Best Practices for Safety Planning

Prerequisite: Completion of the SOP Foundational Institute is required

This engaging and interactive training will walk participants through the steps of the collaborative safety planning process, a best practice approach to safety planning in Child Welfare that incorporates Safety Organized Practice (SOP) skills and strategies and heavily links the Structured Decision Making (SDM) Safety Assessment. This course provides several opportunities to practice skills that support effective collaboration, transparent communication and meaningful engagement in the safety planning process, as well as create behaviorally based action steps that directly address safety threats. Additionally, this course will focus on how to utilize safety networks effectively and efficiently to support families in creating and maintaining safety for children.

After attending this training, participants will be able to:

  • Recall the required elements of all safety plans.
  • Summarize the nine steps to the collaborative safety planning process.
  • Describe how the SDM Safety Assessment guides and informs safety plans.
  • Identify Safety Organized Practice (SOP) tools and strategies that support the safety planning process.
  • Clarify ways to monitor the effectiveness of a safety plan and a timeline for review.
  • Explain the roles of the safety network in the safety planning process.
  • Create solution focused questions that can be utilized to build relationship while gathering information to assess for safety.
  • Construct a danger statement and safety goal that serves to guide the safety planning process.
  • Design behaviorally specific action steps that address the safety threat and a plan to monitor each action step.
  • Respect the critical role of the safety network in the safety planning process.
  • Uphold the belief that within the collaborative safety planning process, the family is the expert and the safety plan should reflect what works or has worked for them.
Course Code
386800