Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families Department of Health Department for Education and Employment Home Office

Department of Health Department for Education and Employment Home Office Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families
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Foreword vii
Preface viii


1 Children in Need

1.1 Children and Families in England 1

1.6 The Extent of Children in Need 2

1.11 Children in Need under the Children Act 1989 4

1.20 Assessing Children in Need 6

1.25 Children who are Suffering or are Likely to Suffer Significant Harm 7

1.28 Providing Services 8

1.33 Principles Underpinning Assessment of Children in Need 10

1.34 Child Centred 10

1.36 Rooted in Child Development 10

1.39 Ecological Approach 11

1.42 Ensuring Equality of Opportunity 12

1.44 Working with Children and their Families 12

1.48 Building on Strengths as well as Identifying Difficulties 13

1.50 Inter-agency Approach to Assessment and Provision of Services 14

1.51 A Continuing Process, not a Single Event 14

1.56 Action and Services are Provided in Parallel with Assessment 15

1.57 Grounded in Evidence 16

2 Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need

2.1 Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need 17

2.3 Dimensions of a Child’s Developmental Needs 18



Contents

2.9 Dimensions of Parenting Capacity 20

2.13 Family and Environmental Factors 22

2.26 Inclusive Practice 26

2.31 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 27

3 The Process of Assessing Children in Need

3.1 Process of Assessment and Timing 29

3.15 S47 and Core Assessment 34

3.20 Use of Assessments in Family Proceedings 36

3.22 Care Applications and Assessment 36

3.25 Disclosure 37

3.28 Court Sanctioned Assessments 37

3.31 Oral Evidence 38

3.32 Working with Children and Families 38

3.37 Planning Assessment 41

3.41 Communicating with Children 43

3.46 Consent and Confidentiality 45

3.58 Assessment of Children in Special Circumstances 47

3.61 Assessing the Needs of Young Carers 49

3.64 The Assessment Framework and Children Looked After 50

3.66 Children Being Placed for Adoption 50

3.67 Children Leaving Care 51

4 Analysis, Judgement and Decision Making

4.6 Analysis 54

4.12 Judgements 55

4.18 Use of Consultation 57

4.20 Decision Making 57

4.32 Plans for Children in Need 60



5 Roles and Responsibilities in Inter-Agency Assessment of Children in Need

5.1 Principles of Inter-Disciplinary and Inter-Agency Assessment 63

5.5 Corporate Responsibilities for Children in Need 64

5.8 Inter-Agency Responsibilities for Assessments of Children in Need 64

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5.9 Social Services Departments 65

5.16 Voluntary and Independent Agencies 66

5.17 Health Authority 66

5.22 The General Practitioner and the Primary Health Care Team 67

5.24 Nurses, Midwives, Health Visitors and School Nurses 67

5.26 Paediatric Services 68

5.29 Professionals Allied to Health 68

5.30 Mental Health Services 68

5.40 Psychologists 70

5.41 Education Services 70

5.52 Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 73

5.59 Day Care Services 74

5.61 Sure Start 74

5.66 Youth Offending Teams 75

5.69 Housing 76

5.73 Police 76

5.76 Probation Services 77

5.79 The Prison Service 77

5.83 Armed Services 78

5.85 Summary 78



6 Organisational Arrangements to Support Effective Assessment of Children in Need

6.2 Government’s Objectives for Children’s Social Services 81

6.9 Children’s Services Planning 82

6.14 Departmental Structures and Processes 83

6.16 Departmental Protocols and Procedures 84

6.18 Commissioning Specialist Assessments 84

6.23 A Competent Work Force 85

6.26 Supervision of Practice 85

6.29 Staff as Members of Learning Organisations 86

6.34 Preparing the Ground for Training and Continuing Staff Development 87

6.39 Summary 88

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Appendices
A The Assessment Framework 89

B A Framework for Analysing Services 90

C Referrals Involving a Child (Referral Chart) 91

D Using Assessments in Family Proceedings: Practice Issues 92

E Data Protection Registrar's Checklist 94

F Acknowledgements 98

G Bibliography 101

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We cannot begin to improve the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable children unless we identify their needs and understand what is happening to them in order to take appropriate action.

The Government is committed to delivering better life chances to such children through a range of cross-cutting, inter-departmental initiatives. A key component of the Government's objectives for children's social services is the development of a framework for assessing children in need and their families, to ensure a timely response and the effective provision of services. This is being taken forward as part of the Quality Protects Programme.

Delivering services to children in need in our communities is a corporate responsibility. It falls on all local authority departments, health authorities and community services. Improvements in outcomes for children in need can only be achieved by close collaboration between professionals and agencies working with children and families.

This Guidance reflects such collaboration and is issued jointly by the Department of Health, the Department for Education and Employment and the Home Office. It is issued under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970.

The Guidance draws widely on a wealth of research about the needs of children and the best of practice. Many people have contributed generously to its development and it has been substantially enriched by an extensive consultation exercise.

It is intended to provide a valuable foundation for policy and practice for all those who manage and provide services to children in need and their families. This document is the cornerstone in a series of accompanying publications, materials and training resources about the assessment of children in need. The Assessment Framework has been incorporated into Working Together to Safeguard Children.

The value of this framework for assessing children in need and their families will be measured in future improvements in our responses to some of our most vulnerable children - children in need.

John Hutton

Minister of State for Social Services

March 2000

Foreword

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Securing the wellbeing of children by protecting them from all forms of harm and ensuring their developmental needs are responded to appropriately are primary aims of Government policy.

Local authority social services departments working with other local authority departments and health authorities have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area who are in need and to promote the upbringing of such children, wherever possible by their families, through providing an appropriate range of services.

A critical task is to ascertain with the family whether a child is in need and how that child and family might best be helped. The effectiveness with which a child’s needs are assessed will be key to the effectiveness of subsequent actions and services and, ultimately, to the outcomes for the child. A Framework for Assessing Children in Need

A framework has been developed which provides a systematic way of analysing, understanding and recording what is happening to children and young people within their families and the wider context of the community in which they live. From such an understanding of what are inevitably complex issues and inter-relationships, clear professional judgements can be made.

These judgements include whether the child being assessed is in need, whether the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, what actions must be taken and which services would best meet the needs of this particular child and family.

The evidence based knowledge which has informed the development of the framework has been drawn from a wide range of research studies and theories across a number of disciplines and from the accumulated experience of policy and practice.

The Guidance describes the Assessment Framework and the Government’s expectations of how it will be used. It reflects the principles contained within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UK Government in 1991 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

In addition, it takes account of relevant legislation at the time of publication, but is particularly informed by the requirements of the Children Act 1989, which provides a comprehensive framework for the care and protection of children.

This document is issued under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, which requires local authorities in their social services functions to act under the general guidance of the Secretary of State.

As such this document does not have the full force of statute, but should be complied with unless local circumstances indicate exceptional reasons which justify a variation.

Social Services Assessment Form: Adolescent Wellbeing.

Social Services Assessment Form: Alcohol Use.

Social Services Assessment Form: Family Activity.

Social Services Assessment Form: Family Pack.

Social Services Assessment Form: Full family assessment.

Social Services Assessment Form: Assessment Guide.

Social Services Assessment Form: Home Conditions.

Social Services Assessment Form: Initial Record.

Social Services Assessment Form: Parenting Daily Hassles.

Social Services Assessment Form: Recent Life Events.

Preface

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The Guidance is a key element of the Department of Health’s work to support local authorities in implementing Quality Protects, the Government’s programme for transforming the management and delivery of children’s social services.

Quality Protects aims to deliver better life chances for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children, and good assessment lies at the heart of this work. The Government’s consolidated set of objectives for children’s social services published in September 1999 makes clear the importance of assessment in the work of local authority departments and health authorities.

The framework has been incorporated into the Government Guidance on protecting children from harm, Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department of Health et al, 1999) and should be read in conjunction with it when there are concerns that a child may be or is suffering significant harm. The Guidance is not a practice manual.

It does not set out step-by-step procedures to be followed: rather it sets out a framework which should be adapted and used to suit individual circumstances. A range of additional publications has been produced to inform practitioners and their managers about the most up-to-date knowledge from research and practice.

Practice guidance (Department of Health, 2000a) and a training pack consisting of a training video, guide and reader (NSPCC and University of Sheffield, 2000) have also been developed to accompany the Guidance and to assist the introduction and implementation of the new framework. The Department of Health will be working closely with local authorities, health services and other agencies through the Quality Protects Programme to help them put the framework into practice in the most cost effective way.

Who is the Guidance for?

The Guidance has been produced primarily for the use of professionals and other staff who will be involved in undertaking assessments of children in need and their families under the Children Act 1989. Social services departments have lead responsibility for assessments of children in need including those children who may be or are suffering significant harm but, under section 27 of the Children Act 1989, other local authority services and health authorities have a duty to assist social services in carrying out this function.

These other agencies should be aware of the Assessment Framework and understand what it might mean for them. Many agencies have contact with and responsibility for children and young people under a range of legislation. The Guidance is, therefore, also relevant to assessments concerned with the welfare of children in a number of contexts.

Health, education and youth justice services, in particular, may have already had considerable involvement with some children and families prior to referral to social services departments.

They will have an important contribution to make to the assessment and, where appropriate, to the provision of services to those families. Their awareness of the Assessment Framework when contributing to assessments of children in need will facilitate communication between agencies and with children and families.

It will also assist the process of referral from one agency to another and increase the likelihood of acceptance of the contents of previous assessments, thereby reducing unnecessary duplication of assessment and increasing local confidence in inter-agency work. Knowledge of the Assessment Framework can inform contrix butions by all agencies and disciplines when assessing children about whom there are child safety concerns (Paragraphs 5.13 and 5.33 in Working Together to Safeguard Children, 1999).

Effective collaborative work between staff of different disciplines and agencies assessing children in need and their families requires a common language to understand the needs of children, shared values about what is in children’s best interests and a joint commitment to improving the outcomes for children.

