Introducing the Lothian Safekeeping Plan - Lothian’s practice
This practice story describes the process undertaken by researcher Sue Abbott-Smith in developing and implementing a safety planning tool for parents supporting suicidal children and young people in Lothian.
The learning from their practice is laid out through the lens of the Time, Space, Compassion principles.
The Challenge
Helping children and young people who are thinking about suicide is a vital part of suicide prevention.
One common approach is safety planning — where professionals work with young people to create a plan that helps them cope and stay safe. But through undertaking a detailed review of the research as part of her PhD Sue found that parents and carers were often left out of this process.
Even though parents play a key role in supporting their children, there were no tools designed just for them. This meant many parents felt unsure, unsupported, and left out.
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What They Did
A document called the Lothian Safekeeping Plan© was created through Sue’s PhD research and clinical experience.
This is a safety planning tool designed specifically for parents and carers. It works alongside the existing Lothian Safety Plan for children and young people and is now used in NHS Lothian CAMHS.
Following its creation, Sue undertook a two-part study to evaluate its feasibility and accessibility for implementation.
In the first part, healthcare professionals were asked for their views, and in the second part, corporate parents, individuals who have special responsibilities to care experienced children and young people, were spoken to.
Both groups gave positive feedback, highlighting that the tool helped them have open, supportive conversations with parents. They liked how easy it was to use and how it helped parents feel more involved. The corporate parents voiced the tools potential to support a wider group of carers. The feedback received from the two groups was used to update the tool, ensuring the language was clearer and the layout more user-friendly.
What They Have Learned
On reflecting on this work Sue has highlighted the principles of Time, Space, Compassion outlined below as being key:
Safety Planning
The Lothian Safekeeping Plan fills a gap by giving parents a clear role in safety planning. It helps them feel heard and supported, especially during a crisis. It also gives professionals a structured way to involve parents in a compassionate and meaningful way.
Listening and Responding
Corporate Parents have said that completing the Lothian Safekeeping Plan helped build trust and relationships. It encouraged them to reflect on how they listen to their child and to explore new ways of communicating with support from professionals.
Accessibility
Both the healthcare professionals and Corporate Parents reported that the plan had a clear layout and simple design making it accessible. They noted that the use of friendly visuals and inclusive language helped make it suitable for a wide range of parents.
Impact
The evaluation of the Lothian Safekeeping Plan highlighted three key benefits:
1. It’s helpful – It supports parents and professionals in containment of risk when supporting young people
2. It’s well designed – It’s simple, flexible, and easy to adapt
3. It supports safety – It helps parents feel more confident and better equipped to support their child
The Lothian Safekeeping Plan doesn’t aim to stop suicidal thoughts directly. Instead, it helps parents feel more capable and supported. It’s now being used in one NHS CAMHS service and has the potential to be used more widely.
Reflections from members of the Youth Advisory Group on Fife’s practice
What they liked:
“It's great that they used feedback to improve. Adults might have different capability with language or tech, so things have to be user-focused"
What they found interesting:
“I liked that they spoke to corporate parents; care-experienced young people can be at higher risk of suicidality and mental health issues”
“It would be interesting to know how young people were involved in making both plans”
More Information
More information on the Lothian Safekeeping Plan can be found here: