Turning Questions into conversation Presented by Tracy WardPrice

Turning Questions into conversation Presented by Tracy Ward-Price and Francesca Saunders 1

Workshop aims • Identifying how the questions we ask help to engage parents • Turning questions into conversations • Provide a ‘reference sheet’ of questions to refer to and expand on in practice 1 2

Assessment and Planning Form What Are We Worried About? What’s Working Well? What Needs to Happen? Harm and Future Danger Strengths & Demonstrated Safety goals & next steps in working towards safety Past harm: What has happened to these children, that worries us, or to other children in the care of these parents? ) Future worries: What are we worried might happen to these children in the care of these parents in the future? Complicating factors: What makes building safety for the children and working with this family more complicated? Grey areas what things are we are unsure about or don’t know enough about? EXISTING STRENGTHS SAFETY & PROTECTION SAFETY GOAL STATEMENT: WHAT EXACTLY DO WE NEED TO SEE FOR US TO BE CONFIDENT THAT THERE IS ENOUGH SAFETY FOR US TO CLOSE THE CASE Family View What does the family think they need to be doing in their care of the children for them to be safe & Children’s Social Care to end their involvement What are the agency’s & family’s ideas about what needs to happen next in working towards these goals (SAFETY PLAN)? HARM STATEMENT: PAST/CURREBT HARM TO CHILDREN /YP DANGER STATEMENT: FUTURE DANGER FOR CHILDREN /YP NEXT STEPS (must directly relate to danger) Safety Scale: On a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 means immediate response required from Children’s Social Care (0= no signs of safety)10 means no further action required (10 = high levels of safety ) 1 3

Types of questions Ø Open ended Questions “Can you tell me about your relationship with your parents vs. “Do you like your parents? ” 4

Questions starting with‘What, how, tell me, describe’ are open ended questions that requires a more in depth response than ‘yes or no’ and this can lead into greater description and discussion. It’s not a conversation if it is a ‘question and answer session’ – using open ended questions helps the flow of conversation and provide opportunity for people to volunteer information and interact with the conversation. This enables the interviewer to utilise and revisit parts of the conversation, or reaffirm/confirm areas of the information provided. You are focused on the next question, and they are focused on trying to give the right answer. 5

Reflective practice Self awareness – impact of self on others Having an awareness of our own practice What our anxieties are Recognising the other person’s anxiety an acknowledging this with them Allow them their voice Accept silent pauses How comfortable are we with the answers given Know what you want to achieve 6

Exceptions Types of Useful Questions: Exceptions are those occasions in family's lives when their problems could have occurred but did not – or at least were less severe. Exception questions focus on who, what, when and where (the conditions that helped the exception to occur) - NOT WHY; exceptions should be related to goals. 7

Miracle Question Miracle & Scaling Questions Miracle The “Miracle Question” is the opening piece of the process of developing well-formed goals. Scaling questions can be used to understand where the family are in relation to the reaching their goals. 8

Coping Questions & Indirect Questions Coping questions attempt to help the person shift their focus away from the problem elements and toward what the client is doing to survive the painful or stressful circumstances. Indirect Question - invite the person to consider how others might feel or respond to some aspect of the person’s life, behaviour or future changes 9

A Question for you…… Do you feel happy to answer questions sat with your current group? Produce a follow up question that could help lead to further conversation about why you do or don’t feel happy 10

Elicit, Amplify, Reflect, Start over = ? ? 11

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Choose 2 of your favourite questions from each section of the EARS document that you might use in future and write them down SAVE THEM…. WE WILL REVISIT THE QUESTIONS LATERBACK T 13

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Turn questions into conversation Expand on what you know 1 15

Who are the people who support you the most? Who do the children feel most connected to? Who already knows everything that happened? Who are the people who you don’t ask for support from but maybe could in the future? Who are the people who support you a little? Who are the people who don’t support you and maybe make things harder for you and your family? Who do the Children feel some connection with? Who are the people in your life who don’t know anything about the hard things you’ve been dealing with? Who already knows a little bit about the hard things you’ve been dealing with? 1 16

Future support and safety 1 Initial Question This involves asking the parent/caregiver an initial question (similar to miracle question) that invites them to describe their vision of what they would be doing with their children if all the problems that led to Child Safety or the agency being involved had been resolved. The initial (visioning) question you can ask: “Imagine this is your future house, where all of the problems that led to Children’s Social Care (or the agency) being involved with your family (or the children being taken in to care) have been sorted out. 15 Follow up Questions leading to conversation What would you be doing in your future house to look after your children and keep them safe if all of the problems had been resolved? ”

3 Follow up Questions Focus on the care of the children The focus within the Future House is always on the care of the children. If we ask someone a general question such as ‘What would you be doing? ’, we’re likely to get a general answer such as ‘I wouldn’t be using drugs’. While stopping substance use is definitely something we want parents to achieve, this description doesn’t describe what someone would be doing and what would be different for the children. (ie safety goals): 1. And if you weren’t using drugs, what would be different in your care of your children? 2. And if you weren’t using drugs, what would be the first thing your children/your mother/sister/ friends/professionals would notice was different in the way you were looking after your children? 3. And if you weren’t using drugs, what would grandma/the children/Child Safety workers see you doing differently with your children? 18