The framework for assessment provides that common language based on explicit values about children, knowledge about what children need to ensure their successful development, and the factors in their lives which may positively or negatively influence their upbringing. This increases the likelihood of parents and children experiencing consistency between professionals and themselves about what will be important for children’s wellbeing and healthy development.

Government Guidance on promoting independence in adult social services, Achieving Fairer Access to Adult Social Care Services (Department of Health, forthcoming, a) will address how to respond to social services referrals regarding adults. With any adult referral, social services should check whether the person has parenting responsibilities for a child under 18. If so, the initial assessment should explore any parenting and child related issues in accordance with the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their FamiliesGuidance and provide services as appropriate.

The needs of the adult should be assessed in accordance with Achieving Fair Access to Adult Social Care Services.

The Policy Context

The Government is committed to ending child poverty, tackling social exclusion and promoting the welfare of all children – so that they can thrive and have the opportunity to fulfil their potential as citizens throughout their lives. There are a number of programmes such as Sure Start, Connexions and Quality Protects and a range of policies to support families, promote educational attainment, reduce truancy and school exclusion and secure a future for all young people in education, employment or training.

They all aim to ensure that children and families most at risk of social exclusion have every opportunity to build successful, independent lives. At the same time, the Government is committed to improving the quality and management of those services responsible for supporting children and families particularly through the modernisation of social services, through the promotion of cooperation between all statutory agencies and through building effective partnerships with voluntary and private agencies.

Promoting the wellbeing of children to ensure optimal outcomes requires integration at both national and local levels: joined up government – in respect both of policy making and of service delivery – is central to the current extensive policy agenda. A Ministerial Group on the Family, supported by the Family Policy Unit in the Home Office, encourages this approach at Government level.

Its aim is to provide a new emphasis on looking more widely at the needs of all children and families in the community and to develop a programme of measures which will strengthen family life.

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Early intervention is essential to support children and families before problems, either from within the family or as a result of external factors, which have an impact on parenting capacity and family life escalate into crisis or abuse. Government departments, statutory and voluntary agencies, academics and practitioners contribute to this work.

Good joint working practices and understanding at a local level are vital to the success of the early intervention agenda. Local agencies, including schools and education support services, social services departments, youth offending teams, primary and more specialist health care services and voluntary and private agencies should work together to establish agreed referral protocols which will help to ensure that early indications of a child being at risk of social exclusion receive appropriate attention.

The development of a framework for assessing children in need and their families will contribute to integrated working. The new framework was announced by the Secretary of State for Health in September 1998. Its primary purpose is to improve outcomes for children in need.

It is also designed to assist local authority departments and health authorities meet one of the Government’s objectives for children’s social services (Department of Health, 1999e) - to ensure that referral and assessment processes discriminate effectively between different types and levels of need, and produce a timely service response.

The Contents of the Guidance

The Guidance starts by outlining the legislation, responsibilities and principles which underpin the work of local authority departments and health authorities in promoting and safeguarding children’s welfare and assessing children’s needs. It then describes the framework and the assessment process in more detail in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. There is reference to the needs of children in general and to children who may have specific needs and impairments throughout the Guidance. Roles and responsibilities in interagency assessment are described in Chapter 5. The Guidance concludes by considering the organisational arrangements which should be in place to support effective assessment of children in need.


Relationship to Previous Guidance on Assessment

This Guidance builds on and supersedes earlier Department of Health guidance on assessing children, Protecting Children: A Guide for Social Workers undertaking a Comprehensive Assessment (1988).

That publication (often referred to as the ‘Orange Book’) has been widely used by social work practitioners as a guide to comprehensive assessment for long term planning in child protection cases. Its purpose was to assist social work practitioners, in consultation with other agencies, to understand the child and family’s situation more fully once concerns about significant harm had been established following initial enquiries and assessment.

Much of its thinking about children’s development and parents’ capacity to respond to children’s needs has been incorporated into the Assessment Framework.

However, over the years concerns have arisen about the use made of Protecting Children. Inspections and research have shown that the guide was sometimes followed mechanistically and used as a check list, without any differentiation according to the child’s or family’s circumstances.

Assessment was regarded as an event rather than as a process and services were withheld awaiting the completion of an assessment. In some authorities, an all or nothing approach was found; either very detailed comprehensive assessments were carried out or there was no record of any analysis of the child and the family’s circumstances.

The framework for assessing children in need and their families contained in this volume is underpinned by a set of principles which seek to remedy any misunderstandings about the task of working with children and families in order to understand what is happening to them and how they might best be helped. Effective Implementation

A range of organisational arrangements need to be in place to ensure sound practice in using the framework for assessing children in need and their families. The effectiveness of assessment processes will be measurable over time by evidence of improving outcomes for children and families known to social services departments. The Department of Health will be working closely with all those involved in providing services to children to develop appropriate arrangements at national and local level, to learn from the experiences of children and families and to evaluate the impact this approach to assessment is having on outcomes for children in need.

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1
1 Children in Need
Children and Families in England

1.1 There are approximately eleven million children in England. It is estimated that over four million of them are living in families with less than half the average household income. By other calculations, well over three million children are living in poverty (Utting, 1995).

Where these children live is significant. ‘Over the last generation, this has become a divided country. While most areas have benefited from rising living standards, the poorest neighbourhoods have tended to become more run down, more prone to crime and more cut off from the labour market’ (Social Exclusion Unit, 1998). Estimates vary about how many neighbourhoods are in the poorest categories, ranging from 1,600 to 4,000 in Britain as a whole.

In response to these trends, the Government is developing major strategies to tackle the root causes of poverty and social exclusion, and to respond to the serious and multi-faceted problems for children and their families which these can create, particularly in the poorest areas.

These strategies also aim to encourage and promote preventive and early intervention approaches to help reduce the scale and difficulty of such problems and to tackle them before they become entrenched. 1.2 Just as the problems facing families are often interlinked, so the services provided for children and their families need to work closely together to be most effective.

Everyone benefits if services are properly co-ordinated and integrated. It is the purpose of Children’s Services Planning (Department of Health and Department for Education and Employment,1996) to identify the broad range and level of need in an area and to develop corporate, inter-agency, community based plans of action to provide the most effective network of services within the resources available. It is important that all those concerned with services to children and families – statutory and voluntary bodies, community groups and families – contribute to the development of these plans.

1.3 It is recognised that many families are under considerable stress, that being a parent is hard work, and families have a right to expect practical support from universal services, such as health and education.

The importance of all parents having available to them good quality local resources is acknowledged. The Government is committed to supporting parenting and has set up the National Family and Parenting Institute to assess the support needs of families, to raise public awareness of the importance of parenting and the needs of children, to map and disseminate information and good practice, and to provide advice to Government and others in a way which reflects our culturally diverse society.

It will work collaboratively with others to help develop parent support services and to influence the research agenda and analyse and disseminate research findings. It will draw on anonymised data from ParentLine Plus, whose freephone national telephone Helpline is available to provide a service to all parents. Steps are being taken through public service and welfare reforms to modernise the National Health Service, raise standards in local schools, provide good out of school care, reduce crime, ensure streets are safe for families and strengthen communities’ capacities to respond to and support families. This forms an ambitious programme which will take many years to deliver in full and requires continuous concerted central and local government effort.

1.4 All families may experience difficulties from time to time for a whole host of reasons which may have an impact on their children. These reasons may include the death of a family member, physical or mental ill health in the family, the breakdown of marital or other significant relationships, sudden loss of employment, multiple births, or having a child with special educational needs. Not all adults are well prepared for the daily upheavals and stress of bringing up a child.

Some parents may find one particular stage in their child's life especially stressful, for example adolescence. Many cope well enough with one problem but a combination of problems can have a cummulative debilitating effect.

1.5 Many families coping with extremely difficult circumstances receive sufficient support from friends, relatives and services in the community including universal services to overcome potential disadvantage. They are not likely to seek or require additional services.

In this sense, parenting has been called ‘a buffered system’ (Belsky and Vondra, 1989). In some cases the buffers of family and community resources may not exist or be sufficient to ensure the current or future wellbeing of the child. It is in these situations that additional support or services may be necessary, some of which may be purchased by parents (such as day care) or obtained directly from other statutory or voluntary agencies (such as befriending by a volunteer). Some parents may turn to or be referred to child welfare agencies in the community and require targeted services from health, education and social services.

The Extent of Children in Need

1.6 Children may be defined as in need in many different circumstances. The information on how many children are known to social services is not available nationally, but current estimates suggest between 300,000 and 400,000 children are known at any one time.

Figure 1 shows how the extent of need can be represented within the context of vulnerable1 and all children. According to Department of Health statistics, about 53,000 children are looked after in statutory care at any one time (Department of Health, 1999b). This figure excludes those disabled children receiving respite care. Approximately 32,000 children’s names are on a Child Protection Register at any one time because they require a child protection plan (Department of Health, 1999i). 1.7 The families referred to or seeking help from social services will have differing levels of need.

Many will be helped by advice or practical services or short term intervention. A smaller proportion will have problems of such complexity and seriousness that they 2

1. Vulnerable children are those disadvantaged children who would benefit from extra help from public agencies in order to make the best of their life chances. Four million children live in families with less than half the average household income. 3

require more detailed assessment, involving other agencies in that process, leading to appropriate plans and interventions. 1.8 This can best be illustrated by examining the experience of one unitary authority, as an example:

1.9 This authority, in parallel with many others, has been working for the past three years with its community and local agencies to take a broader-based approach to helping vulnerable children and their families and has begun to find:

l a slight increase in child care referrals;

l the majority of referrals more appropriately dealt with under s17;

l proportionally fewer child protection s47 enquiries;

l fewer children’s names being placed on the child protection register;

l a decrease in the numbers of children being looked after;

Figure 1 Representation of Extent of Children in Need in England at any one time EXAMPLE: UNITARY AUTHORITY 1997–1999 1997/98 1998/99

Total child population under the age of 18 35,086 35,086

Children referred to social services as children in need 4.000 4,097

Child Protection s47 enquiries carried out 1,752 708

Total number of children on Child Protection Register

at year end 161 96

Total number of children looked after at year end 217 202

All children (11 million)

Vulnerable Children (4 million)

Children in Need (3-400,000)

Children Looked After (53,000)

On Child Protection Register

(32,000)

4
l a decrease in the numbers of children accommodated on an unplanned basis;

l a reduction in the anxiety levels of all staff in child and family work.

1.10 Ensuring that assessment discriminates effectively between different types and levels

of need, from the point of referral onwards, is critical to the objective of improving the effectiveness of services to children and securing best value from available resources (Department of Health, 1999e).

Children in Need under the Children Act 1989

1.11 The obligations of the State to assist families who need help in bringing up their own children are laid down in legislation. Part III of the Children Act 1989 is the basis in law for the provision of local services to children in need: children in this respect are defined as under the age of 18 (s105).

1.12 The Children Act 1989 places a specific duty on agencies to co-operate in the interests of children in need in section 27. Section 322 of the Education Act 1996 also places a duty on the local authority to assist the local education authority where any child who has special educational needs.

1.13 Several key principles which underpin the Children Act 1989 are found in Part III of the Act:

l it is the duty of the State through local authorities to both safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children;

It shall be the general duty of every local authority – l to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and

l so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families, by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs.

Children Act 1989 s17(1)

Where it appears to a local authority that any authority or other person mentioned in sub-section (3) could, by taking any specified action, help in the exercise of any of their functions under this Part, they may request the help of that other authority or persons, specifying the action in question.

An authority whose help is so requested shall comply with the request if it is compatible with their own statutory or other duties and obligations and does not unduly prejudice the discharge of any of their functions.

The persons are –

a. any local authority;

b. any local education authority;

c. any local housing authority;

d. any health authority, special health authority, National Health Services Trust or Primary Care Trust; and

e. any person authorised by the Secretary of State for the purpose of this section. Children Act 1989 s27

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l it is in the children’s best interests to be brought up in their own families wherever possible;

l whilst it is parents’ responsibility to bring up their children, they may need assistance from time to time to do so;

l they should be able to call upon services, including accommodation (under s20 of the Children Act 1989), from or with the help of the local authority when they are required.

The notion of partnership between State and families is thus also established in this Part of the Act.

1.14 In order to carry out these duties the meaning of safeguarding and promoting within the parameters of the Children Act 1989 should be appreciated, as should the contribution of these objectives to strengthening and supplementing parental capacities so that children may grow up in their families, wherever possible.

1.15 Safeguarding has two elements:

l a duty to protect children from maltreatment;

l a duty to prevent impairment.

1.16 The duty to protect children from maltreatment demands knowledge and understanding of the law and the accompanying government guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999).

1.17 However, safeguarding children should not be seen as a separate activity from promoting their welfare. They are two sides of the same coin. Promoting welfare has a wider, more positive, action centred approach embedded in a philosophy of creating opportunities to enable children to have optimum life chances in adulthood, as well as ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.

A useful framework for looking at the policy context of children in need and the value of applying a twin approach of safeguarding and promoting welfare at different levels of intervention has been developed by Hardiker et al (1996; 1999). Their grid, reproduced in Appendix B, can be used to help the planning and appropriate provision of services.

1.18 Children who are defined as in need under the Children Act 1989 are those whose vulnerability is such that they are unlikely to reach or maintain a satisfactory level of health and development, or their health and development will be significantly impaired without the provision of services.

The critical factors to be taken into account in deciding whether a child is in need under the Children Act 1989 are what will happen to a child’s health and development without services, and the likely effect the services will have on the child’s standard of health and development.

Determining who is in need, what those needs are, and how services will have an effect on outcomes for children requires professional judgement by social services staff together with colleagues from other professional disciplines who are working with children and families.

1.19 The criteria for defining who is in need are spelt out above in section 17(10) of the Children Act 1989. The criteria include a child who is disabled. A child is defined as 6
disabled ‘if he is blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from mental disorder of any kind, or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital or other such disability as may be prescribed’ (s17(11)).

This definition does not preclude children whose impairment may be less substantial from being defined as children in need under the other categories. Thus, where the family, educational, social or environmental circumstances may be preventing such a disabled child from achieving or maintaining a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision of services, the local authority should consider whether that child is a child in need.



Assessing Children in Need

1.20 The duties and powers of the local authority to assess the needs of a child and to provide services are outlined in Part III of the Children Act 1989, in particular section 17, and Schedule 2 Part I. Part III is the main part of the Act (titled Local Authority Support for Children and Families) about the delivery of services by social services departments.

Other Parts (I, II, IV and V) outline the way in which court orders may be obtained to authorise or enforce certain actions, in relation to family proceedings, care and supervision and the protection of children.

1.21 The Act gives local authority social services the power to assess children’s needs as follows:

1.22 Professionals from a number of agencies, but in particular health and education, are a key source of referral to social services departments of children who are, or may be, in need.

They may already know these children and their families well and, if so, they will be key in assisting social services departments to carry out their assessment functions under the Children Act 1989.

Knowledge of the Assessment Framework will be of use to all professionals when they are contributing to assessments of children in need, A child shall be taken to be in need if –

a. he is unlikely to achieve or maintain or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him of services by a local authority …

b. his health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision for him of such services; or

c. he is disabled,

And “family” in relation to such a child, includes any person who has parental responsibility for the child and any other person with whom he has been living.

Children Act 1989 s17(10)

Where it appears to a local authority that a child within their area is in need, the authority may assess his needs for the purposes of this Act at the same time as any assessment of his needs is made under:

l the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970;

l the Education Act 1996;

l the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986; or l any other enactment.

Children Act 1989 (Schedule 2, paragraph 3)

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including when they are undertaking or contributing to assessments as part of their responsibilities for safeguarding children under Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999).

1.23 The following principles should guide inter-agency, inter-disciplinary work with children in need. It is essential to be clear about:

l the purpose and anticipated outputs from the assessment;

l the legislative basis for the assessment;

l the protocols and procedures to be followed;

l which agency, team or professional has lead responsibility;

l how the child and family members will be involved in the assessment process;

l which professional has lead responsibility for analysing the assessment findings and constructing a plan;

l the respective roles of each professional involved in the assessment;

l the way in which information will be shared across professional boundaries and within agencies, and be recorded;

l which professional will have responsibility for taking forward the plan when it is agreed.

1.24 It is important to agree an assessment plan with the child and family, so that all parties understand who is doing what, when, and how the various assessments will be used to inform overall judgements about a child’s needs and subsequent planning.

When joint assessments are being undertaken, clarity is required about whether this means one professional will undertake an assessment on behalf of the team or whether several types of assessment are to be undertaken in parallel. In the latter situation, thought is required regarding how these can be organised to avoid duplication.

Service users, in particular parents of disabled children, report that assessments are often repetitive and uninformed by previous work. The agreed process should be based on what is appropriate for the needs of the particular child and family, taking account of the purpose of the assessment, rather than what fits best with professional systems. Agreed protocols and procedures should be flexible enough to accommodate different ways of undertaking assessments within the overall Assessment Framework.



Children Who are Suffering or are Likely to Suffer Significant Harm

1.25 Some children are in need because they are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Concerns about maltreatment may be the reason for referral of a family to social services or concerns may arise during the course of providing services to a family. In such circumstances, the local authority is obliged to consider initiating enquiries to find out what is happening to a child and whether action should be taken to protect a child. This obligation is set out in Part V s47 of the Children Act 1989 (Protection of Children):

1.26 This section of the Act requires local authorities to consider if action is necessary. To

8
make enquiries implies the need to assess what is happening to a child. The procedures for such action to be followed are laid down in Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999). Where there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child may be suffering or is at risk of suffering significant harm, section 47 (9)(10)(11) places a duty on:

l any local authority;

l any local education authority;

l any housing authority;

l any health authority, special health authority, National Health Service Trust or Primary Care Trust; and

l any person authorised by the Secretary of State.

to help a local authority with its enquiries. In addition, the Police have a duty and a responsibility to investigate criminal offences committed against children.

1.27 It is important to emphasise that the assessment should concentrate on the harm that has occurred or is likely to occur to the child as a result of child maltreatment, in order to inform future plans and the nature of services required.

This is because there is substantial research evidence to suggest that the health and development of children, including their educational attainment, may be severely affected if they have been subjected to child maltreatment (Varma (ed), 1993; Adcock and White (eds), 1998; Jones and Ramchandani, 1999).

It is not enough to have established the harm: action should be taken to safeguard and promote children’s welfare. The duty to both safeguard and promote the child’s welfare continues throughout the process of finding out whether there are grounds for concern that a child may be suffering or is at risk of suffering significant harm and deciding what action should be taken. Services may be provided to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare (under Part III of the Act), while enquiries are being carried out, or, after protective action has been taken while an application is being made for a care or supervision order (under Part IV).



Providing Services

1.28 The local authority has a duty to respond to children in need in their area in the following ways:

l to provide services to children in need (s17);

Where a local authority –

a. are informed that a child who lives, or is found in their area –

i is the subject of an emergency protection order; or

ii is in police protection; or

b. have reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives, or is found in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm,

the authority shall make, or cause to be made, such enquiries as they consider

necessary to enable them to decide whether they should take any action to

safeguard or promote the child’s welfare.



Children Act 1989 s47(1)

9
l to provide such day care for children in need as appropriate (s18);

l to provide accommodation and maintenance to any child in need (s20 and s23);

l to advise, assist and befriend a child whilst he is being looked after and when he ceases to be looked after by the authority (s24);

l to provide services to minimise the effect of disabilities (Schedule 2, paragraph 6);

l to take steps to prevent neglect or ill-treatment (Schedule 2, paragraph 4);

l to take steps to encourage children not to commit criminal offences (Schedule 2, paragraph 7(b)); and

l to provide family centres (Schedule 2, paragraph 9).

