advanced training in the practice framework for supervisors and key natural

leaders Coaching for supervisors and other practice leaders

Over time

Basic training in the practice framework being integrated into compulsory introductory training Practice leader / advanced training in the practice framework for all staff Practice skills formal training workshops

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Workplace based learning: o Group sessions working with the practice framework on sample cases o Appreciative inquiries (workers showcasing good case practice) o Practice skills through coaching and mentoring and workshops

Aligning all formal learning pathways and opportunities with the practice framework Supervision with an approach aligned to the practice framework

o Group supervision (teams working and reflecting on live cases) Signal organisational learning events that showcase practice (desirable) Dedicated organisational positions supporting case practice (desirable) Dedicated local organisational positions supporting case practice (desirable)

Leadership imperatives To start

Strong, visible senior management engaged with the day to day experience of staff Stated organizational commitment to the practice framework Clarity and focus – on organizational direction, the practice framework, resolution of key issues

Over time

Parallel process / organizational congruence with the practice framework – leading with a questioning approach, promoting the principles and disciplines of the framework, and using an aligned assessment and planning approach, across the organisation

Fostering a safe organisation - building confidence that workers will be supported through anxiety, contention and crises o Anxiety is shared upwards and never carried alone o If workers do their best within the organisation’s capacity, and they are frank and open but a

tragedy occurs, they will be fully backed up by the organization through to the chief executive Leadership that is demonstratively focused on practice Distributed leadership, “from the front counter to the chief executive”

The concept of becoming a learning organisation can encompass these interconnected structural arrangements, learning strategies and leadership imperatives, and is a useful parallel commitment to putting practice in the centre and the implementation of the practice framework. Politics and staying the journey

Building recognition with political leadership and partner agencies that tragedies and contention are inherent in child protection

Building recognition that growing people and the organisation takes time Building “capital” with political leadership and partner agencies through understanding of the

work, being credible and reliable, and demonstrating early and continuing good practice and outcomes

National and international engagement with like agencies supports the transformation journey, sharing resources, learning and research, and is protective during crises.

Organisational consultation

MTM will support the implementation of the transformation framework through monthly individual consultancy to inspire, advise, and coach leaders and key staff. MTM will also provide ad hoc consultation and specific policy alignment advice and the drafting of new documentation. There will be bi-monthly workshops with all participating local authorities to address specific issues and to enhance shared learning.

Specific reforms on the continuum of children’s services

Partnering local authorities have highlighted critical points on the continuum where substantial specific reforms are required:

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Intake/First response – a simplified and single assessment and plan using the Signs of Safety framework.

Continuum of service across early help, family support, child protection and looked after children – using the common framework to allow for seamless transition and service provision.

Family group conferences and child protection conferences – integrating to be consistent with Signs of Safety.

Public Law Outline – introduction of pre-hearing Signs of Safety conferences. Further integration with other key services such as schools, health, police, youth services; and

with the Troubled Families project. Some participating authorities have commenced this work and will provide learning for others.

Discussions with local authorities have also indicated points at which exemptions from central government requirements might be necessary or advantageous. Any requests would apply only to the authorities piloting specific reforms. These include:

45 day single assessment requirement 15 day point at which a child protection conference is required, Specific requirements on what constitutes a contact, notification and referral to children’s social

care.

5. THEORY OF CHANGE The theory of change for the proposal is set out in appendix 1. It covers the Signs of Safety as a practice approach and the MTM Transformation Framework as the vehicle for organisational change aligned to the practice approach, to describe the path to fundamental and sustainable change in children’s services practice, organization and outcomes. The results logic for Signs of Safety has been developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection (AACP), University of South Australia, in collaboration with Andrew Turnell and is set out in Bromfield et al (2014). The theoretical basis for the MTM Transformation Framework is reflected in an analysis of Western Australia’s implementation of Signs of Safety and organizational transformation, on which the MTM Framework is substantially based, in relation to the tenets of implementation science, also conducted by the AACP, and set out in Salveron et al (2014). It also draws significantly on the theory of learning organisations (Senge 1990).

