Safety planning

Read this section in conjunction with the resource, Safety and support networks and high intensity responses.

Safety and support networks

The immediate safety of a child who may share space with a sexual abuser, or child who has engaged in harmful sexual behaviours, may be supported with a robust plan documenting how the person of concern will not be allowed the opportunity to sexually abuse the child in future.

To be effective, the plan requires a network of safe, protective adults who are committed to preventing access between the person of concern and the child, to preclude both contact sexual abuse and sexual grooming behaviours.

Involve the child, when appropriate, in identifying family and community members for safety planning. Have conversations with the child about who currently keeps them safe and who can in the future.

Practice prompt

When speaking with a child to identify suitable family and community members to engage in safety planning, consider the following prompts:

What has this person done to help you or keep you safe before?
How do you contact this person if you need their help?
What do you think this person would do if you told them (the person of concern) has done something that made you feel unsafe or uncomfortable?

The resource My Safety Network provides a child-friendly approach to discussing safe people with children.

All adults with responsibilities listed in the safety and support plan must agree to their role in the plan, and triggers for seeking help.

Immediately after a sexual abuse disclosure or discovery, professionals may need to take on a role in safety planning. However, due to limitations such as operating hours, role scope, and employment conditions, professionals are not suitable as long-term members of the safety and support network.

The roles of professional employees in the safety and support network should be replaced by family and community members as soon as possible, and by the first safety and support plan review.

For family and community members to be considered safe and protective, they must meet the following 5 pre-conditions for safety and support network members:

Unconditionally care about the child.
Are willing to work with Child Safety and other key people.
Understand and acknowledge the harm that has occurred.
Understand the worries and risks for the future.
Are willing and able to take actions that support the family and keep the child safe.

Practice prompt

Supporting the safety and support network to have the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to scaffold safety around the child may require intentional and purposeful education to increase their capability.

Talk to the family using these resources to assess and support their understanding:

Work with non-believing family members

How a parent responds to their child’s disclosure of sexual abuse is the most critical and important factor regarding the child’s post trauma trajectory and overall trauma resolution (LaTreill).

Sexual abuse by a family member or trusted community member typically results in feelings or betrayal for non-offending family members. Non-offending family members are also often victims of sexual grooming tactics used by the abuser to facilitate and conceal their abusive behaviours. These tactics can create fractures in the relationship between non-offending family and the victim child, which impairs their capacity to:

empathise with the child’s experience
identify sources of harm
accept the child’s account of abuse.

Intervention with non-offending family members requires patience, compassion and empathy. In the period straight after a sexual abuse disclosure or discovery, it may be necessary for professionals to take a role in immediate safety planning. However, the limitations resulting from involvement with a family based on employment (for example, operating hours, role scope, employment conditions) make professionals unsuitable safety and support network members beyond an immediate response.

It can be common for non-offending family members to initially respond with disbelief, minimisation or blame. Allow a period of grace to support them moving along the continuum of belief.

When a family member is disbelieving, minimising or denying accountability of the abuser, explore and address their values, beliefs and attitudes which may be contributing to their perspectives. Identify the influencing factors to offer targeted education or referrals for the specific attitudes or beliefs related to their disbelief.

Practice prompt

Assessing the protective capacity of non-believing family members requires a holistic approach, consider their ability to protect the child from abusive behaviour by the abuser, and to ensure the child’s emotional and psychological safety.

Take a realistic and child-centred approach in which the child’s need for acceptance, protection and belief is of paramount consideration.

Consider how unlikely it is for an adult who disbelieves, denies, or minimises the situation to fully embrace the need for a safety and support plan, uphold the child’s psychological safety, and adapt to the circumstances.

Co-designing a safety and support plan

Safety planning in the context of child sexual abuse relies on the presence of safe, protective adults who acknowledge the concerns and risk, and accept responsibility for preventing the opportunity for future abuse to occur.

Co-design the safety and support plan in collaboration with the child, their parents, and the people included in the child’s safety and support network. Base plans on a clear understanding of family relationships and dynamics, achieved through a respectful partnership approach. Acknowledge and manage the inherent power the department holds as a statutory authority to ensure safety and support plans are developed through genuine partnership and informed consent. Recognise the authority and influence of the department can create a power imbalance, which may lead families to feel pressured into agreeing with decisions rather than actively participating in the process.

Use the family’s language in the plan and present the plan in an accessible format. This may include developmentally appropriate visual cues to help the child understand and follow the rules and agreements.

Document both the plan, and the planning discussions clearly and accurately.

Practice prompt

Use the Circles of Safety and Support Tool to guide discussions on safety planning, partnering with families and building a safety and support network.