1.29 The provision of services has a very broad meaning; the aim may be to prevent deterioration,

that is to stop situations from getting worse, as well as to improve a child’s health and development. Decisions about which services to provide should be based on an assessment of the child and families circumstances, in the following three domains: child’s developmental needs, parenting capacity, and family and environmental factors. This framework for assessing children in need and their families is discussed fully in Chapter 2.

It should be stressed that services, such as direct work with children and families, may be offered at the same time as family proceedings are in progress. The one does not preclude the other. Furthermore, services may be provided to any members of the family in order to assist a child in need (s17(3) of the Children Act 1989).

The needs of parent carers are an integral part of an assessment. Providing services which meet the needs of parents is often the most effective means of promoting the welfare of children, in particular disabled children.

1.30 Services may include those provided by local authority children's services or by local authority adult services or by other agencies, on a single agency, inter-agency or multiagency basis.

By inter-agency it is meant that services are provided by individual agencies according to an agreed plan. By multi-agency, it is meant that services are provided by agencies acting in concert and drawing on pooled resources or a pooled budget or services defined as such in legislation, for example youth offending teams.

1.31 Services may be provided on a one off or episodic basis or over a longer period of time as determined by the child’s plan (see paragraph 4.33). These provisions are often described as a continuum of services to support children and their families, and include care for a child in accommodation away from home.

It is the function of Children’s Services Planning to make sure this continuum of services is in place. Services provided in parallel with court proceedings or following on from a court order are provided under Part III of the Act.

1.32 In determining what services should be provided to a particular child and his family, social services departments are not charged with the same duty as the courts that the child’s welfare shall be the ‘paramount consideration’ (s1(1)).

Rather they have a broader duty to promote children’s welfare to achieve the best possible outcomes for that particular child. Social services, in their assessment of whether a child is in need and how to respond to those needs, also have to take into consideration other children in the family and the general circumstances of that family.

Social services have to identify the impact of what is happening to the child and also the likely impact of any intervention on that child and on other family members. Assessment requires careful consideration of the repercussions or consequences of providing specific types of services and the extent to which they will both safeguard and promote a particular child’s welfare and development.

This may be a complex equation which requires a high level of skill and professional judgement, involving all agency partners. Principles Underpinning Assessment of Children in Need

1.33 Important principles underpin the approach to assessing children in need and their families which is outlined in this Guidance.

They are important in understanding the development of the framework and in considering how an assessment should be carried out. Child Centred

1.34 Fundamental to establishing whether a child is in need and how those needs should be best met is that the approach must be child centred. This means that the child is seen and kept in focus throughout the assessment and that account is always taken of the child’s perspective.

In complex situations where much is happening, attention can be diverted from the child to other issues which the family may be facing, such as a high level of conflict between adult family members, or depression being experienced by a parent or acute housing problems. This can result in the child becoming lost during assessment and the impact of the family and environmental circumstances on the child not being clearly identified and understood. The significance of seeing and observing the child throughout any assessment cannot be overstated.

1.35 The importance, therefore, of undertaking direct work with children during assessment is emphasised, including developing multiple, age, gender and culturally appropriate methods for ascertaining their wishes and feelings, and understanding the meaning of their experiences to them.

Throughout the assessment process, the safety of the child should be ensured.

Rooted in Child Development



1.36 A thorough understanding of child development is critical to work with children and 10


PRINCIPLES UNDERPINNING THE ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK

Assessments:

l are child centred; l are rooted in child development;

l are ecological in their approach;

l ensure equality of opportunity;

l involve working with children and families;

l build on strengths as well as identify difficulties;

l are inter-agency in their approach to assessment and the provision of services;

l are a continuing process, not a single event;

l are carried out in parallel with other action and providing services;

l are grounded in evidence based knowledge.

11

their families.

Children have a range of different and complex developmental needs which must be met during different stages of childhood if optimal outcomes are to be achieved. Disabled children, including those with learning disabilities, may have a different rate of progress across the various developmental dimensions. Many disabled children will have quite individual patterns of development, for example a child with autism may acquire some skills ahead of the usual milestones but may never develop some communication skills.

In addition, different aspects of development will have more or less weight at different stages of a child’s life. For example, in the early years there is an emphasis on developing cognitive and language skills, achieving physical milestones and forming secure attachments; in middle childhood, social and educational development become more prominent; while the adolescent strives to reconcile the tensions between social and emotional dependence and independence. 1.37 Each child’s development is significantly shaped by his or her particular experiences and the interaction between a series of factors. Some factors are intrinsic to individual children, such as characteristics of genetic inheritance or temperament. Other factors may include particular health problems or an impairment.

Others may relate to their culture and to the physical and emotional environment in which a child is living. 1.38 Children referred for help are frequently very vulnerable and their opportunities to reach their full potential may have been or may be likely to be compromised in some way, for a variety of reasons. It is, therefore, crucial to know about the importance of developmental milestones which children need to reach, if they are to be healthy and achieve their full potential. This knowledge should recognise also that children are individuals and variations may occur in that sequence of development: such variations, however, may indicate services are necessary. Professionals should understand the consequences of variations for particular children of different ages, some of whom may have special educational needs and profound difficulties. Furthermore, they have to understand the significance of timing in a child’s life. Children may not be getting what they require at a crucial stage in their development and time is passing. Plans and interventions should be based on a clear assessment of the developmental progress and difficulties a child may be experiencing and ensure that planned action is timely and appropriate in terms of the child’s developmental needs.



Ecological Approach 1.39 An understanding of a child must be located within the context of the child’s family (parents or caregivers and the wider family) and of the community and culture in which he or she is growing up. The significance of understanding the parent-child relationship has long been part of child welfare practice: less so the importance of the interface between environmental factors and a child’s development, and the influence of these environmental factors on parents’ capacities to respond to their child’s needs (Jack, 1997; Stevenson, 1998 and others). The association between economic disadvantage and the chances that children will fail to thrive (Utting, 1995) and the association between a teenager’s friendship group and pro-social and anti-social behaviour (Rutter et al, 1998) are well researched. So is the impact on parenting capacity of a supportive wider family or of struggling to bring up children in impoverished living conditions. ‘Living on a low income in a run down 12

neighbourhood does not make it impossible to be the affectionate, authoritative parent of healthy, sociable children. But it does, undeniably, make it more difficult’ (Utting, 1995, p. 40).

1.40 Assessment, therefore, should take account of three domains:

l the child’s developmental needs;

l the parents' or caregivers' capacities to respond appropriately;

l the wider family and environmental factors.

1.41 The interaction between the three domains and the way they influence each other must be carefully analysed in order to gain a complete picture of a child’s unmet needs and how to identify the best response to them.



Ensuring Equality of Opportunity

1.42 The Children Act 1989 is built on the premise that ‘children and young people and their parents should all be considered as individuals with particular needs and potentialities’ (Department of Health, 1989), that differences in bringing up children due to family structures, religion, culture and ethnic origins should be respected and understood and that those children with ‘specific social needs arising out of disability or a health condition’ have their assessed needs met and reviewed (Department of Health, 1998a). Ensuring that all children who are assessed as in need have the opportunity to achieve optimal development, according to their circumstances and age, is an important principle.

Furthermore, since discrimination of all kinds is an everyday reality in many children’s lives, every effort must be made to ensure that agencies' responses do not reflect or reinforce that experience and indeed, should counteract it. Some vulnerable children may have been particularly disadvantaged in their access to important opportunities, such as those who have suffered multiple family disruptions or prolonged maltreatment by abuse or neglect and are subsequently looked by the local authority. Their health and educational needs will require particular attention in order to optimise their long term outcomes in young adulthood.

1.43 Ensuring equality of opportunity does not mean that all children are treated the same. It does mean understanding and working sensitively and knowledgeably with diversity to identify the particular issues for a child and his/her family, taking account of experiences and family context. This is further elaborated in the chapters in the accompanying practice guidance on working with disabled children and with black children.

Working with Children and their Families

1.44 The majority of parents want to do the best for their children. Whatever their circumstances or difficulties, the concept of partnership between the State and the family, in situations where families are in need of assistance in bringing up their children, lies at the heart of child care legislation. The importance of partnership has been further reinforced by a substantial number of research findings, including the child protection studies (Department of Health, 1995d) and family support studies (Butt and Box, 13 1998; Aldgate and Bradley, 1999; Tunstill and Aldgate, 2000).

In the process of finding out what is happening to a child, it will be critical to develop a co-operative working relationship, so that parents or caregivers feel respected and informed, that staff are being open and honest with them, and that they in turn are confident about providing vital information about their child, themselves and their circumstances. 1.45 Working with family members is not an end in itself; the objective must always be to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child. The child, therefore, must be kept in focus.

It requires sensitivity to and understanding of the circumstances of families and their particular needs, for example where English is not a parent’s first language or where adults who are significant to a child are not living in the same household or where a parent is disabled or mentally ill. For a disabled parent reasonable adjustments will be needed, for example, it may be necessary to provide information to a blind parent in an alternative format such as Braille or on audio tape, or to communicate with a deaf parent using British Sign Language. 1.46 Parents value taking part in discussions about how and where the assessment will be carried out, as well as what they hope it will achieve. Similarly, according to the age and development of the child, listening to what children have to say and working openly and honestly is valued by them and produces more effective outcomes. This is discussed further in Chapter 3.

