Supporting Safe Practice: Preventing Professional Dangerousness

Child fatality reviews continue to show us that while families engage in dangerous dynamics that lead to harm, so, unfortunately, can the professionals and agencies working with them. Inadvertently contributing to a poor outcome for a child, young person or family member can have a devastating effect on workers and often leads to resignation from the profession. Drawing on a range of research, this two-part workshop provides an in-depth look at the concept of professional dangerousness in relation to child and family work, and explores individual and organization dangerous dynamics that can occur. It examines the interactional patterns that can contribute to professional dangerousness and offers strategies to prevent it from an individual and agency perspective.

After attending this training, participants will be able to:

• Identify interactional patterns between families, workers and agencies
• Describe the concept of professional dangerousness
• Name individual dangerous dynamics
• Describe the concept of hostage theory
• Describe the professional accommodation syndrome
• Identify agency and inter-agency professional dangerousness dynamics
• Identify individual and agency strategies to prevent professional dangerousness

Biography

Dr Nicki Weld is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and Director of CNZN Ltd, New Zealand, which provides international and national training, facilitation, and professional supervision. Nicki has worked for in a variety of social service and child protection roles, including professional leader for social work in general health, senior social worker, supervisor, senior child protection trainer, and as a national social work advisor within the New Zealand government sector and non -government sector.

Nicki is the author of Applying the Therapeutic function of Professional Supervision – Attending to the emotional impacts of human service work (Routledge 2023, UK), Courage to face long loss (Austin Macauley, 2023), E Ko te Matakahi – Therapeutic Social Work (2017, Stand Children’s Services, NZ), The Whole Sphere – Supporting well-being, and recovery from relational trauma (2014 Dunmore Publishing NZ), A Practical Guide to Transformative Supervision for the Helping Professions- Amplifying Insight (Jessica Kingsley Publishing, London 2011); Making Sure Children get 'HELD': Ideas and Resources to Help Workers to Place Hope, Empathy, Love and Dignity at the Heart of Child Protection and Support (Russell House Publishing, London 2009) and co-author of The Three Houses Tool- A handbook for application (Japan 2015) and Walking in People's Worlds: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Social Work (Pearson Education, New Zealand 2008). She is the primary creator of the Three Houses tool used internationally.