SAFE is a suite of home study tools for the psychosocial evaluation of prospective adoptive families, foster families; relative care providers, resource families and concurrent planning families. SAFE results in a comprehensive home study report.
SAFE is user-friendly and helpful for the home study practitioner and the family. SAFE is strength- based in approach while recognizing that the paramount duty of the agency is to protect the best interest of the child. It is also sensitive to the family's expectations for open, transparent and fair treatment.
The SAFE Psychosocial Inventory is the heart of SAFE. It provides home study practitioners with a structured method to process, analyze and assess the information they collect during the course of a home study culminating in a comprehensive evaluation of family functioning.
The Inventory contains specific criteria to be considered uniformly by every worker in every case, thus insuring that critical issues are not overlooked.
The Inventory is not a standardized test that arrives at a score that automatically determines if a family "passes or fails" a home study. Final decision-making requires the application of sound social work judgment.
SAFE facilitates a clear, objective identification of specific family strengths, issues of concern and needed changes. Because judgments are quantified, change is easy to measure over time.
The Psychosocial Inventory sections serve as the outline for the psychosocial evaluation contained in the SAFE written home study report. The psychosocial evaluation is not merely a description of the family. It states what the home study means. The result is a home study report that objectively and coherently reflects the family's readiness, willingness and ability to provide children a SAFE, stable and loving home. It also enhances the child placement matching process in that it specifically reflects the family's competencies, limitations and resources.