1.47 Developing a working relationship with children and family members will not always be easy to achieve and can be difficult especially when there have been concerns about significant harm to the child. However resistant the family or difficult the circumstances, it remains important to continue to try to find ways of engaging the family in the assessment process. Use of mediation may be helpful in assisting professionals and family members to work together. The quality of the early or initial contact will affect later working relationships and the ability of professionals to secure an agreed understanding of what is happening and to provide help. Studies have found that even in situations where child sexual abuse is alleged, despite early difficulties that may arise because of having to take immediate child protective action, it may still be possible to work with children and their parents (Cleaver and Freeman, 1995; Jones and Ramchandani, 1999). Working with children and family members, where there are concerns about a child suffering significant harm is discussed in paragraphs 7.2 to 7.12 in Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999).



Building on Strengths as well as Identifying Difficulties 1.48 It is important that an approach to assessment, which is based on a full understanding of what is happening to a child in the context of his or her family and the wider community, examines carefully the nature of the interactions between the child, family and environmental factors and identifies both positive and negative influences. These will vary for each child. Nothing can be assumed; the facts must be sought, the meaning attached to them explored and weighed up with the family. Sometimes assessments have been largely in terms of a child or family’s difficulties or problems, or the risks seen to be attached to particular behaviours or situations. What is working well or what may be acting as positive factors for the child and family may be overlooked. For example, a single mother, in crisis over health, financial and housing 14 problems, may still be managing to get her child up in time in the mornings, washed, dressed, breakfasted and off to school each day. An older child, living in a family periodically disrupted by domestic violence, may be provided with welcome respite care on a regular basis by a grandmother living locally. Working with a child or family’s strengths may be an important part of a plan to resolve difficulties.

1.49 This is not to suggest that staff should suspend their critical professional judgement and adopt a 'rule of optimism' (Dingwall et al, 1983). It is important, however, that they not only identify the deficits in assessing a family’s situation, but also make a realistic and informed appraisal of the strengths and resources in the family and the relative weight that should be given to each. These can be mobilised to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare.



Inter-Agency Approach to Assessment and Provision of Services 1.50 From birth, all children will become involved with a variety of different agencies in the community, particularly in relation to their health, day care and educational development. A range of professionals, including midwives, health visitors, general practitioners, nursery staff and teachers, will have a role in assessing their general wellbeing and development. Children who are vulnerable are, therefore, likely to be identified by these professionals, who will have an important responsibility in deciding whether to refer them to social services for further assessment and help. The knowledge they already have about a child and family is an essential component of any assessment. These agencies may also be required to provide more specialist assessment for those smaller numbers of children where there are particular causes for concern. Similarly, responding to the needs of vulnerable children may require services from agencies other than social services or in combination with social services help. Interagency work starts as soon as there are concerns about a child's welfare, not just when there is an enquiry about significant harm. An important underlying principle of the approach to assessment in this Guidance, therefore, is that it is based on a inter-agency model in which it is not just social services departments which are the assessors and providers of services.



A Continuing Process, not a Single Event 1.51 Understanding what is happening to a vulnerable child within the context of his or her family and the local community cannot be achieved as a single event. It must necessarily be a process of gathering information from a variety of sources and making sense of it with the family and, very often, with several professionals concerned with the child’s welfare.

1.52 This assessment process involves one or more of the following:

l establishing good working relationships with the child and family;

l developing a deeper understanding through multiple approaches to the assessment task;

l setting up joint or parallel assessment arrangements with other professionals and agencies, as appropriate;

15 l determining which types of intervention are most likely to be effective for which needs.

1.53 For many children who come to the attention of social services departments, the process will be relatively straightforward and short term. The more complex or serious a child’s situation, however, the more time it may take to understand thoroughly what is happening to the child, the reasons why and the impact on the child and the more it is also likely to involve several agencies in that process. Where there are concerns about a child’s safety, decisions to safeguard the child may have to be made quickly pending greater understanding of the child’s circumstances. Once it has been established whether a child is in need, further questions will remain to be answered about:

l the parents’ views of the child’s needs and services required;

l the precise nature of these needs;

l the reasons for them;

l the priority for action and/or resources;

l the potential for change in the child and family;

l the best options to be pursued;

l the child’s and family’s response to intervention;

l how well the child is doing.

Assessment should continue throughout a period of intervention, and intervention may start at the beginning of an assessment.



1.54 Assessment is thus an iterative process which for some children will continue throughout work with the child and the family or caregivers. In order to achieve the best outcomes, the framework should be used also at important decision making times when reviewing the child’s progress and future plans.

Use of the Assessment Framework linked to the Looking After Children materials which have been used to monitor the child’s progress whilst they have been looked after will enhance care planning and reviewing processes. This will provide an integrated framework for children looked after which should be used at key decision making points including return home from residential or foster care, or longer term plans for an alternative family placement such as adoption, or when leaving care.

1.55 This does not mean that assessment should be over intrusive, repeated unnecessarily or continued without any clear purpose or outcome. Effective discrimination between different types and levels of need are key considerations.

Action and Services are Provided in Parallel with Assessment

1.56 Although assessment is generally described in this Guidance as a discrete process which will result in an understanding of need, from which a plan of action and intervention can be developed, in many situations there is inevitably overlap between these different activities.

Undertaking an assessment with a family can begin a process of understanding and change by key family members. A practitioner may, during the process of gathering information, be instrumental in bringing about change by the questions asked, by listening to members of the family, by validating the family’s difficulties or concerns, and by providing information and advice. The process of assessment should be therapeutic in itself.

This does not preclude taking timely action either to provide immediate services or to take steps to protect a child who is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm. Action and services should be provided according to the needs of the child and family, in parallel with assessment where necessary, and not await completion of the assessment.



Grounded in Evidence

1.57 Each professional discipline derives its knowledge from a particular theoretical base, related research findings and accumulated practice wisdom and experience. Social work practice, however, differs in that it derives its knowledge from theory and research in many different disciplines. Practice is also based on policies laid down in legislation and government guidance. It is essential that practitioners and their managers ensure that practice and its supervision are grounded in the most up to date knowledge and that they make use of the resources described in the practice guidance as well as other critical materials, including:

l relevant research findings;

l national and local statistical data;

l national policy and practice guidance;

l Social Services Inspectorate Inspection Standards;

l Government and local inspection, audit and performance assessment reports;

l lessons learnt from national and local inquiries and reviews of cases of child maltreatment.

1.58 Practice is expected to be evidence based, by which it is meant that practitioners:

l use knowledge critically from research and practice about the needs of children and families and the outcomes of services and interventions to inform their assessment and planning;

l record and update information systematically, distinguishing sources of information, for example direct observation, other agency records or interviews with family members;

l learn from the views of users of services ie. children and families; l valuate continously whether the intervention is effective in responding to the needs of an individual child and family and modifying their interventions accordingly;

l evaluate rigorously the information, processes and outcomes from the practitioner’s own interventions to develop practice wisdom.

1.59 The combination of evidence based practice grounded in knowledge with finely balanced professional judgement is the foundation for effective practice with children and families.

1.60 The knowledge base from which these principles are derived and the application of the principles to the process of assessing children in need and their families are developed in subsequent chapters.

16
17


Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need

2.1 Assessing whether a child is in need and the nature of these needs requires a systematic approach which uses the same framework or conceptual map for gathering and analysing information about all children and their families, but discriminates effectively between different types and levels of need.

The framework in this guidance is developed from the legislative foundations and principles in Chapter 1 and an extensive research and practice knowledge which is outlined in the practice guidance (Department of Health, 2000a). It requires a thorough understanding of:

l the developmental needs of children;

l the capacities of parents or caregivers to respond appropriately to those needs;

l the impact of wider family and environmental factors on parenting capacity and children.

2.2 These are described as three inter-related systems or domains, each of which has a number of critical dimensions (Figure 2). The interaction or the influence of these dimensions on each other requires careful exploration during assessment, with the ultimate aim being to understand how they affect the child or children in the family. 2 Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need



Figure 2 The Assessment Framework (the above diagram has been reproduced at Appendix A for ease of photocopying)

Health Education Emotional & Behavioural Development Identity

Family & Social Relationships

Social Presentation

Selfcare Skills

Basic Care

Ensuring Safety

Emotional Warmth

Stimulation

Guidance & Boundaries

Stability

CHILD

Safeguarding and promoting welfare

Family History

& Functioning Wider Family

Housing

Employment

Income

Family’s Social Integration

Community Resources

CHILD’S DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

PARENTING CAPACITY

FAMILY & ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

18

This analysis of the child’s situation will inform planning and action to secure the best outcomes for the child. The Assessment Framework can be represented in the form of a triangle or pyramid, with the child’s welfare at the centre. This emphasises that all assessment activity and subsequent planning and provision of services must focus on ensuring that the child’s welfare is safeguarded and promoted.

Dimensions of a Child’s Developmental Needs

2.3 Assessment of what is happening to a child requires that each aspect of a child’s developmental progress is examined, in the context of the child’s age and stage of development. This includes knowing whether a child has reached his or her expected developmental milestones. Account must be taken of any particular vulnerabilities, such as a learning disability or a physically impairing condition, and the impact they may be having on progress in any of the developmental dimensions. Consideration should also be given to the socially and environmentally disabling factors which have an impact on a child’s development, such as limited access for those who are disabled and other forms of discrimination.

Children who have been maltreated may suffer impairment to their development as a result of injuries sustained and/or the impact of the trauma caused by their abuse. There must be a clear understanding of what a particular child is capable of achieving successfully at each stage of development, in order to ensure that he or she has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential.

2.4 The child’s developmental dimensions are described on page 19. These descriptions are intended to be illustrative rather than comprehensive of the different components of each dimension.

2.5 The child development dimensions have been taken from the work of Roy Parker and colleagues which was commissioned by the Department of Health (1991) to find practical measures to assess the progress of children accommodated in children’s homes and foster care, and to improve their outcomes. During the development stages of that work, the materials were tested with a large number of families in the community and it was found ‘that the Assessment and Action Records can be used with parents and children in the community as a means of identifying difficulties and discussing how to address them’ (Ward, 1995). These dimensions have therefore been demonstrated to be salient for all children.