6. VALUE FOR MONEY Any value for money discussion about children’s services needs to be framed within the context of cost efficiencies being seen alongside improved outcomes for children. Cost efficiency also needs to recognise both short and long term gains. The prime goal is to improve the safety and welfare of children and young people. This is complicated to measure and requires a combination of data, e.g. reported physical injuries, police visits to the house because of violence, re-referrals for maltreatment, evidence of improved behaviour by e.g. teachers or nursery staff, self-reports from children and young people on whether they feel safer or happier. Independent evaluation will be the prime mechanism for measuring whether the goal has been achieved but the work in this proposal on improving quality assurance methods will also contribute by improving local authorities’ ability to gain feedback as part of their routine work. Evidence from across jurisdictions where Signs of Safety has been applied systematically consistently indicate the following core benefits:

Families and children feel more empowered and are better able to understand the concerns and requirements of child protection services – shared understandings of harm and risk lead to more effective outcomes for children, less re-referrals and eventually reduced demand in the system.

Practitioners report greater job satisfaction and commitment to their work leading to improved staff retention and reduced absenteeism – better staff morale, greater clarity about role and the usefulness of the tools of Signs of Safety suggests more effective and better focused support is provided to families.

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The number of children removed from families reduces as the number of families being supported intensively increases – as workers’ skills develop they have greater confidence to close cases and feel more secure in an environment that supports high-risk work and avoids a culture of blame.

Specific findings across jurisdictions indicating improved outcomes for children and greater job satisfaction for social workers with good potential for cost savings are set out in Turnell and Murphy (2014) and Turnell (2011), and include:

Swansea City Council implemented Signs of Safety in 2011. Two years data shows child protection re-referrals reduced by 9% and children in care figures reduced by 13.6%.

The number of families receiving intensive help rose from 2.5% to 13% and in the same period the number children being removed from home reduced by 24% in the initial years following implementation of Signs of Safety [Western Australia].

The percentage of children removed from home dropped from 54% to 44% following implementation of Signs of Safety in Bureau Jeugdzorg in Drenthe [The Netherlands].

Comparison was made of families at high risk of children and their children being removed in separate authorities in Copenhagen – in families receiving Signs of Safety support 15% of children were removed compared with 42% of those families receiving a ‘normal service’ [Denmark].

In Olmstead County fourteen years of data indicated the number children worked with tripled while reducing by 50% the number taken into care and families taken to court following the implementation of Signs of Safety [USA].

The number of children in care across Australia doubled in the years between 2000 –10 with yearly increase of approximately 9.7%. In Western Australia with the implementation of Signs of Safety the rate reduced to 5% between 2009 –13.

Aboriginal services in Calgary report that in the period 2011-14 caseloads fell from 1041 to 798; children in care fell from 783 to 654; and children on supervision orders fell from 185 to 63 following the implementation of Signs of Safety [Canada].

The independent evaluation of Signs of Safety will identify whether the cost benefits described above can be replicated in England generally. There is reason to be optimistic

7. CONCURRENT REFORM AND ENGAGEMENT WITH OFSTED INSPECTION FRAMEWORK Ofsted’s role in sharing emergent and strong practice will be important in a new system that is beginning to establish strong local arrangements in the absence of nationally prescribed rules. Regular evaluation and shared learning of new developments is a rich resource that Ofsted will want to make available to local authorities in supporting more effective services. MTM is already in discussions with the Deputy Director [Social Care Inspection Development] about disseminating the learning that will occur in those authorities using Signs of Safety and with inspectors about the tools they could expect to see in services implementing Signs of Safety. The specification of how the 87 criteria on the evaluation schedule of an Ofsted children’s services inspection might align with Signs of Safety practice provides an opportunity for alignment at a conceptual and practice level. MTM has been proactive in working with Ofsted to assist in this process of alignment to achieve a broader application beyond the ten authorities involved in the bid. The fact that Norfolk – one of the ten in this bid - is in ‘interventions measures’ is an opportunity to demonstrate how Signs of Safety can be part of the solution in terms of improving staff morale; giving greater clarity to social workers in supporting vulnerable children and in providing more effective services. We have discussed this with Norfolk. Their commitment is undiminished and the project is an important part of their recovery programme.

