Practice tools

There are several tools a practitioner can use to ensure their engagement with the child is meaningful, age-appropriate and will elicit the information needed. They can bring the child into the decision-making process and help them actively participate in matters that directly impact their lives. Tools include:

Circles of safety and support

The Circles of Safety and Support Tool can be used with children to identify significant others who could become part of their safety and support network.

The safety and support network is made up of people such as extended family, friends and community members who will work with the children and/or parents and involved professionals to develop and maintain a plan to ensure the children’s long-term safety, belonging and wellbeing. The network will help with short-term safety planning, take agreed action when there are safety concerns, and provide continued support as part of a longer-term safety and support plan.

Timelines

Using timelines is another technique for identifying significant people in a child’s life. This strategy may help identify pockets of people who have cared about the child at different times in their life.

Timelines can also identify gaps in what we know about the child or young person and highlight clusters of traumatic events. A timeline can help surface some of our own empathy when we may be struggling to see the best in a child.

One thing to note is that doing this with a family or child can be empowering or traumatising. Be sure to develop agreements with clear boundaries before you use this with a child.

Helpful questions for unpacking the timeline:

• Who was in the child’s life at this time?
• Who would have cared about the child during this time?
• What do we know or imagine their relationship was like?
• What connections did the child have to their culture, language, religion and beliefs during this time?
• Who do we think might have been in the child’s life (for example, teachers) about whom we don’t know much yet?

Strengths cards

Strength cards can be used to engage children and help them to identify their strengths and skills. Identifying strengths reminds children that they have them, they can use them to address problems and that they should be celebrated.

The Immediate Story

The Immediate Story is a tool that can be used when children are entering a care arrangement. It is provided to the child at the point of being removed from their parents’ care or as soon as possible afterwards. The tool can help reduce the impact of trauma by sharing information in a simple yet meaningful way so children understand as much as possible.

The Immediate Story provides an explanation to the child about the reason for the care arrangement, about what is happening now or has just happened (for example, the child being moved from their parent’s care and going to stay with other family members or foster carers), and what is going to happen next.

This tool is also beneficial for the carer’s own children when new children are entering their family home at the start of a care arrangement, or perhaps when a sudden change to the care arrangement occurs

Sesame Street in Communities

As a practitioner working with children in care, you have the responsibility of building and supporting safety and support networks to help increase a child’s sense of safety, belonging and wellbeing.

The Sesame Street in Communities website has some great resources you can use to help engage and communicate with young children in an age-appropriate and interactive way. View all resources on various topics such as foster care, incarceration, autism and more on the Sesame Street in Communities website.

For example, the following video may help young children understand their care arrangement is ‘for now’ while their Mum and Dad work hard to make it safe for them to go home. It shows the child they are cared for and have a place in the carer’s home. The video also highlights the use of simple yet meaningful strategies (such as personalised placemats) to help children in care feel as though they belong.

The next video shows the adults talking about being Karli’s foster parents, her ‘for now’ parents. It may be a good video to show the carer’s family when a new child is entering a care arrangement.

Letters and emails

Written communication can be a useful strategy for keeping children informed and enabling their participation in important decisions. This can be quite informal, as a follow-up to a home visit, to remind them of an agreement or to provide a record of important evets in their life.

Sometimes formal letters are required for older children, such as when there is a decision made to change a care arrangement. Remember to tailor your language to the developmental and literacy level of the child.

Home visiting and other contacts

Regular home visits with children are critical to ensuring their safety, belonging and wellbeing. These home visits include:

• reviewing the wellbeing of the child
• exploring any worries they have about their care arrangement
• developing safety plans together
• listening to the child talk about their family and culture
• providing information to the child on their parents, siblings and extended family members
• seeking the child’s feedback on family contact arrangements
• helping the child feel safe
• assessing their strengths and needs and ensuring needs are met.

When completing a home visit with a child, ensure you are clear on what goals you and the child would like to achieve during the visit. Some questions to ask yourself before the visit to help set the scene may include:

• What do I hope to accomplish in partnership with the child?
• What are the worries and good news I need to share with the child?
• How can I be useful to the child on this visit?

After the visit, take some time to reflect on the home visit by considering and asking the child the following questions (in an age-appropriate manner). This may help to structure meaningful and informed future home visits:

• Which parts of the visit would the child say were most helpful and meaningful?
• What are the next steps for the child?
• In what ways can I be helpful to the child next time?

You may also have contact with children in other environments, such as at medical appointments, family contact visits, school events and so on. Do not display your identification and always ask the child how they may want you to be introduced so as to ensure their confidentiality and privacy are maintained.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children - additional considerations

When meeting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, consider where they would feel most comfortable to meet with you. They might like to meet in either their home, an outdoor setting like a park or basketball court, or a cultural space in a school setting.

Be mindful to consider gender when meeting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For instance, it may not be appropriate for a male practitioner to meet with a young Aboriginal girl to discuss topics of a sexual nature. Therefore, it is important for practitioners to ask the family in what circumstances the gender of workers would need to be considered.  

For discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the child may request a home visit away from the house so community members don’t see a government vehicle parked in front of the house. Don’t be afraid to be creative and yarn (talk) with the child out of town by the river.