Safety planning with ‘bottom lines’

For a plan to be realistic, achievable and effective in keeping a child safe, and to avoid being open to misinterpretation, practitioners must be clear about the baseline expectations. Known as the ‘bottom line’ these are the non-negotiables relating to the safety of the child to meet legislative responsibilities and obligations. While the family or members of the safety and support network do not have to agree with the bottom line, they are able to contribute to how the bottom line will be achieved.

Note

Refer to Procedure 2 Carry out a safety assessment for full detail on identifying immediate harm indicators and developing an immediate safety plan.

The following table provides example ‘bottom lines’ as they relate to the child, the safety and support network and the environmental context.

The child	The safety and support network	The environmental context
The child has a developmentally appropriate understanding of the concerns, including who the person of concern is. The child will not be alone with the person placing them at risk of sexual abuse. The plan doesn’t increase the level of risk or create other sources of potential harm for the child. The child has been involved in the identification of safety and support network members. The child has been involved in the development and testing of the plan.	The members of the safety and support network: will ensure the child is not exposed to any expressions of disbelief, minimisation or victim-blaming includes an adult who does not reside with the child, who has a connection to the child (not paid-professional support staff) and who believes the child’s account of the abuse understand the worries and recognise the need for the plan if responsible for supervision, are willing and able to directly intervene as required. The child’s primary carer can respond to their emotional and physical needs.	The living environment provides for adequate safety, supervision and privacy. Consideration has been given to areas where line of sight is compromised. There are clear, safe household rules about private and public areas of the home. (Refer to Safe household rules.) The plan addresses any high-risk situations identified through assessment of the abuse context. The plan includes contingencies, for example if someone who has agreed to provide supervision cannot attend, what will happen instead.

The child

The safety and support network

The environmental context

The child has a developmentally appropriate understanding of the concerns, including who the person of concern is.

The child will not be alone with the person placing them at risk of sexual abuse.

The plan doesn’t increase the level of risk or create other sources of potential harm for the child.

The child has been involved in the identification of safety and support network members.

The child has been involved in the development and testing of the plan.

The members of the safety and support network:

will ensure the child is not exposed to any expressions of disbelief, minimisation or victim-blaming
includes an adult who does not reside with the child, who has a connection to the child (not paid-professional support staff) and who believes the child’s account of the abuse
understand the worries and recognise the need for the plan
if responsible for supervision, are willing and able to directly intervene as required.
The child’s primary carer can respond to their emotional and physical needs.

The living environment provides for adequate safety, supervision and privacy.
Consideration has been given to areas where line of sight is compromised.

There are clear, safe household rules about private and public areas of the home. (Refer to Safe household rules.)

The plan addresses any high-risk situations identified through assessment of the abuse context.

The plan includes contingencies, for example if someone who has agreed to provide supervision cannot attend, what will happen instead.

Practice prompt

When developing actions and agreements to achieve the bottom-lines, consider the following prompts:

Which members of the safety and support network will take responsibility for each of the identified bottom lines?
Who will do what and when, to make sure the bottom lines are consistently achieved?
Does the plan hold the abuser or child with harmful sexual behaviours accountable for their role in upholding the plan?
Does the plan account for the daily routine of the family and other members of the safety and support network?
Where is each member of the household at each time of the day?
What bathtime and bedtime routines exist? Does anything need to change to ensure these routines uphold the safe household rules?
What vulnerable times exist in the family routine where the plan may be compromised?
How is supervision considered during transport of the children?
What daily routines of the safety and support network members may impact their availability to implement the plan?
What might get in the way of being able to achieve the bottom lines?
What circumstances trigger a review of the plan, or an agreement for the safety and support network to notify Child Safety?
When will the plan be reviewed?

Safe household rules

A crucial component of practice with families in the sexual abuse context is supporting the family to understand and implement safe and healthy ways of behaving and interacting. Establish safe household rules to clearly identify safer ways to function.

Sometimes these rules may reflect ‘normal and ordinary’ expectations, standard across many households. Rules may also cover more specific and stricter boundaries now required because where sexual abuse has occurred.

A child who has experienced sexual abuse is more vulnerable to future sexual victimisation, and to harmful sexual behaviours towards themselves or other children. Proactive measures to teach the child about safe and acceptable boundaries and behaviours can reduce this vulnerability.

While ongoing adaptation and review of safe household rules is required, in most instances, household safety rules beyond those which are ‘normal and ordinary’ in other families will be required permanently, while the adult of concern in present in the family system.

Safe household rules may be able to be eased over time, based on ongoing risk assessment. Consider the following examples when developing safe household rules.

