Working with the Person at Risk: Safety Plan
Whether you are using this manual as a tool for teaching about healthy relationships or as a resource for helping YP change their behaviour, it is important to give consideration to any safety issues that may arise from the work. It is likely that your organisation has its own safeguarding procedures around domestic abuse and you should follow these in the first instance. This session on safety is designed as an aid memoire to those processes for practitioners less familiar with working with abuse and the particular issues with safeguarding that can arise when working with intimate partner abuse involving people aged 18 and under.
If the manual is being used as a preventative resource to help improve YP understanding of what constitutes healthy dating behaviour, with you completing sessions from the preventative part of the manual only, then you may not need to complete the safety documents in this session unless someone discloses during the work that they are being abusive.
This session includes an exercise on explaining confidentiality to the YP so they are clear from the outset about the situations in which you will need to share information with others. If a YP does then make a disclosure around harmful behaviour during any future session, you can refer back to Session 1 and complete the necessary assessment of risk and safety planning that is required.
If you are working with a YP who is already known to use violence or abuse in their relationships, you should complete some safety planning work with them prior to beginning the programme to help minimise the risk. A Time Out plan should be created with the YP so they know what to do if they feel they are building up to an abusive incident. This is documented here in Session 1 and in more detail in Session 9 on Anger Management.
If the YP you are working with is in a relationship and/or there is an identified person at risk, then a risk identification checklist should be completed with them. The checklist will help identify risks and determine whether the risk requires information sharing at inter-agency level (ie MARAC: Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference). MARAC is a Police-led multi-agency forum for high risk cases. A safety plan should be completed with the individual at risk regardless of whether a referral to MARAC is required and an example of a safety plan is also given in this session to assist you.
If there is a known person at risk from the YP it is best practice to ensure that person has a source of dedicated support from a professional who is separate from this programme delivery with the YP. This could be a victim worker in Youth Justice Service settings, a trusted professional the potential victim is already working with or a new worker allocated from your organisation to undertake the support. They can liaise with the victim to keep updated about safety issues so workers can be aware as soon as possible if there is an escalation of risk. You should liaise with the victim worker after sessions to let them know if you have worries or concerns about a potential threat to the person at risk. It is recommended that the professional doing the victim liaison work checks in with the person at risk on a weekly basis to update the victim about potential issues arising in sessions that will help them manage any risks and have their voice heard.
Some safeguarding considerations when working with children in abusive relationships
All professionals have a responsibility and safeguarding duty to respond to YP at the earliest point possible to prevent exposure to domestic abuse and escalation. A risk threshold should not form the basis for a safeguarding referral: this should be based on child protection guidelines and law. The SafeLives Risk Indicator Checklist informs a practitioner’s understanding of risk but does not provide a threshold for safeguarding.
Relationship abuse towards YP who are under the age of 18 is likely to be a safeguarding issue. Use the Young People’s Checklist (link attached below) to document your decisions and the actions taken in relation to safeguarding referrals and be aware that:
- Where the client is aged 13-15, the experience of relationship abuse is a safeguarding issue and the safeguarding authorities should be made aware of the case. No guarantee of confidentiality can be made to the YP in this situation.
- Where the client is aged 16-18, again the experience of relationship abuse is a safeguarding issue and appropriate referral routes must be followed. However, the MARAC should form part of those routes and should be aligned to the safeguarding process.
SafeLives Young People’s Checklist link: https://safelives.org.uk/node/517
In March 2013 the cross-governmental definition of domestic abuse changed to include YP aged 16-17 years old. The change in definition gave YP the right to access domestic abuse services, previously only available to those aged 18 or older, across England, Northern Ireland and Wales. This means in practice that if you have a named person at risk aged over 16 then they are eligible for referral to specialist domestic abuse services if the risk hits that service’s threshold for acceptance. Children younger than 16 are not eligible for referral to IDVA or domestic abuse services regardless of the risk and are more appropriately supported within Children’s Services. Remember that Child Protection Procedures are subject to change so please see your local safeguarding processes if in doubt.
Session 1 on safety is split into 3 sections. The first focuses on safety for the YP you are working with. The second looks at how to support the person who is at risk and the third concentrates on how to manage worker safety.
- To help the person at risk make a safety plan that minimises their risk of harm
- For the person at risk to have a clear plan around safety which is tailored to their specific circumstances
A safety plan is a guide to help lower the risk of the person being hurt by an abusive person. It should be tailored to the individual’s circumstances and should address as much as possible any risks highlighted as “Yes” answers or a professional concern in the risk identification checklist (RIC). As with the RIC, the safety plan should ideally be undertaken by another worker alongside the person at risk, rather than the practitioner who is working with the YP presenting the risk.
If the person at risk is attending school you will need to think about their safety at school and you should involve the school in ensuring they are aware of and able to contribute to the safety plan. This might involve allowing the person at risk to come in later in the day or leave early to avoid the YP who poses a risk of harm to them. It is useful to consider how they travel to and from school, how lunch times and breaks can be managed and what other adaptations can be made to increase safety. The school may be able to involve a school counsellor to help with emotional resilience or dealing with trauma.
The person at risk should also be encouraged to think about their home environment and their social environment as part of their safety plan. You will need to ask them about the risks in those environments and plan together what can be done to minimise them. For YP in particular it is really important to ensure that technology and managing online abuse forms part of the safety plan. YP often use technology as a medium to abuse and the person at risk will need a strategy for how best to deal with this. Most mobile phone providers will provide services around this if requested to keep the YP safe.
The safety plan handout does not contain an exhaustive list of things to consider but is more of a list of things for the practitioner and the person at risk to think about. If there are areas of concern specific to the individual’s situation then these should be added to the safety plan.
Risk assessment and safety planning is a dynamic process. Risk should be reviewed on a regular basis and each time the YP has a change in circumstance. For example if risk was first assessed when the YP was in a relationship and they have now left that relationship then the RIC should be completed again and the safety plan updated in relation to the new context as separation can increase risk. Likewise, if the person at risk becomes pregnant or resumes a relationship after previously experiencing abuse then the risk should be assessed and planned for again.
