Draft:Words and Pictures in Child Protection

Words and Pictures in Child Protection is a visual communication tool developed by Susie Essex in the early 1990s. This approach was created to address the need for effective communication with children involved in child protection cases, providing a clear and age-appropriate way for them to comprehend the circumstances surrounding their involvement with social workers and other authorities.

History
Susie Essex, a professional in a child protection setting in Bristol England during the early 1990s, identified a critical gap in how children comprehend the involvement of social workers and other professionals in their lives. When children had unanswered questions or when the answers they were given did not make sense to them, they tended to fill in the gaps with their own explanations, sometimes blaming themselves or leading to more confusion. She also recognized that the professionals lacked the tools and skills they needed to make meaningful progress with families who were experiencing the shame and secrecy that often accompanies child protection involvement.. Words and Pictures, aiming to convey information to children in a clear, age-appropriate, and non-shaming manner. This marked the inception of Words and Pictures for children subject to child protection concerns.

Words and Pictures gained widespread acceptance in UK courts during the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, significantly improving communication and understanding in child protection cases. In the mid-2000s, Susie Essex and her team collaborated with Andrew Turnell in Australia, contributing to the development of the Signs of Safety model. Words and Pictures was integrated into this model to explain child protection concerns to children, along with the concept of Safety Networks to demonstrate future safety.

In August 2020, SafeGenerations assumed stewardship of the training, consulting, and ongoing evolution of the Resolutions Approach (rebranded ReSolutions Together).

Types of Words and Pictures
There are three main types of Words and Pictures :


 * 1) Words and Pictures Explanations: Provide a basic visual narrative to explain child protection concerns, involved parties, and the plan for addressing the concerns.
 * 2) Words and Pictures Safety Plans: Child-friendly safety plans with visuals, typically 6 to 12 frames. They include the main rules and agreements the adults have made, address all relevant aspects of the children's lives, and emphasize positive behaviors and support from safe and supportive adults.
 * 3) Words and Pictures for "How Come Things Are the Way They Are…" and Safe Contact Plans in Alternative Care Cases: This is an adaptation of Words and Pictures to help children understand their situation and the arrangements for contact in alternative care cases.

Resolutions approach
Susie Essex's work in child protection led her to collaborate with colleagues Colin Luger and John Gumbleton in Bristol, England. Together, they further developed the concepts of Words and Pictures and dispute resolution, leading to the simultaneous development of the Resolutions approach in the early 1990s. By 1994, the team offered a complete Resolutions package of work, addressing child protection concerns, establishing safety networks, enhancing professionals' knowledge, and creating meaningful day-to-day safety plans. This holistic approach became known as the Resolutions approach to disputed child protection cases, or Families in Dispute, and was introduced in the Family Courts in the United Kingdom.

Core features
A Words & Pictures Explanation is developed with the parents or caregivers. The Process of developing it with the parent or caregiver is a core element of Words & Pictures Explanations. The end product is presented to the children in front of their safety network.

A Words & Pictures Explanation creates a shared understanding by the following questions:


 * 1) Who is worried?
 * 2) What happened to cause the worry?
 * 3) What was done about it?
 * 4) What are we doing about it now?

Safety planning
A core element of both Words and Pictures and the Resolutions approach was the emphasis on creating demonstrable future safety. Susie Essex developed Words and Pictures Safety Plans, aiding children in understanding their safety and allowing adults to articulate their roles in ensuring future safety. These safety plans were collaboratively created with families, incorporating professional guidance and the unique knowledge of the families, including cultural, ethnic, and religious perspectives.

Developing a Words and Pictures Explanation
Developing a Words and Pictures Explanation is a collaborative and crucial step in the safety planning process, fostering understanding and engagement among parents or caregivers, the child protection practitioner, the families’ safety network, and other stakeholders like courts and therapists. The practitioner, connected to the family, initiates the introduction of the process and emphasizes its benefits to the parents or caregivers.


