Signs of Safety Framework
A strengths-based child protection practice framework that maps danger, harm, complicating factors, and existing safety to build meaningful risk management plans.
What it is
About Signs of Safety Framework
Signs of Safety is a child protection practice framework developed by Andrew Turnell and Steve Edwards that uses a three-column mapping approach to organise professional knowledge about a family: What are we worried about? (danger statements, harm, complicating factors) / What's working well? (existing safety, strengths, protective factors) / What needs to happen? (safety goals, next steps). The framework is explicitly strengths-based — it requires practitioners to identify what is already safe before focusing on what is dangerous, and it involves children and families in understanding and contributing to the analysis. In the UK, Signs of Safety is used by a significant number of local authorities as their primary child protection practice framework, often replacing or sitting alongside Working Together frameworks. Practitioners are trained to map cases on the Signs of Safety one-page format, hold "three-houses" conversations with children (House of Worries, House of Good Things, House of Dreams), use scaling questions to explore family perceptions of safety, and build safety networks with families. Implementation fidelity is assessed through Signs of Safety implementation frameworks.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Complete a Signs of Safety mapping with a family, clearly separating danger statements from complicating factors and existing safety.
Facilitate a "three-houses" conversation with a child to understand their perspective on worries, good things, and wishes.
Use scaling questions to explore a family's and professionals' perceptions of current safety level.
Develop a safety network with a family, identifying adults who can support and monitor agreed safety goals.
Present a Signs of Safety analysis at a Child Protection Conference as an alternative to a traditional social work report structure.
Identify danger statements — not vague worries, but specific, observable descriptions of harm that has occurred or could occur.
How to learn it
Learning Resources
Signs of Safety website — free mapping tools, practice guides, and case examples at signsofsafety.net
NSPCC Learning — Signs of Safety resources at learning.nspcc.org.uk
Turnell & Edwards's Signs of Safety: A Solution and Safety Oriented Approach to Child Protection Casework (1999) — foundational text
Local authority Signs of Safety practice coaches (in LAs that have adopted the framework) — internal CPD route
Pro Tip
Danger statements must be specific and observable — "there is a risk of neglect" is not a danger statement; "when parents have used alcohol, they have not prepared meals for the children for two days" is.
Skills that use this tool
Roles that use this tool