Signs of effectiveness of signs of safety? A pilot study

The Signs of Safety (SoS) approach has been designed as a tool for professionals to support families and children referred to child protection services, aiming to prevent child maltreatment in early stages. The current study was conducted to give in-depth information on how the SoS-approach is applied to foster parental empowerment and build a cooperative partnership, and to examine the effectiveness of SoS in terms of reducing the risk of child maltreatment and increasing parental empowerment.

Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven SoS-workers. Quantitative questionnaire data from parents and social workers of 20 families receiving SoS and 20 families receiving care as usual were compared. Families were matched using propensity score matching.

The interviews demonstrated that a cooperative partnership between social workers and parents was considered to be a prerequisite to establishing parental empowerment, and that the emphasis on parental empowerment contributed positively to a cooperative partnership between SoS-workers and parents. Quantitative results suggested that three months after a care plan had been made, SoS did not outperform regular care in reducing the risk of child maltreatment and increasing parental empowerment. Overall, parental empowerment was, at trend level, associated with a reduction in the risk of child maltreatment.