1. The Three Houses Model

2. Origin and purpose
Created by Nicki Weld and Maggie Greening for Child, Youth and Family Services New Zealand
For use in Child Protection assessments with children and young people
The assessment method takes the three key questions of signs of safety assessment and planning

3. Signs of Safety What are we worried about? What is working well?
What needs to happen?

4. Why don’t practitioners communicate with children?
A primary reason practitioners fail to involve children is the fact that they are rarely provided with straight forward tools and practical guidance that equips them to involve children in a context where they fear that involving children can create more problems than it solves.

5. The Three Houses Model

6. Steps for using the three houses tool
Explain the model to parent/carer and obtain consent
Explain 3 Houses to the child using one piece of paper per house
Obtain child’s permission to share information
Use words and drawings to engage the child
Start with the House of Good Things

7. For Younger Children
Vania Da Paz developed a very similar tool that serves the same purpose as the Three Houses tool but with different graphic representation. Rather than Three Houses, Da Paz explores the same three questions using a drawing of a fairy with a magic wand (for girls) or a Wizard figure (for boys) as follows: