Assessment Process

All local authorities with their partner agencies must develop and publish local frameworks for assessment, which must be based on good analysis, timeliness and transparency and be proportionate to the needs of the child and their family.

Each child who has been referred into local authority children's social care should have an individual assessment to identify their needs, and to determine how best to safeguard the child. Local authorities have to give due regard to a child's age and understanding when determining what (if any) services to provide under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and before making decisions about action to be taken to protect individual children under section 47 of the Children Act 1989.

Whatever legislation the child is assessed under, the purpose of the assessment is always:

• To gather important information about a child and family;
• To analyse their individual needs and circumstances; consider the nature and level of any risk of harm being suffered or likely to be suffered by the child, which include situations where a child or young person may come to harm beyond their own family;
• To decide whether the child is a Child in Need (Section 17) and/or is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm (Section 47); and
• To provide support and services to address those needs to improve the child's outcomes and to take action to safeguard them.

The Child and Family Assessment (CFA) should be led by a qualified social worker supervised by a qualified social work manager.

The relational practice model supports social workers to undertake a balanced and holistic assessment with children and families, through an approach which is curious, collaborative, respectful, transparent and empathetic to their circumstances. The assessment will consider strength and protective factors, as well as risk and vulnerability factors for children and families. Voices of the children their families, and those most important to them will be centred throughout the assessment, recognising and honouring their expertise in their own lives. This model allows parents/carers and their naturally connected network to co-produce and lead on a plan that safeguards and improves outcomes for their children, alongside the involved professionals.

Social workers will analyse the information gathered throughout the assessment period.

It is important that practitioners consider the three domains of the Common Assessment Framework (also referred to as the Assessment triangle). This ensures that each child’s needs are individually assessed alongside the parent/carer’s capacity to care for each child, and consider the significance of any family and environmental factors.

Contact and Referrals

When a referral is received into Children’s Services, information from that referral and what we already know from the family as well as other professionals will be immediately ‘mapped’ to consider what is working well and what we are worried about.

The Duty Social Worker and the Duty Manager will have a discussion and form a judgement about the level of risk or need and come to a decision about allocation and working timescale. This will be recorded by the Manager on Mosaic. The date of the commencement of the CFA and the target date for completion will be recorded in the electronic social care record by the manager.

First Visit

The allocated worker will visit the family and see the child within three days for an assessment under S17 and within 24 hours under S47. If it is determined that a child should not be seen as part of the assessment, or there will be a delay in the visit, this should be recorded by the manager with the rationale. The social worker should carefully plan so that the following are carried out:

• Consideration of what and when information will be shared with the parents where there is a worry around the child’s immediate safety or there is an ongoing joint investigation with the Police;
• A visit to see the child alone. If this is not possible or in their best interest, the reason should be recorded in the CFA;
• Discussion of the concerns/worries with the parents and any other relevant wider network members (with parental consent);
• Consultation with (and consideration of contributions from) all relevant agencies, including agencies involved with the family at previous addresses in the UK and abroad.

The focus of our work will be on building a positive relationship with the children and families, understanding their story and hearing their voice so we are most helpful to them. For many families, we will be able to offer support, resource and service quickly to create change within the assessment period. For some families, it will be important to develop an initial safety plan to create immediate safety which the assessment is underway. It is important to engage the wider family network as early as possible, often during the assessment period.

The parent’s consent should usually be sought, before discussing a referral about them with other agencies, unless this may place the child at risk of significant harm, in which case the manager should authorise and clearly record the rationale for undertaking discussions with other agencies without parental knowledge or consent.

If it is established that a school age child is not attending an educational establishment, the social worker should contact the local education welfare service to establish a reason for this and together consider the suitability of any alternative arrangement.

If the child makes a disclosure or there is suspicion that a criminal offence has or may have been committed - including sexual or physical assault or neglect of the child - the Police and the social work manager must be notified immediately.

Ensuring Immediate Safety

If at any point during the assessment process there are concerns of significant harm, a strategy meeting/discussion will be held, chaired by the manager and involving police, health and education where appropriate.