 * 1) Introduction to Words & Pictures: The practitioner begins by introducing the Words and Pictures method, emphasizing its child-friendly nature and role in helping children understand complex situations related to child protection concerns. Kids often wonder, “Why am I not living with Mom and/or Dad?”, “When can I go home?”, and “Why do these social workers come to the house?”
 * 2) This initial step sets the stage for collaborative engagement and opens a pathway for effective communication.
 * 3) Collaboration with Parents or Caregivers: Together with the parents or caregivers, the practitioner engages in a collaborative process to develop child-friendly language that will be used in the Words and Pictures Explanation. This collaborative approach is fundamental to the safety planning process for several reasons :
 * 4) * Connecting Parents to Children's Perspective: The collaborative development process helps bridge the gap between the parents' perspective and their child's understanding of the situation. It creates a shared narrative that allows parents to see the concerns through their child's eyes, fostering empathy and connection.
 * 5) * Minimizing the Impact of Trauma: Addressing child protection concerns can be a traumatic experience for both parents and children. By involving parents in the development of the Words and Pictures Explanation, the impact of trauma is minimized, as the    process is conducted in a supportive and collaborative manner.
 * 6) * Promoting Engagement and Ownership: Collaboratively creating the explanation promotes a sense of ownership and engagement for parents or caregivers. They become active participants in shaping the narrative, which, in turn, enhances their understanding of    the seriousness of the problem and their commitment to the safety planning     process. It also increases the workers’ capacity for compassion and empathy for both the parents and children.
 * 7) Critical Role in Safety Planning: The collaborative development of the Words and Pictures Explanation is integral to the overall safety planning process. It goes beyond a simple communication tool; it becomes a vehicle for connecting individuals involved in child protection cases, fostering mutual understanding, and laying the groundwork for future safety plans.

This inclusive approach not only benefits the child in understanding their situation but also creates an environment where parents feel heard and supported. The cooperative Words & Pictures process stands as a testament to the holistic and compassionate nature of the Resolutions approach, ultimately contributing to better outcomes for children and families.

Role of dispute resolution
Words and Pictures Explanations are used to explain concerns to children in the presence of their parents and extended family members. This approach fosters communication between parents, children, and authorities and allows parents to hear and understand concerns in a less shaming way. When there is a dispute about the allegations, the Words & Pictures Explanations include language representing differing perspectives between the parties involved.

The Words and Pictures Explanation allows for openness about difficult issues. The language related to the dispute is clear yet sensitive. This allows families and professionals alike to navigate the complexities of child protection cases more effectively and spend more time focused on the end goal of demonstrated safety and well-being.

Lifebook
A Lifebook honors a child's life by filling in the history gaps with words, artwork, and photos. If photos don't exist, the words create pictures.

Life Story Therapy:
Life Story Therapy is an approach designed to enable children to explore, question and understand the past events of their lives. It aims to secure their future through strengthening attachment with their carers and providing the opportunity to develop a healthy sense of self and a feeling of wellbeing.

Youth Engagement Strategies
For support services for foster, adoptive, and kinship families to be truly helpful, they need to be aligned with families’ needs. They also need to be relevant and delivered in ways that parents, caregivers, and youth find useful

Guidelines and Tips for Talking to Children About Child Abuse:
Many adults are uncomfortable about talking with children who have questions about child abuse or who, unfortunately, may be victims themselves. This tip sheet was developed by experts to suggest language appropriate for communicating effectively with children about this sensitive subject. Its aim is to answer children’s questions in a way that they can understand without frightening or confusing them.

=== The Safety House (Sonja Parker) : === In using the Safety House, the outline of the house is first drawn by the child and the worker and then the worker uses the structure of the Safety House (described in detail below) to talk with the child about the specific safety arrangements that would need to be in place to make sure that these worries do not happen in the future. The child’s views are recorded in the Safety House in both pictures and words. The child is then invited to create a ‘safety path’ leading to their Safety House and to locate themself on the safety path as a way of representing their assessment (or scaling) of current safety within their family.

General Prevention Approach:
To date, child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention has relied largely on child-focused education, teaching children how to identify, avoid, and disclose sexual abuse. This approach proposes parents play a critical role in protecting their children.

Safety Planning With Kids:
Children and youth use a variety of survival, regulating, and coping strategies when exposed to violence, abuse, or neglect.