The five Children’s Services Trusts of Northern Ireland, under the auspices of the Children’s Services Improvement Board, are actively preparing for implementation of Signs of Safety. Munro, Turnell and Murphy have held workshops with leaders of all Trusts each quarter since mid-2017 and the formal launch is planned for June 2018.
The preparation phase is focussing on the “big four” pre-implementation activities:
- Introductions to Signs to Safety through briefings, seminars and workshops in Trusts, to expose staff to Signs of Safety and drive discussion, and the first basic two-day training being provided to key leaders of practice and key organisational leaders from each Trust in March 2018.
- Learning cases in each Trust to experience the practice, enabling learning together in real time about the practice and about organisational opportunities and barriers to whole system implementation, as well as providing case material for Northern Ireland training.
- Detailed implementation planning in line with the approved proposal, reflecting the Signs of Safety implementation framework and that will provide a basis for each Trust to develop its own plan as implementation commences.
- Solutions for potential blockages involving simple IT and system workarounds where potential barriers to practicing with Signs of Safety can be minimised.
A formal agreement between the Children’s Services Improvement Board of Northern Ireland and Tusla, the child protection statutory authority for the Republic of Ireland, to share learning and resources, is also anticipated.