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Tauranga Family Works a world leader in Signs of Safety for at risk children

Just back from an international conference, Janice Hyde, Service Manager with Family Works in Tauranga, was pleased to discover that her service is a world leader in using the Signs of Safety system to work with families to keep kids safe.

Janice was invited to participate in the international conference on Signs of Safety, because Tauranga Family Works, the child and family service of Presbyterian Support Northern, was one of the first agencies in New Zealand to implement the Signs of Safety system.

“Signs of Safety is a strength based system for working with families where children are at risk because of abuse and neglect,” said Janice. “It is a way of working that encourages the whole family, including extended family, to become a community of safety for the children.”

“Signs of Safety give skills to the family so they know what is acceptable and what is not in terms of looking after children, and shows them how to look out for signs that the children are unsafe and take action as a family.”

Janice says that the system is collaborative, rather than adversarial, so families are more likely to get on board and take responsibility. This way it is easier to keep families together, and prevent children having to be taken into care.

“Signs of Safety is a system that can work in situations where the perpetrator of abuse still lives with or has access to the family,” said Janice.

At the conference, Janice was pleased to discover that the Signs of Safety system is being adopted by many of the world’s biggest child protection agencies.

“The great thing about the system is that it can be used across any culture or community, by small organisations and by big ones, as the principles can be translated to fit any culture and situation,” said Janice.

The conference also demonstrated how important collaboration between social service agencies was for protecting children. “Where government and community agencies are using Signs of Safety to work with families, children’s safety has improved because agencies understood how they were each working with the family and they were able to talk the same language.”

Janice has returned with renewed enthusiasm for implementing and using the Signs of Safety system within Family Works, and promoting its use amongst other Tauranga and New Zealand social service agencies.

For more information contact:

Janice Hyde

Ph 07 575 9709 027 563 1025

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