2.6 When practitioners are undertaking an assessment of a child’s developmental needs, they should:

l identify the developmental areas to be covered and recorded;

l plan how developmental progress is to be measured;

l ensure proper account is taken of a child’s age and stage of development;

l analyse information as the basis for planning future action.

2.7 A number of questionnaires and scales have been assembled concurrently with the development of this guidance to assist social services staff, in particular, in specific areas when undertaking child and family assessments.

Eight have been published in The Family Pack of Questionnaires and Scales (Department of Health, Cox and Bentovim, 2000) and a further two, the Home Inventory (Caldwell and Bradley, 1984) 19



DIMENSIONS OF CHILD’S DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

Health

Includes growth and development as well as physical and mental wellbeing. The impact of genetic factors and of any impairment should be considered. Involves receiving appropriate health care when ill, an adequate and nutritious diet, exercise, immunisations where appropriate and developmental checks, dental and optical care and, for older children, appropriate advice and information on issues that have an impact on health, including sex education and substance misuse.

Education

Covers all areas of a child’s cognitive development which begins from birth. Includes opportunities: for play and interaction with other children; to have access to books; to acquire a range of skills and interests; to experience success and achievement. Involves an adult interested in educational activities, progress and achievements, who takes account of the child’s starting point and any special educational needs.

Emotional and Behavioural Development

Concerns the appropriateness of response demonstrated in feelings and actions by a child, initially to parents and caregivers and, as the child grows older, to others beyond the family.

Includes nature and quality of early attachments, characteristics of temperament, adaptation to change, response to stress and degree of appropriate self control.

Identity

Concerns the child’s growing sense of self as a separate and valued person. Includes the child's view of self and abilities, self image and self esteem, and having a positive sense of individuality. Race, religion, age, gender, sexuality and disability may all contribute to this. Feelings of belonging and acceptance by family, peer group and wider society, including other cultural groups.

Family and Social Relationships

Development of empathy and the capacity to place self in someone else’s shoes. Includes a stable and affectionate relationship with parents or caregivers, good relationships with siblings, increasing importance of age appropriate friendships with peers and other significant persons in the child’s life and response of family to these relationships.

Social Presentation

Concerns child’s growing understanding of the way in which appearance, behaviour, and any impairment are perceived by the outside world and the impression being created.

Includes appropriateness of dress for age, gender, culture and religion; cleanliness and personal hygiene; and availability of advice from parents or caregivers about presentation in different settings.

Self Care Skills

Concerns the acquisition by a child of practical, emotional and communication competencies required for increasing independence. Includes early practical skills of dressing and feeding, opportunities to gain confidence and practical skills to undertake activities away from the family and independent living skills as older children. Includes encouragement to acquire social problem solving approaches.

Special attention should be given to the impact of a child's impairment and other vulnerabilities, and on social circumstances affecting these in the development of self care skills. 20 and the Assessment of Family Competence, Strengths and Difficulties developed by Bentovim and Bingley Miller (forthcoming) will be published later this year. In addition there are others which may be of use to assist the process of assessment. 2.8 Use of questionnaires and scales enables children and caregivers to express their views about their particular circumstances.

They have been found also to identify areas of concern or difficulty which have not been identified previously through interviews or observations.

Dimensions of Parenting Capacity

2.9 Critically important to a child’s health and development is the ability of parents or caregivers to ensure that the child’s developmental needs are being appropriately and adequately responded to, and to adapt to his or her changing needs over time. The parenting tasks are described on page 21. Again, these descriptions are illustrative rather than comprehensive of all parenting tasks.

2.10 It is important that parenting capacity be considered in the context of the family’s structure and functioning, and who contributes to the parental care of the child (see Family and Environmental Factors, paragraphs 2.13 to 2.25).

2.11 In family situations where there is cause for concern about what is happening to a child, it becomes even more important to gather information about how these tasks are being carried out by each parent or caregiver in terms of:

l their response to a child and his or her behaviour or circumstances;

l the manner in which they are responding to the child’s needs and the areas where they are experiencing difficulties in meeting needs or failing to do so;

l the effect this child has on them;

l the quality of the parent – child relationship;

l their understanding of the child’s needs and development;

l their comprehension of parenting tasks and the relevance of these to the child’s developmental needs;

l the impact of any difficulties they may be experiencing themselves on their ability to carry out parental tasks and responsibilities (distinguishing realisation from aspiration);

l the impact of past experiences on their current parenting capacity;

l their ability to face and accept their difficulties;

l their ability to use support and accept help;

l their capacity for adaptation and change in their parenting response.

Observation of interactions is as critically important as the way they are described by the adults involved.

2.12 The parenting tasks undertaken by fathers or father figures should be addressed alongside those of mothers or mother figures. In some families, a single parent may be 21

DIMENSIONS OF PARENTING CAPACITY

Basic Care

Providing for the child’s physical needs, and appropriate medical and dental care. Includes provision of food, drink, warmth, shelter, clean and appropriate clothing and adequate personal hygiene.

Ensuring Safety

Ensuring the child is adequately protected from harm or danger. Includes protection from significant harm or danger, and from contact with unsafe adults/other children and from self-harm. Recognition of hazards and danger both in the home and elsewhere.

Emotional Warmth

Ensuring the child’s emotional needs are met and giving the child a sense of being specially valued and a positive sense of own racial and cultural identity. Includes ensuring the child’s requirements for secure, stable and affectionate relationships with significant adults, with appropriate sensitivity and responsiveness to the child’s needs. Appropriate physical contact, comfort and cuddling sufficient to demonstrate warm regard, praise and encouragement.

Stimulation

Promoting child’s learning and intellectual development through encouragement and cognitive stimulation and promoting social opportunities. Includes facilitating the child’s cognitive development and potential through interaction, communication, talking and responding to the child’s language and questions, encouraging and joining the child’s play, and promoting educational opportunities. Enabling the child to experience success and ensuring school attendance or equivalent opportunity. Facilitating child to meet challenges of life.

Guidance and Boundaries

Enabling the child to regulate their own emotions and behaviour.

The key parental tasks are demonstrating and modelling appropriate behaviour and control of emotions and interactions with others, and guidance which involves setting boundaries, so that the child is able to develop an internal model of moral values and conscience, and social behaviour appropriate for the society within which they will grow up.

The aim is to enable the child to grow into an autonomous adult, holding their own values, and able to demonstrate appropriate behaviour with others rather than having to be dependent on rules outside themselves. This includes not over protecting children from exploratory and learning experiences. Includes social problem solving, anger management, consideration for others, and effective discipline and shaping of behaviour.

Stability

Providing a sufficiently stable family environment to enable a child to develop and maintain a secure attachment to the primary caregiver(s) in order to ensure optimal development.

Includes: ensuring secure attachments are not disrupted, providing consistency of emotional warmth over time and responding in a similar manner to the same behaviour. Parental responses change and develop according to child’s developmental progress. In addition, ensuring children keep in contact with important family members and significant others. 22

performing most or all of the parenting tasks. In others, there may be a number of important caregivers in a child’s life, each playing a different part which may have positive or negative consequences. A wide range of adults, for example grandparents, step relations, child minders or baby sitters, may have a significant role in caring for a child. A distinction has to be clearly made between the contribution of each parent or caregiver to a child’s wellbeing and development.

Where a child has suffered significant harm, it is particularly important to distinguish between the capabilities of the abusing parent and the potentially protective parent. This information can also contribute to an understanding of the impact the parents’ relationship with each other may have on their respective capacities to respond appropriately to their child’s needs. The quality of the inter-parental relationship, which has an impact on the child's wellbeing will be considered more explicitly in the following section on family and environmental factors.

Family and Environmental Factors

2.13 The care and upbringing of children does not take place in a vacuum. All family members are influenced both positively and negatively by the wider family, the neighbourhood and social networks in which they live. The history of the child’s family and of individual family members may have a significant impact on the child and parents. Some family members, for example, may have grown up in a completely different environment to the child, others may have had to leave their country of origin because of war or other adverse conditions, and others may have experienced abuse and neglect as children.

2.14 The narration and impact of family histories and experiences can play an important part in understanding what is happening currently to a family. An adult's capacity to parent may be crucially related to his or her childhood experiences of family life and past adult experiences prior to the current difficulties. The family may be in transition, for example refugee families.

2.15 An understanding of how the family usually functions, and how it functions when under stress can be very helpful in identifying what factors may assist parents in carrying out their parenting roles. Of particular importance is the quality and nature of the relationship between a child’s parents and how this affects the child. For example, sustained conflict between parents is detrimental to children’s welfare. The quality of relationships between siblings may also be of major significance to a child's welfare. Account must be taken of the diversity of family styles and structures, particularly who counts as family and who is important to the child.

2.16 The impact of multiple caregivers will need careful exploration, with an understanding of the context in which the care is being provided. As Cleaver (Department of Health and Cleaver, 2000) writes in the notes of guidance for use with the assessment records:

Children can be protected from the adverse consequences of parenting problems when someone else meets the child’s developmental needs.

She adds that it is important to record when there is evidence that no one is responding appropriately to the child. In some circumstances children who have a number of caregivers may be more vulnerable to being maltreated. Special attention should be given to the needs of disabled children who experience multiple caregivers as part of their regular routine, and to their need for reasonable continuity of caregivers. 2.17 In families where a parent is not living in the same household as the child, it is 23

FAMILY AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Family History and Functioning

Family history includes both genetic and psycho-social factors.

Family functioning is influenced by who is living in the household and how they are related to the child;

significant changes in family/household composition; history of childhood experiences of parents; chronology of significant life events and their meaning to family members; nature of family functioning, including sibling relationships and its impact on the child; parental strengths and difficulties, including those of an absent parent;

the relationship between separated parents. Wider Family

Who are considered to be members of the wider family by the child and the parents?

Includes related and non-related persons and absent wider family. What is their role and importance to the child and parents and in precisely what way?

