Consultant Application Files

A model of practice is not sufficient to transform children’s services. For this to occur, the organisation has to change with the practice; it needs to be aligned to the practice. Implementing the Signs of Safety in a child protection organisation requires whole agency commitment and change involving all staff from leadership to field staff.

The role of the Signs of Safety consultant is to work with agency leadership, at all levels, and assist them to integrate leadership, learning (including training, supervision and ongoing development), meaningful measures and organisational alignment (including policy, practice guidance and information recording) so that the Signs of Safety makes a difference for the agency and the families and children it serves (see Organisational Framework Diagram below).

To be successful in becoming a licensed Signs of Safety Consultant, the most important things for the applicant to demonstrate are:

a sophisticated understanding of all aspects of the Signs of Safety practice model;
a sophisticated understanding of leadership and organisational implementation generally, and in the child protection context specifically;
the capacity to work as a child protection organisational consultant, working alongside and guiding agency leaders, at all levels, in implementing Signs of Safety;
the capacity to reflect on their own consulting work and role, being able to identify both what they are pleased with and proud of, and where they are struggling and feel they can improve.

Part 1: Application form

If you are viewing this page, you should have already completed part 1. If so, please proceed to Part 2.

Please fill out and submit the Consultant Application Form. You will then be sent an invoice for the application fee of $1,000 AUD.

Part 2: Your thinking about Leadership

Purpose

Applicant articulates their thinking about organisational leadership
Applicant demonstrates ability to reflect, analyse and critique their own leadership

Questions (try and respond in two pages please)

Please describe what good leadership looks like to you. How have Signs of Safety, other key ideas and people influenced your thinking about organisational leadership?

When you have seen good leadership in child protection, what where the most important characteristics of that leadership? How did that leadership make a difference for practitioners and the services delivered to children and families? What do you see as the biggest challenges for a leader in a child protection organisation?

What are you like when you are leading at your best? What do the people around you see in concrete behaviour? What are the results of this leadership?

When your worst leadership behaviour shows itself, what does that look like and what happens then?

Part 3: Signs of Safety Organisational Implementation

Purpose

Applicant demonstrates their understanding of the latest Signs of Safety organisational implementation framework, process and trajectory.
Applicant articulates their own thinking and experience about Signs of Safety organisational implementation.
Applicant demonstrates their own unique ideas and approach to exploring the application of Signs of Safety implementation with leaders at all levels.
Applicant demonstrates the quality and branding of their current presentation material. e.g. PowerPoint slides and handouts.
Applicant demonstrates quality presentation of training resources such as PowerPoint slides and handout materials they use.
Applicant demonstrates ability to provide Knowledge Bank-ready training resources and materials.

3.1 Readings and Reflections

Please read the current Signs of Safety Implementation Comprehensive Theory, Framework and Trajectory document, as well as chapter 10 of the Comprehensive Briefing Paper (download links available below) and then write and submit your reflections to the following questions:

What do you see as the most important messages and elements of the framework, process and trajectory?
Is there anything you would add or remove?
Are there particular methodological or theoretical approaches or frameworks that guide or influence your thinking about organisational implementation? What are they and what is most important to you about these approaches?
From your experience, what do you see as the most challenging aspects of the framework, process and trajectory for a child protection agency and leadership to take on? What are your ideas about leading the organisation in this area?
Signs of Safety Implementation: Comprehensive Theory, Framework and Trajectory Doc (PDF)
The Comprehensive Briefing Paper (PDF)

3.2 Create an Exercise

Create and submit an exercise for leaders, including PowerPoint slides, accompanying explanatory notes and any handout material you would use, focused on some aspect of the Signs of Safety Implementation process and trajectory. Please submit the exercise in two formats:

In the format you use in consultancy work; and
in the Signs of Safety branding and format.

All licensed Signs of Safety consultants should contribute one complete training resource for the Signs of Safety Knowledge Bank each year. The resource should be “Knowledge Bank-ready”, meaning that it is:

fully prepared and presented so that another trainer can take the resource and use it; and
prepared in the Signs of Safety branding and format.

The requirements for preparing Knowledge Bank resources are available here:

If the applicant is accepted, the resource will be placed in the Knowledge Bank as the applicant’s first year contribution.

Part 4: Organisational Mapping

Purpose

Applicant demonstrates their understanding of using and adapting the Signs of Safety three columns framework for organisational learning and implementation purposes.
Applicant demonstrates their ability to prepare, contextualise and lead a three columns mapping for organisational learning and implementation purposes.
Applicant demonstrates ability to reflect, analyse and critique their own organisational mapping facilitation and practice.
Applicant demonstrates ability to record video and audio of practice to a standard that can be used as a learning resource for themselves and others.
Applicant demonstrates they have the skills to upload the video via the internet. This is important as licensed consultants need to be able to create video material for regular Signs of Safety Trainer and Consultant group supervision.

Video Submission

Please submit a video recording of yourself leading a three column mapping with a child protection leadership group. We are looking for you to demonstrate your capacity to adapt the mapping to a specific context and issues, so the mapping should not be looking at an overall Signs of Safety implementation, but rather be focused on a specific organisational issue. For example, working with courts, staff turnover, managing a crisis, improving parent and network involvement, improving child involvement, implementing a new IT system.

With this video, also prepare and submit:

a brief description of who you were working with and the organisational purpose for the mapping work you were leading;
the plan you had for the organisational mapping, including particularly the questions you were hoping to ask;
a full transcript of the 5–6 minutes of the work you were most pleased with, along with your reflections on what you were most pleased; and
a full transcript of the 5–6 minutes of the work you felt you would like to improve or where you felt you struggled, along with your reflections on what the challenges were.

PART 5: PHOTO AND BIOGRAPHY

We will need a biography and headshot (portrait) photo of you. They will be used to promote you and the Signs of Safety community on the Trainer & Consultant page on the Signs of Safety website. An up-to-date headshot is always good for you to have on hand in case you need to supply it to clients or for promotional purposes.

Photo Guidelines

Include only your head and shoulders – similar to a passport photo

A recent image, or more importantly, one that accurately represents your current appearance
Colour photo (not black and white)
No filters or photographic effects applied (such as the ones used on Instagram)
No sunglasses
Friendly but business-like demeanour (not a glamour-type portrait or a holiday snap)
Ideally you should get a photo done by a professional or at least a friend or relative with a good camera.

Please note: Images you see on the internet are normally significantly lower in resolution and size than what we require. This is so that they load quicker on a web page. With that in mind, we can’t use the photo you copied and pasted from your Facebook profile.

It does not have to be shot in a studio with specialised lighting. You can get a good result indoors by positioning yourself near a window on a sunny day or outside in the shade, or on an overcast day. You should aim for sufficient but even light, so avoid harsh midday sun or uneven shadows.

Once you have the photo, please upload it to your Dropbox folder.

In addition, we would highly encourage you to use this photo as your prole picture where you are representing the Signs of Safety brand, such as your Slack and LinkedIn profiles.

Biography

For your biography, your target audience is people looking to use you as a Signs of Safety trainer or consultant. Introduce yourself, highlight your relevant achievements, credentials and any notable projects with which you are involved. Your biography should be short and concise (no more than 300 words) and list only relevant information. Avoid including personal statistics, such as family and hobbies. Use the third person voice.

Again, if you want to see examples of other biographies, head over to the Trainer & Consultant page on the Signs of Safety website and click on a profile photo to read their biography.

PART 6: INTERVIEW

Once the application is complete and submitted, Elia will organise a licensing interview where the applicant will be given detailed feedback about their application, including the work and examples they have submitted and the decision about whether they will be accepted as a licensed consultant.