Both Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council are a Signs of Safety Local Authority. Working in a strength based, solution focused way, we place children and families in charge of their own lives and empower them to achieve long lasting sustainable safety, welling, and success.
Signs of Safety is an innovative strengths-based approach, using solution focused practice to support the family and network to come up with their own solutions to their difficulties, moving away from professionals like Schools, school workers or health visitors having the answers and telling families what to do.
The Signs of Safety practice principles support our vision that the best place for children and young people to grow up is within their families and networks where they have the potential to care for them safely, and when this is not possible, we will provide a secure and stable home and help them achieve their full potential.
Working in partnership with children, families and their naturally occurring network is central to our work; we compassionately work on building positive relationships, as we recognise the importance of this in achieving positive change for children and young people. Full involvement of family and network is always pursued, whether the child lives within or outside their family of origin, so that everything is done to sustain the child’s lifelong connection and belonging with their family, culture, and community throughout children’s services involvement.
One of the key principles of Signs of Safety practice is to use simple language that everyone understands, therefore moving away from professional jargon and abbreviations that can be confusing for children and families. The simple, descriptive language we use is important to help families to have a good understanding of why professionals are involved and what goals we are working towards.
Signs of Safety is more than a set of practice tools, it is a set of practice principles around how we think about our approach to practice, how we interact with children and families, how we shift power imbalance, how we put children and families in charge of their own lives and how we communicate this in a clear, compassionate and solution focused way.
In our different services we may use Signs of Safety, Signs of Wellbeing or Signs or Success, although the practice principles remain the same. Signs of Safety practice principles are equally applicable to:
What we will see in Cumbria
What you have told us is going well with Signs of Safety in Cumbria
Worker feedback
Child and Family feedback
Working relationships
“Thinking critically and fostering a stance of inquiry” (Munro) – questioning approach
Landing grand aspirations in everyday practice
Families as assets – honour and build on their strengths
Fostering hope not hopelessness
Help families to make changes for themselves
Apply relationship based practice
Putting children at the heart of how we plan and deliver support to them
Importance of direct work with children and families
We have nothing more to learn from mistakes – we will need to spend more time looking at strengths. We will grow in our practice from these strengths
Signs of Safety Two Day Introductory Training (October/November 2023) - Signs of Safety is an innovative strength based, solution focused approach to working with children and families, grounded in partnership and collaboration with families and professionals. It is important for new members of staff and those who have not yet completed the Signs of Safety Two Day Introductory Training, that they have the opportunity to attend the training. The Introductory 2 day training focuses on the Signs of Safety Assessment Framework with a brief overview of Safety Planning.
Throughout 2023 there will be a rolling training programme. Numbers are limited and spaces will be prioritised for Cumberland County Council system users, however some spaces will also be allocated to partners agencies.
Important information - this training will be delivered in person and attendance via MS Teams link will not be available for these training dates.
For further detail click here
To book a place
Please email the SignsOfSafety@cumbria.gov.uk if you would like to book a space, if you require any support or have any special requirements for attending training.
If you have any questions please email SignsOfSafety@cumbria.gov.uk
At the Signs of Safety (SoS) briefing sessions you told us what was going well in Cumbria. You told us that you had seen that paperwork had been updated including templates, and you reported some changes in the use of language. You also told us that the LSCB (now the CSCP) was more evident and the website was more accessible with lots of relevant information and that it was a positive step forward that Cumbria had adopted the SoS model.
Worker Feedback
Family Feedback
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