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8. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Using the Signs of Safety Practice Framework changes information management needs at both the front line (for case management) and in management (for oversight and quality assurance). Reforming managerial oversight and quality assurance — developing meaningful measures Helping authorities reform their quality assurance systems is part of the MTM Transformational Framework, specifying the need for developing ‘relevant operational measurement and reporting, and formal arrangements to access feedback on how the organization is functioning, including from families’. The Munro Review highlighted the problem that a quality assurance system primarily focused on compliance has, over time, distorted practice away from a central focus on children and young people, and had contributed to the demoralization of the workforce. This is an area where reform is crucial so that managers are supporting and encouraging high quality Signs of Safety practice focused always on children’s safety and welfare. Reform is also needed to meet the new Ofsted inspection framework that asks more questions about the quality of work done and its effect on children and young people. MTM will work with local authorities to co-create a set of practice measures and data collection methods to form the basis for a new quality assurance system so that collecting and using feedback on the quality of service being provided becomes embedded in organizational behavior. To be effective, meaningful measures of output and outcome for organizational performance management cannot be developed as an academic exercise but rather need to be developed through a structured learning process involving multiple authorities and leadership teams. The development of these new quality assurance measures will draw substantially on two key evidence bases for Signs of Safety practice. First, the Signs of Safety fidelity measures research, in which local authorities will participate in a current international study with MTM and Casey Family Programs (USA). This will capture practical measures of the experience of parents, workers, supervisors and leadership. A new study for organizational fidelity measures will also coincide with this project. Second, the Signs of Safety theory of change provides essential guidance as to what constitutes fidelity. Development of the system with local authorities and drawing on the Signs of Safety evidence bases will enable this quality assurance system to provide real time outcome data for field staff, supervisors and executive leaders to manage their part of the service. Reforming information management in direct work For those involved in direct work, Signs of Safety changes the type of information used, how it is collected and the locations in which it is used. Using the tools means that a great deal of information gathering is carried out in the family home using paper and pens to record as the discussion proceeds. This contrasts radically with current conditions where being in an office entering data into the ICS software package has become the major information management task. A better understanding of the information management needs of Signs of Safety is required so that efforts can be made to align them with existing processes better. In the longer term a fundamental re-design of information management technology will be needed but this is beyond the scope of this project. This work will be undertaken under the guidance of Professors David Wastell and Sue White who have extensive knowledge of the current system and its defects. Research has shown that a user-centred approach is very effective for developing radically different technological supports, with the emphasis on shifting from bureaucratic form-filling to professional sense-making. ICS support for Signs of Safety is currently very limited and goes no further than allowing forms to be uploaded into the document repository of current ICS systems. This project will pursue three interlinked strands of work:

1. Developing a set of Apps for use on mobile devices to support key areas of Signs of Safety practice

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2. Integration of the output of these Apps (and other electronic output such as from whiteboards) with existing ICS infrastructure will be explored in collaboration with our partners and interested suppliers in order to develop ad hoc solutions

3. Foundational research, and open source project development, on design of an alternative to ICS that was founded integrally on Signs of Safety.

All design work will follow a user-centred approach. A key part of this will be ethnographic observations of social work practice particularly regarding the use of existing ICS systems. A User Group will be established of experienced social work professionals from our partners who will guide the design process of the Apps (strand 1), the adaptations of existing recording systems (strand 2) and the design of future ICS support for Signs of Safety (strand 3). Central to this will be a series of workshops involving user-centred methods such as scenario-based design. The emphasis will be on usability in the context of front line practice, supporting professionals working cooperatively with families in real time, rather than form-filling back at the office. It will also explore the possibility of integrating decision-support functions.

9. ACTION RESEARCH The monitoring and evaluation of the reforms in this project are of fundamental importance. As we are bringing this application to the Investment Board ahead of the appointment of the evaluation coordinator, we understand that if this application is successful we will immediately begin work with programme partners to develop high-quality evaluation plans with an appropriate evaluation partner, and are eager to do so. However, action research is also needed as we develop the strands of reform set out earlier to monitor how they are being implemented and how they are fitting together. Having a set of ten local authorities with which to work provides rich material for learning as the work progresses and we share lessons on what has worked well or been problematic. In conducting this research, we are greatly helped by the research developments in the international Signs of Safety community and we, in turn, will contribute to that international effort to find robust ways of monitoring the organizational implementation of Signs of Safety. The Theory of Change provides a framework for studying implementation, drawing in particular on its account of the stages and the drivers of implementation and organizational change. We have two research questions:

1. Is Signs of Safety being implemented? Since the partner local authorities are at different stages in implementing Signs of Safety, we would expect varied findings on this but the total set of findings will contribute a better understanding of the nature and length of the journey to full implementation and of the obstacles or challenges that may be encountered. Two sets of Fidelity Criteria surveys (features that must be present to demonstrate that Signs of Safety is indeed being used) have been developed to date by Casey Family Programmes: a survey of parents to provide a measure of the extent to which workers have achieved the constructive engagement that is sought, and a questionnaire to be completed by supervisors that measures the extent and the quality of workers’ use of the Signs of Safety framework. The bi-monthly meetings and coaching sessions with all partner local authorities will be another source of information on progress and obstacles.

There is a supplementary question in this area: is Signs of Safety being implemented by the partner agencies in children’s services? Several local authorities are working, or planning to work, to embed the Signs of Safety assessment framework across children’s services.

2. What organizational structures and systems best support good front line practice using Signs of Safety? Our reforms are seeking to change the obstacles produced by organisational structures and systems so studying this is integral to the proposal. Any practice framework requires organizational structures and systems that support that particular way of working so there can be no universally ‘right’ answer to this question irrespective of the nature of the practice. To illustrate, practice that

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incorporates a high degree of shared case management as Signs of Safety does, for instance, requires a different method of workload management that the more traditional ‘individual with a caseload’.

There are several sources of material of relevance here. MTM’s Transformational Framework incorporates learning from Western Australia and other jurisdictions on how organizational factors help or hinder full implementation of Signs of Safety practice. The survey, mentioned earlier, of social workers already using Signs of Safety provides another source for identifying the ways in which organizational structures and systems can impede practice. The Munro Review also identified factors that were driving the defensive, compliance culture and altering these is part of our reform work. The study of the implementation process will also reveal evidence about what organizational factors are associated with successful implementation.

Ethics approval will be sought from the LSE Research Ethics Committee and will involve close scrutiny of the research plans.

10. DELIVERY, SCALABILITY AND SPREAD Delivering the bid — a unique mix of experience and skills Embedding Signs of Safety in the ten participating authorities is the first task. The main reason why initiatives designed to improve children’s services have not fully succeeded is because they have a lacked a whole systems perspective and failed to understand the essential need for alignment of policy, practice and procedures within a culture of non-defensive learning. Front line practitioners cannot do this by themselves. Leadership and ownership of the agenda for change is needed throughout the whole organisation and must come from the top and be continuously reinforced by leaders. The quality and effectiveness of child protection services is therefore everyone’s agenda. Who delivers this bid, not only to the ten but to the wider sector is critical. Signs of Safety has not been delivered randomly across territories and jurisdictions, but has been implemented by expert professionals, skilled and tested leaders and respected academics with considerable expertise in the field of child protection. Signs of Safety is delivered within a proven methodology and underpinned by a theory of change that is supported by robust science. All these factors make Signs of Safety the powerful tool it is. The key people delivering this bid are described below. Eileen Munro is Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and was a social worker for many years. She has written extensively on how best to combine intuitive and analytic reasoning in risk assessment and decision-making in child protection and her most acclaimed book Effective Child Protection is now in its second edition. In 2011 Professor Munro completed the Munro Review of the English Child Protection System. The government accepted the recommendations in full and the review was met with universal acclaim by the sector. The Review describes the limits of a policy of bureaucratic control and prescription in the prevention and support of severe child abuse and argues for growing a system that values and organizes around frontline professional expertise. Eileen will lead on the evaluation, research, information management and quality assurance aspects of the bid. These areas involve new ways of collecting and using data to form opinions about the impact of services and are designed to better support staff in their work with families and children. These innovatory approaches are entirely compatible with the recommendations in her Review and with logical next steps to developing more meaningful measures whilst reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. Dr Andrew Turnell is a child protection consultant from Australia and the principal architect of the Signs of Safety approach to child protection casework. He teaches around the world and is a consultant to child protection agencies in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan and North America. Andrew has written extensively about safety-organised child protection practice. His most recent book is co-authored with Susie Essex from Bristol: Working With ‘Denied’ Child Abuse: The Resolutions Approach. He is currently co-authoring with Terry Murphy the third edition of the Signs of Safety – A Comprehensive