Where the immediate safety of the child is an issue, the family should be asked to identify and invite their support network to come together to develop a safety plan. The social worker must explain the seriousness of the concerns and facilitate a safety planning meeting with clear actions and commitments from the family to demonstrate who will do what to ensure that the children are safe. The safety plan should cover an agreed period of time, which should be agreed within the safety planning meeting. Where an initial child protection conference is to be convened, this should be held within 15 days from the initial strategy discussion.

Review Decision

The Social Worker and Supervisor will review the work, plan actions and decide the working timescale. This could follow any visit if immediate concerns are identified, or alternatively during a supervision discussion held within 25 days from the referral date. The social worker and supervisor will agree how and when wider family members and involved professionals will be seen and/or contacted. Further supervision or discussions should take place at regular intervals when new and significant information is received. The Team Manager and Head of Service should be part of decision making as deemed appropriate.

Group Supervision or a Systemic Discussion may be appropriate during an assessment or as an assessment recommendation if the situation for a child/family is unclearor there are unusually complex matters to consider.

Involving the child

The child should always be at the centre of all of our assessments, plans and interventions. The social worker must ensure that children are meaningful and creatively involved throughout the assessment process, taking into consideration their age, stage of development and understanding. The social worker should work directly with the child in a variety of settings to better understand their experiences, and they should do this through a considered use of different tools, approaches and resources. These will enable the social worker to gather the child’s views and wishes, which should then be shared with parents/carers/networks (unless unsafe to do so).

Within the assessment period, all efforts must be made to help the child understand (in a planned, thoughtful and sensitive way) who professionals are, why professionals are involved in their life, what the plan is, and which adults are going to help them and their family. Helping children to understand these things can reduce feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, strengthen family relationships through transparency, and ultimately add to creating safety. This can be achieved through sharing developmentally appropriate explanations with children as part of the direct work/intervention with them and their parents/carers. Explanations for children should be permanent (i.e. written or voice recorded, not just a ‘chat’) as this enables children to revisit the explanation over time so they have clarity about our time in their lives and the ongoing support plan.

Involving parents/carers

A good assessment relies on the social worker’s ability to establish an open, honest and respectful relationship with the parents/carers. At the outset the parents/carers need to understand how they can contribute to the process and what they need to change in order to improve the outcomes for the child. The social worker should work from a stance of curiosity and remain open minded and use plain, non-judgemental language so that the parents/carers understand the concerns. Parents/carers and their naturally connected network must be given every opportunity to find their own ideas and solutions before the professionals offer or impose theirs.

Social workers must ensure that parents and carers are given equal opportunity to contribute to the assessment and should actively seek to involve any non-resident or absent parent/carer. However, a parent/carer’s involvement may have to be limited in cases where their involvement could pose a risk to the safety of an adult or child.

Involving the child’s wider naturally connected network

Involving a fully informed and active safety/support network made up of family members and friends of the family can be essential in ensuring the children’s safety and wellbeing beyond the period of professional involvement and is key to the parents’ ability to sustain change over the longer term. The social worker must support the parents/carers to identify and bring a network of naturally connected people together as early as possible in the assessment stage to contribute to the assessment, and to help develop, monitor and refine the safety/wellbeing plan alongside the professional group. Involving the naturally connected people in a safety/support network helps the parents to address the child’s unmet needs or safety, develops resilience for the parents/carers and helps to break the sense of shame and secrecy by giving the children a range of safe adults they can talk to.

Involving the professional network

Children and young people are protected most effectively when there is an effective, informed and invested multi-agency team working together in partnership. It is the social worker’s responsibility to ensure that all involved professionals contribute to assessments and are routinely invited to meetings and reviews where consent has been obtained from the parents, or when children are subject to child protection plans. The allocated worker should ensure that information is shared with relevant partners at regular intervals.

Meetings should be effective forums for timely information-sharing, planning, decision-making and monitoring. Actions should happen within agreed timescales so the help and protection provided reduces risk and meets the child’s needs.

Meetings and contact with the child, family and their network must be recorded on Mosaic in line with current recording standards.