Monitoring safety

Review the immediate safety plan

The immediate safety plan is to be reviewed within 7 days. However, monitoring should be occurring on a more frequent basis, depending on the level of risk. Checking in with children, parents and the safety and support network is an important part of reviewing the safety plan.

Checking in with parents

Always check in with parents first and give them the opportunity to talk to you about how things have been, what has worked and what has not. Ask parents if they are worried about anything or worried about you talking to their safety network.

Checking in with children

Children need to stay visible. Talk directly to them and ask how things are going. Tools such as the The Safety House Tool can be used to talk about safety and gather information about how the safety plan is working. 

Ask children:

• how they are feeling
• if they have any new worries 
• what happened after your visit
• what has been said to them
• what they overheard
• if safety and support network members have been visiting and providing help according to the plan.

The safety and support network

During the immediate safety plan period, make contact with the family’s safety and support network to see:

• what has been happening
• what they have seen
• if anything has changed in the home
• if they are more or less worried than they were a few days ago.

While we know that services do not equate to safety (behaviour change leads to safety), part of reviewing the safety plan means checking with services and other professionals who are also working with the family. It is essential to share information in relation to the worries, progress and successes.

Checking on specific tasks

If the immediate safety plan had specific tasks that needed to be done—such as cleaning the home, putting drugs in locked storage and disposing of needles—you will need to physically check that these have been completed.