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Briefing Paper that has been regularly updated and forms the practice framework for integrating Signs of Safety into children’s services work world-wide. Andrew’s key role will be to oversee and supervise the effective implementation of Signs of Safety, participate in training and undertake strategic work with leaders in creating both the value base and new culture required to embed a radically different approach to child protection practice. He will also work with Eileen on the evaluation, research, information management and quality assurance aspects of the bid. Terry Murphy was Director General of the Department for Child Protection and Family Support in Western Australia from 2007 to 2014. He took the chief executive role following the department being described as ‘overwhelmed, confused and defensive’ in a comprehensive government review. He led its transformation from a failing service to an effective service and leading agency in the field of child protection. He also has broad experience in health, in alcohol and drug services and has significant experience in the strategic development and planning of services. Terry’s role will overlap with Andrew’s. However, Terry’s distinct contribution is the ability to embed and sustain new cultures and values in organisations that want to move forward but struggle in the implementation of new ideas. Organisational resistance may need to be overcome and ‘political’ factions may appear seeking to derail change. His experience in turning around a severely failing organisation and understanding the central importance of dispersed leadership in managing whole system change is invaluable. Viv Hogg is a senior licensed Signs of Safety Trainer and Consultant for the UK. She is an experienced social worker and has spent her entire career in child protection work. She has provided training and consultation in the Signs of Safety to many UK local authority children’s services, in particular in Gateshead where her extensive work there has been recognised internationally. She has also co-authored a number of publications on Signs of Safety. Viv’s main role will be in the recruitment and supervision of trainers and the quality assurance of training practice to ensure consistency. She will also have a direct role in training. Her concern will be to ensure a high level of competency in the application of Signs of Safety and to support embedding it in front practice. The trainers — in total fifteen trainers will be available to support the implementation of Signs of Safety across the ten authorities. There is a good ability to scale up and down according to the needs of the organisation. The trainers are qualified social workers and all have solid experience of child protection work and training. This bid is predicated on putting in place a team of significance strength that can function effectively and with competence across the range of organisational levels – from politicians, chief executives and directors of children’s services to front line staff and management tiers in between. Business Model for Scalability And Spread The project will develop and demonstrate an affordable business model for local authorities to achieve fundamental and sustainable change in children’s services practice, organization and outcomes. Implementing the Signs of Safety will mean that new authorities will, in the first instance, engage with MTM and Resolutions Consultancy licensed Signs of Safety trainers and consultants to undertake core Signs of Safety learning, bring the basic training in-house, and undertake aligned organisational reform to sustain and grow the development of effective practice. In the medium term, these authorities will maintain their transformation and, through the network of authorities implementing Signs of Safety in England and the United Kingdom, and by staff working in authorities becoming licensed Signs of Safety trainers and consultants, they will drive the transformation of the sector across England. The project will achieve this through:

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Participating local authorities completing core Signs of Safety learning and demonstrating transition to internal provision of their ongoing basic Signs of Safety learning.

Participating local authorities demonstrating implementation of the MTM Transformation Framework to align organisational reform and Signs of Safety practice.

Investing in MTM and Resolutions Consultancy to expand English expertise and capacity, increasing from 5 to 14 the licensed trainers and consultants who will provide initial basic training and continuing advanced learning and coaching, and building their skill and experience to provide organisational consultancy in line with the MTM Transformation Framework.

Drawing from local authority staff to build the expanded licensed trainers and consultants capacity, engaging part time trainers and consultants who continue to work in local authorities and support other authorities in their regions.

MTM and Resolutions Consultancy building the England network of local authorities implementing Signs of Safety, enhancing their capacity to sustain transformation and support other authorities’ transformation.

The other 28 local authorities currently implementing Signs of Safety to varying extents in England, and the other 6 in the United Kingdom, are an immediate first line of scalability and spread. These authorities currently meet annually in leadership workshops. These workshops will be held more frequently as the project progresses and winds down, as one means of sustaining and growing the network of authorities. The Signs of Safety Gathering in England in April 2014 also provided a strong example of practice developments being promoted and spread and networks developed and strengthened between authorities (the programme can be downloaded from http://www.signsofsafety.net/events/?ee=14). MTM, Resolutions Consultancy and an enlarged group licensed trainers and consultants who have positions within the children’s services sector are at the core of scalability and spead. Munro, Turnell and Murphy bring unique experience and skill, in research, practice and leadership to the project. Signs of Safety and the MTM Transformation Framework bring first class and arguably unparalleled methodology to the project. Investing in building the capacity of the network of licensed trainers and consultants will established English capacity to provide an affordable model for new local authorities to achieve fundamental and sustainable change in children’s services practice, organization and outcomes. Combining this development with the established national network of local authorities implementing Signs of Safety will drive national system change and local authority reform across all England over the coming years. Additionally, the more usual methods of knowledge dissemination will also be driven by MTM and participating local authorities - publications, workshops and conferences, as well as targeted publicity, supported by the Department of Education’s innovations project service delivery partner – to promote knowledge and adoption of innovative developments. On line, social media based dissemination and development of a Community of Practice via the College of Social Work also offer significant opportunities.