Housing

Does the accommodation have basic amenities and facilities appropriate to the age and development of the child and other resident members? Is the housing accessible and suitable to the needs of disabled family members? Includes the interior and exterior of the accommodation and immediate surroundings. Basic amenities include water, heating, sanitation, cooking facilities, sleeping arrangements and cleanliness, hygiene and safety and their impact on the child’s upbringing.

Employment

Who is working in the household, their pattern of work and any changes? What impact does this have on the child? How is work or absence of work viewed by family members? How does it affect their relationship with the child? Includes children’s experience of work and its impact on them.

Income

Income available over a sustained period of time. Is the family in receipt of all its benefit entitlements? Sufficiency of income to meet the family’s needs. The way resources available to the family are used. Are there financial difficulties which affect the child?

Family’s Social Integration

Exploration of the wider context of the local neighbourhood and community and its impact on the child and parents.

Includes the degree of the family’s integration or isolation, their peer groups, friendship and social networks and the importance attached to them. Community Resources

Describes all facilities and services in a neighbourhood, including universal services of primary health care, day care and schools, places of worship, transport, shops and leisure activities.

Includes availability, accessibility and standard of resources and impact on the family, including disabled members. 24

important to identify what role that parent has in the child’s life and the significance to the child of the relationship with that parent. It cannot be assumed that parents who live apart are estranged. This arrangement may be by mutual agreement.

2.18 A wide range of environmental factors can either help or hinder the family’s functioning. Here it is important to think broadly and creatively about the family and environmental factors described on the previous page.

2.19 Careful account should be taken of how these factors are influencing both a child’s progress and the parents’ responses. This can be illustrated by the following examples of the inter-relationship between such factors and a child’s development:

l Family history

A child may have a genetic condition or pre-disposition, such as sickle cell disorder or Huntington’s Chorea, which may affect current or future physical or mental health and the need for services.

l Family Functioning

Despite a recent separation, the parents co-operate regarding decisions about key events in a 10 year old boy’s life such that he continues to attend the same school, maintains a strong group of friends, and is fully supported in his education by both parents. This enables him to do well in school.

l Wider family

A child may have developed a close, affectionate attachment to a friend’s parent who, over a number of years, compensates for chronic parental problems in the family home, giving that child a sense of belonging and selfesteem. This may become a resource to be mobilised at the time of family breakdown.

l Housing

Accommodation which is damp, infested and overcrowded may be contributing to a low birth weight baby’s failure to thrive and chronic ear, nose and chest problems, requiring urgent action.

l Employment

The expectation that a 13 year old girl will assist regularly in the family business may result in her sudden failure to keep up with school work and difficult behaviour in class.

l Income

A low income over many years and parents’ inability to manage on this income may mean a young adolescent being bullied at school simply because he is wearing clothes which do not have the correct designer logo.

l Family’s social integration

Constant racial harassment and bullying in a neighbourhood may result in a teenager from a minority ethnic family being isolated and excluded from positive and affirming friendship group experiences at a formative stage of developing his identity.

l Access to community resources

Knowledge of resources available in the community which are accessible and accommodate disabled children may enable an isolated single mother to organise 25 out of school care and activities for her 6 year old disabled child, thus enabling her to remain in work.

2.20 The complex interplay of factors across all three domains should be carefully understood and analysed. Parents may be experiencing their own problems which may have an impact through their behaviour on their capacity to respond to their child’s needs. This could cover a variety of situations. It could include parents who are unable to read or write and are therefore unable to respond to notes sent home from school. On the other hand, it could include a child being traumatised by witnessing her mother being regularly assaulted by her father.

2.21 The publication Children’s Needs – Parenting Capacity by Cleaver et al (1999) focuses on the impact of particular parental problems (mental illness, domestic violence, drug and alcohol misuse) on a child’s development while Crossing Bridges (Falkov (ed) 1998) addresses parental mental illnesses in more detail. Such problems may adversely affect a parent's ability to respond to the needs of his or her child. While some children grow up apparently unscathed, others exhibit emotional and behavioural disorders as a result of these childhood experiences. This knowledge can assist professionals to be clear about the impact of a parent’s difficulties on a child. In some situations, where the parents’ problems are severe, such as major psychiatric illness or substance misuse, there may need to be joint or concurrent assessments; to examine the parent’s problems, the impact of those problems on the child, and the effect of the child on the parent. Such assessments should be carried out within a clear focus on the needs of the child.

2.22 There is increasing knowledge about the characteristics of adults who maltreat children. Research has shown a strong association between domestic violence and child abuse. It has shown also, that not all parents who have suffered childhood abuse or deprivation go on to maltreat their children, but a significant proportion of parents who harm their children have been abused themselves (Department of Health, 1995d).

2.23 The interactions between different factors are often not straightforward which is why it is important that:

l information is gathered and recorded systematically with care and precision;

l information is checked and discussed with parents and, where appropriate, with the child;

l differences in views about information and its importance are clearly recorded;

l the strengths and difficulties within families are assessed and understood;

l the vulnerabilities and protective factors in the child’s world are examined;

l the impact of what is happening on the child is clearly identified.

Chapter 4 elaborates on the processes of analysis, judgement and decision making which follow on from the information gathering and collation stages.

2.24 Ward (1995, p.85) in her community study of almost 400 children and their families concludes:

It is likely to be the interaction between a number of factors rather than any specific 26 characteristic that leads to parenting difficulties. Thus most families are able to overcome adversities and provide their children with a sufficiently nurturing environment, although they may fall down in one or two areas. Only a very small proportion are unable to provide a sufficiently consistent standard of care across all seven (child development) dimensions, but it is they who form the group whose children are most likely to be admitted to care or accommodation.

2.25 The framework for assessment is, therefore, a conceptual map which can be used to understand what is happening to all children in whatever circumstances they may be growing up. For most children referred or whose families seek help, the issues of concern will be relatively straightforward, parents will be clear about requiring assistance and the impact on the child will not be difficult to identify. For a smaller number of children, the causes for concern will be serious and complex and the relationship between their needs, their parents’ responses and the circumstances in which they are living, less straightforward. In these situations, further, more detailed and, in some cases, specialist assessment will be required. These issues are considered in the next chapter on the process of assessment.

Inclusive Practice

2.26 The Assessment Framework is predicated on the principle that children are children first, whatever may distinguish some children from others. This poses a challenge for staff - how to develop inclusive practice which recognises that all children share the same developmental needs to reach their optimal potential but that the rate or pattern of progress of individual children may vary because of factors associated with health and impairment. At the same time, due weight needs to be given to other important influences on children’s development. Prominent amongst these are genetic factors, the quality of attachment to primary caregivers and the quality of everyday life experiences.

2.27 When assessing a child’s needs and circumstances, care has to be taken to ensure that issues which fundamentally shape children’s identity and wellbeing, their progress and outcomes are fully understood and incorporated into the framework for assessment. Dutt and Phillips (Department of Health, 2000a) write: Issues of race and culture cannot be added to a list for separate consideration during an assessment, they are integral to the assessment process. From referral through to core assessment, intervention and planning, race and culture have to be taken account of using an holistic framework for assessment.

2.28 In assessing the needs of children, practitioners have to take account of diversity in children, understand its origins and pay careful attention to its impact on a child’s development and the interaction with parental responses and wider family and environmental factors.

2.29 Use of the framework requires that children and families’ differences must be approached with knowledge and sensitivity in a non-judgemental way. Ignorance can result in stereotyping and in inappropriate or even damaging assumptions being made, resulting in a lack of accuracy and balance in analysing children’s needs. To achieve sensitive and inclusive practice, staff should avoid:

l using one set of cultural assumptions and stereotypes to understand the child and family’s circumstances;

l insensitivity to racial and cultural variations within groups and between individuals;

l making unreasoned assumptions without evidence;

l failing to take account of experiences of any discrimination in an individual’s response to public services;

l failing to take account of the barriers which prevent the social integration of families with disabled members;

l attaching meaning to information without confirming the interpretation with the child and family members.

2.30 The use of the framework, derived from children’s developmental needs and which also takes account of the context in which they are growing up, takes on more significance in relation to children for whom discrimination is likely to be part of their life experience. Such children and their families may suffer subsequent disadvantage and a failure of access to appropriate services. It is for this reason that chapters have been included in the practice guidance which consider in more detail issues of race and culture and of disability in assessing the needs of children in the context of their family and their environment.



Disability Discrimination Act 1995

2.31 Under Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (rights of access to goods, facilities and services) service providers, including social services departments and health but not as yet education, must not discriminate against disabled people (including children) by refusing to provide any service which is provided to members of the public, by providing a lower standard of service or offering a service on less favourable terms. These requirements came into force on 2 December 1996.

2.32 Since October 1999, service providers have had to take reasonable steps to: l change any policy, practice or procedure which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of services;

l provide an auxiliary aid or service if it would enable (or make easier for) disabled people to make use of services; and

l provide a reasonable alternative method of making services available to disabled people where a physical feature makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of them.

2.33 From 2004 service providers will have to take reasonable steps to remove, alter or provide reasonable means of avoiding physical features that make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use the services. 27 29



Process of Assessment and Timing

3.1 Assessment is the first stage in helping a vulnerable child and his or her family, its purpose being ‘to contribute to the understanding necessary for appropriate planning’ (Compton and Galaway, 1989) and action. Assessment has several phases which overlap and lead into planning, action and review:

l clarification of source of referral and reason;

l acquisition of information;

l exploring facts and feelings;

l giving meaning to the situation which distinguishes the child and family’s understanding and feelings from those of the professionals;

l reaching an understanding of what is happening, problems, strengths and difficulties, and the impact on the child (with the family wherever possible);

l drawing up an analysis of the needs of the child and parenting capacity within their family and community context as a basis for formulating a plan.