Significant people and support networks In working with fathers, it is critical that we acknowledge their equal responsibility as a parent and explore the impact of their behaviour on the children and their role as a parent, Use questions that invite fathers to reflect on how they want to be as a parent and what parenting choices they want to make in the future. For example: 1. What would you be doing as a dad that would show everyone that all the issues had been resolved? What would your children notice that their dad was doing? 19

First visit -Cold calling – how do you promote conversation? What Questions would you ask ? ? ? ? ? 20

Elicit, Amplify, Reflect, Start over = ? ? 21

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Share with your group (from the EARS) 1 question you would use on your first visit to a family to establish/discuss: - previous harm - current harm - how you would end the interview - impact on the child - safety and strength 23

Step 1 – What Are We Worried About? Impact on the child Exploring the (past) harm Opening • There has been a report of concern about your child that said… • What do you think led to CFS getting involved with your family? • What have you heard about why your child was removed? Behavioural details • When did that (harmful event) happen? • Can you tell me about what happened that day? • Where was it? Where were you? Who else was around? • How did you respond when it happened? • How long has this been going on? • What was the first, worst and most recent time this happened?

Elicit, Amplify, Reflect, Start over EEARE EARS Ø What worries you about (child)? Ø We have received a report that (child) was harmed – can you tell me what happened? Ø What harm has happened to any child in the care of these adults? Ø What is the danger to this child if left in care of (mother/father)? Ø What makes this situation more complicated? Ø What worries (you/mum/dad) about being involved with child protection 25

Impact on the child �Where were the children when this was happening? �Do you think X (harmful event) is affecting your child in any way? �Do you ever worry about X? When do you most worry? What is happening? �If your child was here right now, what would he/she say X does to him/her? �Do you think X might be affecting him/her at school? �Do you think X might be affecting how he/she makes friends? �Does X ever come between you and your child? �Does [collateral] think X is affecting your child in any way? �Does [family member] think X is affecting your child in any way? �On a scale from 0 to 10 with 10 being your child was totally safe when X happened and 0 being your child was in a lot of danger and could have been really hurt, where would you say things were when that (harmful event) happened? �What would your child say if he/she was here? © 2012 by NCCD, All Rights Reserved https: //sharepoint. nccdcrc. org/Projects/Project Documents/USA/California/632 San. Diego/Modules/7 Mapping with Families/Mapping with Families Handout. doc 26

Closing statements for the initial visit Ø We have a way of summing up these kinds of things called a “harm” statement. Ø Can I share it with you and see what you think? Ø On a scale from 0 to 10 where 10 means that the harm statement really describes something that worries you too, and 0 is you think I am really off base, how would you scale this? Ø Summary of visit and what next/what to expect? What do you Want from me that would be helpful for the family ? What does that support look like? 27

Step 2 – What is Working Well? Searching for safety and strengths Opening Questions • • • What do you think is working well in your family? What are you most proud of in your family? What do you see in your children that makes you most proud? What is your family like at its best? If the kids were here right now, what would they say is going well in your family? • What would they say they are most proud of in you? In themselves? Who else knows you or your family really well? What would they say is going really well? What do you think I see working well? • Can I tell you what I see working well? • 28

Signs of Safety/Security/Stability Exception questions Ø Searching for Exceptions/Past Example of Safety Ø Has there ever been a time when (the problem) could have happened—almost did Ø happen—but somehow you were able to do something different? Ø Can you tell me about a time you were able to manage (the problem) in a way that Ø you felt good about? Ø Ø What are you already doing to help keep your children safe and respond to the Ø concerns? Ø Tell me about a time you were able to look after your kids even though you were Ø dealing with other more difficult things? Ø Can you tell me about a time when you were really angry with the kids but rather Ø than hitting them you were able to find a way to calm yourself down? 29

The Safety or Future House Rules of the House Who lives in the house? Who can 1 Who should not be allowed in visit? Safety path (scaling)

The Future house Process for using the Future House tool 1. Explaining the Future House The first step in the process of using the Future House tool is to explain the purpose of the Future House, which is to help professionals hear and understand the parents/caregivers/network’s views about what needs to be happening in the family to ensure the children's future safety, belonging and wellbeing, as a step toward the development of a joint vision for the future. You might want to introduce the tool by saying something like: For Children’s Social Care to be willing to get out of your life and let you get on with being a family, we need to see that you are looking after your children in ways that make sure that none of the things we are worried about will happen to your children in the future. We need to talk together about your ideas of how you would be looking after your children and our ideas about what we would need to see you doing, so that together we can come up with some really clear goals. I want to start off by asking you for your ideas and finding out what you want your future with the kids to look like.