11. THE COMMITMENT OF THE TEN PARTNERING LOCAL AUTHORITIES Discussions with all ten local authorities have taken place at the level of lead member, chief executive and director of children's services. All are enthusiastic about joining the project and see Signs of Safety as a strategic part of redesigning their child protection services. All have given their commitment by the Chief Executive and lead member in writing. All local authorities have provided budget information indicating planned spending for the Innovations Programme including matched new spending and other funding supporting the project. These documents have been provided to the Innovations Programme coaches. MTM will develop individual partnership agreements with each local authority participating in the project at its commencement.

http://www.signsofsafety.net/events/?ee=14

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12. CONCLUSION — IS THIS PROJECT INNOVATIVE? The key innovatory aspect of this bid is the scale of change: whole system re-design around Signs of Safety which provides theoretical and value foundations and tools for working with families to improve the safety and welfare of their children. Several local authorities have implemented Signs of Safety for frontline practice but, as their staff have told us, the rest of the organization has not changed to match it. This means that they have not yet achieved the aim of the Munro Review of moving from a compliance to a learning culture focused on how well they are serving children and young people. This project provides a transformation framework that will bring into alignment the structures, policies, processes, learning and leadership with Signs of Safety practice. Signs of Safety is itself an innovative approach to practice which, while it is a mature approach, continues to evolve through innovations created by workers using the approach around the world. Research from other jurisdictions provides evidence that Signs of Safety will lead to better outcomes for children and young people. Working with Ofsted, we shall show how to meet the new Ofsted inspection framework and this will strengthen senior managers’ and local politicians’ confidence in this way of working. The transformation extends to working with other agencies. Some local authorities are already starting to use Signs of Safety to replace the present Common Assessment Framework and their work and learning will be disseminated to other authorities. By working with several local authorities, we shall build momentum that will then be rolled out on a wider scale. There are already 28 other authorities using Signs of Safety in England and several more have expressed a wish to do so. The development of Signs of Safety Apps and their integration with existing ICS software promises significant savings while the project strand by Professor White studying the information needs of practitioners and managers is innovatory and lays the foundation for a radical revision of how information management is carried out. The reform of information management will improve managerial oversight with new methods in quality assurance, developed with the local authorities drawing on fidelity research and the theory of change, with meaningful measures that offer 360 degree constant information from families, workers and leadership. Taken as a whole, this bid addresses many of the concerns and fragilities in the current child protection system. It builds on the evidence of successful reforms elsewhere. Importantly, the reforms are located within the context of a whole system design. As such, it represents a major and innovative step forward in the improvement of child protection services, not only in the ten authorities involved but also with a viable model for scalability and spread across the sector in England.

REFERENCES Munro, E. (2011). Munro Review of Child Protection, Final Report: A child-centred system. London:

Department for Education. Turnell, A. and Murphy, T. (2014) Signs of Safety — A Comprehensive Briefing Paper. Draft Third Edition. Turnell, A. (2011) Signs of Safety — A Comprehensive Briefing Paper. Second Edition. Resolutions

Consultancy. www.signsofsafety.net White, S., Wastell, D., Broadhurst, K., Peckover, S., Davey, D., & Pithouse, A. (2008). Living in the iron cage

of performance management: exit the street level bureaucrat, enter the good soldier Svejk? Aarhus.

Wastell, D.G. (2011). Managers as designers in the public services: beyond techno-magic:. Triarchy Press. Wastell, D. and White, S. (2014). Making sense of complex electronic documentation: socio-technical

design in social care. Applied Ergonomics, 45(2):143–9.

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