The Signs of Safety Approach to Child Protection Casework

Keynote Presenter

Andrew Turnell

Co-creator, Signs of Safety; social worker, family therapist, and child protection consultant from Perth, Western Australia

Event Overview

The Signs of Safety approach to child protection casework was developed through the 1990s in Western Australia. The approach was created by Andrew Turnell and Steve Edwards in collaboration with almost 120 West Australian child protection workers and is now being utilized and further developed in many different countries around the world. This approach focuses on the question, “How can the worker actually build partnerships with parents in situations of suspected or substantiated child abuse?” This is a partnership- and collaboration-grounded, strengths-based, safety-organised approach to child protection work. This approach expands the investigation of risk to encompass strengths and signs of safety that can be built upon to stabilize and strengthen the child’s and family’s situation. A format for undertaking comprehensive risk assessment—assessing for both danger and strengths/safety—is incorporated within the one-page “signs of safety assessment protocol.” In addition, the Signs of Safety approach is designed to assist professionals at all stages of the child protection process.

This was a free, live teleconference sponsored by the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW), School of Social Work, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, to your county ITV site and made possible by a Title IV-E training grant administered by the MN Department of Human Services.