Bet
ween October 2014 to March this year the Signs of Safety English Innovations Project (EIP) was undertaken with ten local authorities; Brent, Bristol, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Tower Hamlets, Wakefield, West Sussex, and Wokingham.
The purpose of the project was to work with the authorities individually and together, to implement Signs of Safety practice across the whole children’s services continuum and, most importantly, to re-design organisational procedures and functioning so that the approach could be used to maximum effect in practice. The English government funding for this project was secured by Munro, Turnell and Murphy Child Protection Consulting. Later this week a full report on the project will be released. The report, ‘You Can’t Grow Roses In Concrete’ is authored by Professor Eileen Munro, Dr Andrew Turnell and Terry Murphy.
The strength and impact of the innovations project was recently illustrated when the national English Office for Children’s Services Standards (Ofsted) singled out for commendation the Lincolnshire multi-agency Signs of Safety response to domestic violence. The Ofsted report inspection team said social workers in Lincolnshire “are better able to understand the range of risks that children face and the impact that domestic abuse is having on them” by using Signs of Safety. They also noted that children were “sensitively supported to develop safety plans through the use of their own words and pictures”.
More details on the report are available here: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/2002878/ofsted-hails-eileen-munros-signs-of-safety-in-domestic-abuse-cases.