Assessment Process

1. Introduction

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.

Signs of Safety is the overarching practice framework used within Wokingham Children's Services. Signs of Safety is a strengths-based model which provides a way of making sure that everyone involved in a child's life has the same understanding of the strengths and the worries - and agrees the safety goals that need to be reached to make sure that the child is safe and well, both now and in the future.

Wokingham’s Practice Model includes the essential knowledge and skill base that underpins Signs of Safety practice. This includes Systemic Practice, Attachment Theory, Trauma Informed Practice and Contextual Safeguarding.

2. The Purpose of Assessment

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 needs and/or the nature and level of any risk and harm being suffered by the child, which include situations where a child or young person is suffering or likely to suffer 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 to address those needs to improve the child's outcomes and to take action to safeguard them.

3. Assessment Process

The Child and Family Assessment (CFA) should be led by a qualified social worker supervised by a qualified social work manager. All social workers working in Wokingham Borough are trained in the Signs of Safety practice framework. Social workers also receive the offer of training in the various theories that underpin Wokingham’s Practice Model.

The practice model supports social workers to undertake a balanced and holistic assessment that rigorously addresses risk and unmet needs and enables workers to facilitate change through a strength- and relationship-based practice model. This model allows parents/carers and their naturally connected network to co-produce and follow a plan that safeguards and improves outcomes for their child alongside the involved professionals.

It is important that practitioners consider the three domains of the Common Assessment Framework. This ensures that each child’s needs are individually assessed alongside the parent’s capacity to care for each child, as well as the impact of any family and environmental factors on each child’s development and on the parents’ capacity to meet this particular child’s needs.

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. This enables the duty worker to begin the process of analysis by drafting a ‘danger(s)/worry statement(s)’ and ‘safety/wellbeing goal(s)’.

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.

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, 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 working relationship, undertaking mapping with the family, and developing the immediate safety plan. The danger/worry statement(s) and safety/wellbeing goal(s) will be shared and developed further with the family. Regular meetings should take place with the parents and their wider network to gather information and develop the safety plan and trajectory in an open and honest way.

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.

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. A network meeting with the family and friend network should be considered and arranged as agreed. Further supervision or case discussions should take place at regular intervals when new and significant information is received.

Group supervision may be appropriate at this stage when the case is unclear, stuck, the trajectory is uncertain, or there are unusually complex matters to consider.

4. Collaboration

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 involved throughout the assessment process, taking into consideration their age and understanding. The social worker should work directly with the child to understand their views and wishes and consider how they present and respond in different settings. The 'Three Houses' tool (or a similar age-appropriate tool) should be used to explore the child’s perspective, this replicates the mapping process with adults. Other direct work tools can also be used to promote the child’s participation.

It is important to understand and take into consideration the resilience, vulnerabilities, and protective factors of the individual child in their family and community context. The social worker must reassure and help the child to know and understand why professionals are involved in their lives and what the adults are doing to keep them safe.

Involving parents/carers

A good assessment relies on the social worker’s ability to establish an open, honest and strong 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 care givers are given equal opportunity to contribute to the assessment and should actively seek to involve any non-resident 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 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 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 through effective multi-agency partnership working. 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 that the help and protection provided reduces risk and meets the child’s needs.

5. Recording

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