Social Workers & Foster Carers know that they will not always know all the answers. Sometimes even their best efforts will not produce the outcome they would have wanted. But just like the children & families they work with, we want them to know they are part of a team who will work together to help them ask the best questions rather than telling them what the answer is. We know that the solution lies within them & that if they ever make a mistake, we will all work together to learn from it and move forward to make things better.

1. The benefits of Signs of Safety (SoS)
It was introduced into many Children’s Services worldwide as a key practice
approach to work with families supported by Social Care & Early Help Services.
SoS provides a clear framework on how we should work with families – this includes
building better relationships with families to work with them more effectively.
The SoS model aims to create a more collaborative approach within Children’s
Services, partnership organisations & families to address situations where children
have experienced harm, are at current risk of harm or have identified unmet needs.
Developing Good Signs of Safety Practice
1. Creating a clear understanding of past harm, current harm, possible future dangers
for child / young person (if nothing changes), & what the complicating factors to
supporting the family are, means we can create better safety & well-being goals for
everyone to work towards achieving.
2. Identifying existing strengths & existing safety, whilst working with extended family &
community networks helps to improve safety & well-being for children.
3. Ensuring all communication with children, young people & their families is
understandable. Research tells us professionalised language can make it difficult for
families to work with Practitioners because they don’t always understand what the
impact of the worries are for their children & what changes are expected from them
for Services to end their involvement. Hence Danger / Worry statements & Safety /
Well-Being goals should be created & agreed with families.
4. Supportive Action plans are created with families to outline how the safety goals or
well-being / success goals are going to be met – which includes agreed timescales
to ensure children’s lives are getting better. This requires skillful use of Professional
Authority.
5. The Assessment & Planning Framework & action plan should be reviewed
regularly with families to ensure it still remains relevant. Any new information - like
additional risks or additional safety for the child - is considered within the SoS
Framework.

2. 6. Parents / Carers are supported to create Words & Pictures explanations to help
children understand why services are involved & what Services are working with
their parents / families to improve. Child-centered Safety Plans can also be
presented in Words & Pictures format so it is clear for the child / young person what
will happen, what they can expect from everyone involved, & what they can do if they
don’t feel safe.
Signs of Safety Assessment & Planning Framework
The Assessment & Planning Framework is used for ‘mapping’ the dangers / worries,
strengths & required safety & well-being goals for children. The mapping tool has
four domains for discussion with families & other professionals around the family.
The “Three Columns”:
 What we are worried about (past harm, current harm, future danger & any
complicating factors)?
 What is working well (existing strengths & existing safety)?
 What needs to happen next? (this includes agreeing the safety & well-being goals
& how best to plan actions to achieving them).
Children’s Services bottom lines (non-negotiables) that family must maintain / not
do to ensure safety for the children in their care.
Using the analysis from the three columns, the danger / worry statements & safety /
well-being goals are created.
A scaling question linked to the statements & goals is used to gain the
perspective of the Social Worker or Lead Professional, the family, their networks &
other professionals around the family. They scale the current level of safety or worry
about unmet needs.
This helps to develop understanding between everyone involved & to work towards
the required changes for children within agreed timescales.
The SoS Assessment & Planning Framework, identifying the 4 main domains of
enquiry & the seven analysis categories, is set out below:

3. How does Signs of Safety support us to engage with
children & young people?
Talking to children is at the heart of SoS. There are numerous tools that will
encourage practitioners to consider the child’s lived experience & see the “world
through the child’s eyes”.
The Three Houses is the child’s version of the three columns (above) to capture
their experience.

4. Signs of Safety – Where are we on our journey?
There is a clear expectation that SoS will thread through all our practice to ensure
that children, young people & their families are provided with the Right Help, in the
Right Way, at the Right Time, & with the Right Outcomes.
Signs of Safety – 5 benefits:
1. Social Workers & Foster Carers feel safer
Signs of Safety provides us all with an ethos, a way of working & the practical tools we
need. Having a single model helps with confidence, both for Foster Carers & Social
Workers – we all understand the model & therefore speak the same language.
Social Workers say that it makes them feel safer when undertaking complex work in
challenging situations. “It is simple, family friendly, child focused, gives clear goals & you
can use it flexibly.”
2. Families are more involved
From the earliest possible stage we start holding ‘family network meetings’, which give
families, friends & their support networks the chance to come up with their own solutions
for keeping children in their family safe. Children & their parents or carers tell us they like
having the opportunity to take back some control even in the most difficult situations.
For example Clarissa (not her real name) previously had her child removed. Since then
she has had a new baby & another of her other children returned to her care. Clarissa
told me she “liked the family network meeting way of working”, adding: “It is very good
for professionals to listen to families because they know when things are going wrong &
they will say when things are good.”
3. Jargon has been busted
Signs of Safety emphasises the use of plain language. Managers work closely with
Social Workers to agree what they need to say to children & families so that they are
very clear about our worries. As a result our Social Workers feel more confident in using
their authority in a compassionate way.
We have also found that using plain, simple & jargon-free language brings us much
closer together with children & their carers, enabling Social Workers to gain much
clearer evidence about our worries which we can bring to the family.

5. 4. Children are being heard
Signs of Safety has improved the quality of direct work with children by giving Social
Workers the skills to help children understand why we are involved & involve them in the
process.
Children benefit greatly from undertaking ‘words & pictures’ work with their Social
Workers & Foster Carers to help them deal with past traumas.
5. We work in a supportive culture
Signs of Safety encourages a culture of collaboration with families & gives us the ability
to put responsibility for children’s safety back with the family network.
Good practice happens when heart & head come together to allow Social Workers to
take positive risks.
Social Workers & Foster Carers know that they will not always know all the answers.
Sometimes even their best efforts will not produce the outcome they would have wanted.
But just like the children & families they work with, we want them to know they are part of
a team who will work together to help them ask the best questions rather than telling
them what the answer is. We know that the solution lies within them & that if they ever
make a mistake, we will all work together to learn from it and move forward to make
things better.