Rule	Example of safe houshold rules
Privacy	In our home: we only take our clothes off when we are alone in our bedroom or in the bathroom with the door closed we make sure we have all our clothes on when we are in shared areas of the house children don’t go into each other’s bedrooms only our safe adults are allowed into the children’s bedrooms, and only after they knock on the door and are invited in we don’t go into the bathroom if someone else is in there.
Body boundaries	In our home: we don’t touch the private parts of other people we remember our body safety rules we only touch our own private parts when we are in our bedroom or in the bathroom on our own with the door closed we sleep in our own bed, by ourselves we don’t sit under blankets with other people we don’t play wrestling games or tickle each other we don’t sit on the lap of other people.
Consent	In our home: we always ask before we touch another person’s body if an adult needs to go into a child’s room, they knock on the door and wait until they are invited in if someone says ‘no’ or ‘stop’, we stop what we are doing right away.
Supervision	In our home: we always make sure an adult can see us when we are playing with someone else we don’t play hiding games.
Secrets	In our home: we don’t keep secrets we tell one of our safe people right away if someone breaks a household rule or asks us to keep a secret.
Use of technological devices	In our home: we don’t use our devices in our bedroom we follow our digital safety plan we make sure an adult can see us when we are using our device we don’t tell people online where we live, where we go to school, or what our full name is we tell one of our safe people right away if we see or hear something that makes us feel unsafe, unsure, or uncomfortable.
Risk specific	In our family: [alleged abuser’s name] isn’t allowed to come to the pool or beach with us [alleged abuser’s name] isn’t allowed to help us get changed [alleged abuser’s name] isn’t allowed in our bedroom [alleged abuser’s name] isn’t allowed to use our devices or play video games with us [alleged abuser’s name] isn’t allowed to come to watch me play sports Only one person is allowed on the trampoline at a time.

Other items for consideration

Consider the presence and impact of the issues below to decide if they need to be included in the safe family rules:

Discipline	How do the children know when they are in trouble? Who normally disciplines the children? What kind of discipline is used? How do the children respond to this discipline?
Physical contact with other adults	Are there times when the child has cuddles with other adults? What happens if they don’t want a cuddle? How do they let you know? What do you do?
Responding to and managing overtly sexual behaviour towards other adults or children	have you noticed [child] behaving in a sexual way towards other children or adults? What do you do when this happens? (Refer to Harmful sexual behaviours.)
Contact that the [alleged abuser] may have with other children at school / clubs / any other activities	Are there other places or times that the [alleged abuser] spends time with children?
Extraordinary gift giving, money, treats, outings unless previously approved by the parent	When was the last time [child] was given a treat or gift from the [alleged abuser]? What about the other children in the home?

https://www.bodysafetyaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/images/PDFs/downloadable-resources/Our-Body-Safety.pdf

This downloadable poster provided by Body Safety Australia showcases a visual presentation of safe household rules.

Online and device safety

Support and supervision for a child who has been sexually abused or who has engaged in harmful sexual behaviour needs to extend to include their use of technological devices and online activity.

Talk with the child and their caregivers to establish clear, safe rules for how their devices and online time are to be used. This includes how to manage the content they see, and what to do when they encounter content that makes them feel uncomfortable, or they receive unwanted contact from known or unknown people.

Practice prompt

The following resources can provide useful guidance in supporting children, families and safety and support network members understanding and addressing risks associated with children’s use of devices.

ThinkUKnow
- Resources able to be filtered to target an age range or an activity type or topic.
- Fact sheets in multiple CALD languages
eSafety Commissioner
Daniel Morecombe Foundation Keeping Kids Safe Resources for Teachers, Parents & Carers
Digital Safety Plan.

Contextual safeguarding

Contextual safeguarding is an approach which recognises that as children grow and develop, they are influenced by a whole range of environments and people outside of their family. Contextual safeguarding looks at how families, professionals and community members can best understand varied and intersecting risks, engage with children, and help to keep them safe.

This approach recognises children and young people have active social lives, the right to choose, and access to online systems, and therefore can be influenced by a variety of contexts. Consideration must be given to who provides for or reduces the safety of children in each environment within which they exist.

Contextual safeguarding aims to change cultures, systems, and environments associated with harm, rather than looking only to change the abusive behaviour, providing a more realistic and holistic approach to safeguarding children.

Contextual safeguarding assesses environmental risks and seeks to change or control environments that can foster harm. This approach includes leveraging safe adults who have oversight or guardianship of children in each environment they encounter and can help to address risks at their source in a more preventative way.

Practice prompt

When considering contextual safeguarding approaches, the following prompts may provide useful to inform safety strategies:

Where is the child most safe? What is in place that keeps them safe there?
Where is the child least safe? What factors exist that decrease their safety there?
What environmental factors exist in each environment attended by the child that increase or decrease their safety?
How often do these risk factors present for children in each of these environments? Do those responsible for these environments understand contextual safeguarding?
Are child service organisations with responsibility for the child complying with the Child Safe Standards and Child Safe Organisations Act 2024?
What support do the child, family, community, and organisations need to address risks of vulnerabilities in places where children are present?

Cultural considerations

Best-practice safety planning engages the family as experts in their own culture and recognises culture as a source of protection and strength. Cultural communities and networks can provide support for families where sexual abuse has occurred, uphold the resilience and strength of non-offending family members, and support the healing of children who have been sexually abused.

Practice prompt

Culturally responsive and informed practice requires child protection practitioners to speak with the family about how their culture impacts the functioning and experiences of their family, and to seek appropriate support and advice from cultural Elders, cultural practice advisors, and community organisations.

Some cultural practices can create additional complexities for children in the context of sexual abuse. Understanding the ways in which the family’s culture contributes to strengths and risks is crucial to developing robust, realistic safety and support plans.

Test and review safety and support plans

Effective implementation and review of a safety and support plan require critical thought about how the plan will work in practice and ongoing assessment of how the safety and support network is implementing and internalising the safety and support plan.

The following table provides a range of approaches to review and test a safety and support plan’s breadth of effectiveness.

Approach	Description	Possible example
Ask, 'If this, then what?'	Ask this question to create different ‘what-if’ scenarios. This can help Child Safety, the safety and support network, and other stakeholders understand how deeply network members have considered the practical application of safety rules in everyday life. It can support network members in shifting from mere compliance to genuine ownership of the safety plan.	‘Part of the safety plan for your family is that Sam isn’t allowed to go to the pool with the children. If you arrive at the local pool and Sam is there, what will you do next?’
Role-plays	Role-plays can be useful in developing scripting with network members about what they might say or do in certain scenarios identifies as high-risk situations in our assessment.	‘What might you say to Sam if you arrive home, and they aren’t following the agreed rules for supervision?’
Trial runs	Trial runs can be useful with a child to give the network confidence the child understands the rules and knows what will happen if someone isn’t following them.	‘Part of the safety and support plan for your family is that you will call Aunty Em if you feel unsafe or uncomfortable. Let’s practice now and you show me how you call Aunty Em.’
Scaling	Scaling questions are useful to ascertain whether a plan is realistic. Ask the family and network members how they feel about the safety and support plan, how likely they are to follow it, and how confident they are that others will follow the rules.	‘The safety and support plan has Aunty Vivian always present with Sam when they spend time with the child. On a scale of 1-10 how confident are you Aunty Vivian can do this, where 10 is very confident and 1 is you don’t think she can at all?’

Practice prompt

The Child Sexual Abuse Practice Advice and Support team is available for consultation to support practitioners reviewing safety and support plans in the sexual abuse context.

Controlled	The parents or carers have demonstrated adequate acts of protection to prevent harm occurring for a brief period of time, however, it is unlikely or unclear whether the necessary actions will continue if the safety and support plan is not in place. A new safety and support plan is required to support the family demonstrating necessary acts of protection over time.
Resolved	The parents or carers have demonstrated necessary acts of protection over time to directly mitigate the immediate harm indicator. Risk is likely to still be present and require ongoing support and planning.
Ruled out	New information proves that the identified concerns leading to the safety and support plan were unfounded, and a safety plan would not have been required if the information was previously known.
Discovered	New information raises additional concerns that require a new safety plan.

When meeting with the family and safety and support network to review the safety and support plan, consider the following prompts:

What actions have the person of concern undertaken that might increase or reduce the level of concern?
Has the source of harm been controlled, resolved or ruled out during the period of the safety and support plan?
How does each member of the family or network assess and rate how well the safety and support plan is working?
What contingencies have been required?
What barriers to achieving the plan have presented?
How has the child adjusted to the changes implemented?
Are new or different safety and support network members required?

Practice prompt

Until all concerns about sexual abuse have been resolved or ruled out, an immediate safety plan is required.

Once the child’s protection has been achieved over time, and there is sufficient protective capacity demonstrated by the safety and support network, then a safety and support plan can guide the family to assume responsibility of ongoing safety measures.

Content updates

Safety and support networks

Practice prompt

Practice prompt

Work with non-believing family members

Practice prompt

Co-designing a safety and support plan

Practice prompt

Safety planning with ‘bottom lines’

Note

Practice prompt

Safe household rules

Rule

Example of safe houshold rules

Other items for consideration

Online and device safety

Practice prompt

Contextual safeguarding

Practice prompt

Further reading

Cultural considerations

Practice prompt

Further reading

Test and review safety and support plans

Practice prompt

Practice prompt

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