3.2 Prior to social services departments becoming involved with a child and family, a number of other agencies and community based groups may have had contact with the family. For some children, assessments will have already been carried out for purposes other than determining whether they are a child in need. In particular, health and education will have undertaken routine assessments as part of monitoring children’s developmental progress. The familiarity of other agencies with the Assessment Framework will assist when making a referral to a social services department or contributing to an assessment of a child in need, thereby facilitating a common understanding of the child’s needs within their family context.

3.3 The response from social services departments to an initial contact or a referral requesting help is critically important. At that point the foundation is laid for future work with the child or family. Children and families may have contact with social services staff in a wide range of settings. These may be as diverse as a family or day centre, a social services area office, an accident and emergency, adult or paediatric unit in a hospital, an education setting, an adolescent drop-in service or specialist services for adults. Not all staff in these settings will be professionals or qualified in work with children and families. This will apply particularly to those who work predominantly



3 The Process of Assessing Children in Need

with adults. Whoever has first contact with a child or family member, however, has a vital role in influencing the course of future work. It is quite clear from research that the quality of the early or initial contact affects later working relationships with professionals.

Furthermore, recording of information about the initial contact or referral contributes to the first phase of assessment. It is essential, therefore, that all staff responding to families or to referrers are familiar with the principles which underpin the Assessment Framework and are aware of the importance of the information collected and recorded at this stage.

3.4 For unqualified or inexperienced staff, the NSPCC chart Referrals Involving A Child (Cleaver et al, 1998) may act as a useful aide memoire to ensure that important information, which will assist later decision making, is not overlooked. It should not be treated as a check list but, used alongside local agency referral forms, it can serve as a reminder of:

l issues which may need to be covered in a response to the referrer;

l matters raised by the referrer that should be recorded.

The chart is included in Appendix C.

3.5 Arrangements for managing the reception of initial contacts or referrals vary widely according to local circumstances. It is important that social services for adults are aware of their responsibilities to children of adults who have parenting responsibilities and ensure that an initial assessment takes place to ascertain whether the children are children in need under s17 of the Children Act 1989 (Department of Health, forthcoming, a).

3.6 It is important also that each social services department has structures and systems in place to ensure an effective, accessible and speedy response to children and families. Some local authorities are developing innovative approaches to referrals and initial assessment. These include local telephone help lines, help desks, multi-agency information and advice centres and drop-in services. An example of this is the help desk service established in a rural county below (Figure 3). When there are such arrangements, it becomes imperative that reception staff are carefully selected and 30



FEATURES:

l one accessible, responsive point of contact in a district for child and family referrals.

l staffed by a team of specially selected and trained unqualified referral and information co-ordinators, administrative reception staff, qualified social workers (to undertake assessments of children whose welfare may need safeguarding and promoting) and a team manager.

l priority to provide a safe short term service at the front end through:

– advice and advocacy eg. welfare benefits

– information

– help eg. by signposting

– referral taking by telephone and personal interview

– initial and core assessments of children in need

– direct access to practical services

Figure 3 Helpdesk for Children’s Services in a Rural County 31 trained for their tasks. Reception staff will also need the support of qualified practitioners and managers to ensure that situations of serious or immediate concern about a child receive prompt and expert professional attention.

3.7 Time, as discussed in Chapter 1, is critical in a child’s life. A timely response to responding to a child’s needs means that the process of assessment cannot continue unchecked over a prolonged period without an analysis being made of what is happening and what action is needed, however difficult or complex the child’s circumstances.

Prior to the publication of the Government's Objectives for children’s social services (Department of Health, 1999e), no timescales had been set for completing assessments of children in need, although there had been timescales for action to be taken to protect children where there were concerns that a child was suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This has now been remedied and timescales have been specified in the objectives for children’s social services.

3.8 There is an expectation that within one working day of a referral being received or new information coming to or from within a social services department about an open case, there will be a decision about what response is required. A referral is defined as a request for services to be provided by the social services department. The response may include no action, but that is itself a decision and should be made promptly and recorded. The referrer should be informed of the decision and its rationale, as well as the parents or caregivers and the child, if appropriate.

3.9 A decision to gather more information constitutes an initial assessment. An initial assessment is defined as a brief assessment of each child referred to social services with a request for services to be provided. This should be undertaken within a maximum of 7 working days but could be very brief depending on the child's circumstances. It should address the dimensions of the Assessment Framework, determining whether the child is in need, the nature of any services required, from where and within what timescales, and whether a further, more detailed core assessment should be undertaken. An initial assessment is deemed to have commenced at the point of referral to the social services department or when new information on an open case indicates an initial assessment should be repeated. All staff responding to referrals and undertaking initial assessments should address the dimensions which constitute the Assessment Framework. There is more detailed discussion about the contribution of respective agencies in Chapter 5.

3.10 Depending on the child's circumstances, an initial assessment may include some or all of the following:

l interviews with child and family members, as appropriate;

l involvement of other agencies in gathering and providing information, as appropriate;

l consultation with supervisor/manager;

l record of initial analysis;

l decisions on further action/no action;

l record of decisions/rationale with family/agencies;

l informing other agencies of the decisions;

32 l statement to the family of decisions made and, if a child is in need, the plan for providing support.

As part of any initial assessment, the child should be seen. This includes observation and talking with the child in an age appropriate manner. This is further discussed in paragraphs 3.41 to 3.43.

3.11 A core assessment is defined as an in-depth assessment which addresses the central or most important aspects of the needs of a child and the capacity of his or her parents or caregivers to respond appropriately to these needs within the wider family and community context. While this assessment is led by social services, it will invariably involve other agencies or independent professionals, who will either provide information they hold about the child or parents, contribute specialist knowledge or advice to social services or undertake specialist assessments.

Specific assessments of the child and/or family members may have already been undertaken prior to referral to the social services department. The findings from these should inform this assessment. At the conclusion of this phase of assessment, there should be an analysis of the findings which will provide an understanding of the child’s circumstances and inform planning, case objectives and the nature of service provision. The timescale for completion of the core assessment is a maximum of 35 working days. A core assessment is deemed to have commenced at the point the initial assessment ended, or a strategy discussion decided to initiate enquiries under s47, or new information obtained on an open case indicates a core assessment should be undertaken. Where specialist assessments have been commissioned by social services from other agencies or independent professionals, it is recognised that they will not necessarily be completed within the 35 working day period.

Appropriate services should be provided whilst awaiting the completion of the specialist assessment.

3.12 The Department of Health has published an Initial Assessment Record, which has been developed for all staff to record salient information about a child’s needs, the parents’ capacity and the family’s circumstances, to assist in determining the social services’ response and whether a core assessment should be considered.

This record is consistent with the Core Assessment Record. These have been developed to assist in assessing the child’s developmental needs in an age appropriate manner for the following age bands: 0–2 years, 3–4 years, 5–9 years, 10–14 years and 15 and upwards. These age bands are the same as those used in Looking After Children Assessment and Action Records (Department of Health, 1995b).

The initial and core assessment recording forms have been designed to assist in the analysis of a child and family’s circumstances (Department of Health and Cleaver, 2000) and in the development and reviewing of a plan of action.

3.13 At the conclusion of either an initial or core assessment, the parent(s) and child, if appropriate, should be informed in writing, and/or in another more appropriate medium, of the decisions made and be offered the opportunity to record their views, disagreements and to ask for corrections to recorded information. Agencies and individuals involved in the assessment should also be informed of the decisions, with reasons for these made clear. This sharing of information is important to assist agencies’ own practice in their work with the child and family. Local authorities are required by section 26 of the Children Act 1989 to establish complaints procedures, and children and parents should be provided with information about these. Parents 33



Figure 4 Maximum Timescales for Analysing the Needs of Child and Parenting Capacity Initial assessment/planning/intervention Timescale: maximum of seven working days

Referral to SSD Decision Response Timescale: maximum of one working day

Initial assessment Strategy discussion Children in need where there are concerns about significant harm Core assessment/planning/intervention Timescale: maximum of 35 working days

Decision to undertake core assessment Section 47 enquiries Core and specialist assessments/planning/ interventions

Child protection conference Analysis of needs of child and parenting capacity Children in need Further assessments (if necessary), planning, intervention and review End of contact with SSD 34 who have a complaint about a particular agency's services should take it up with the agency concerned.

3.14 The maximum timescales for completing an analysis of the needs of children and the parenting capacity to respond to those needs are represented in Figure 4. The needs of some children, in particular those who require emergency intervention, may mean that the initial assessment stage is brief. It may also be brief where the needs of the child can be determined in a period of less than seven working days. The same considerations apply to the minimum and maximum timescales for the core assessment. S47 and Core Assessment

3.15 At any stage, should there be suspicions or allegations about child maltreatment and concern that the child may be or is likely to suffer significant harm, there must be strategy discussions and inter-agency action in accordance with the guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999). Assessment of what is happening to a child in these circumstances is not a separate or different activity but continues the same process, although the pace and scope of assessment may well have changed (see paragraphs 5.33 to 5.38 in Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999)). A key part of the assessment will be to establish whether there is reasonable cause to suspect that this child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm and whether any emergency action is required to secure the safety of the child.

3.15 The way in which the initial and core assessments have been integrated into the processes for children who are considered to be, or likely to be suffering significant harm are set out in Figure 5. This flow chart concerning individual cases is reproduced from Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999, p.116).

3.16 As indicated in paragraphs 5.39 to 5.41 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999) sometimes it will be appropriate to undertake an investigative interview of a child who may have been a victim to a crime or a witness, with a view to gathering evidence for criminal proceedings. These interviews should take account of information known from any previous assessments. A child should never be interviewed in the presence of an alleged or suspected perpetrator of abuse, or somebody who may be colluding with a perpetrator. The guidance (which is currently being revised) in the Memorandum of Good Practice on video recorded interviews for child witnesses for criminal proceedings (Home Office and Department of Health, 1992) should be followed for all video-recorded investigative interviews with children.

3.17 All such interviews with children should be conducted by those with specialist training and experience in interviewing children. Additional specialist help may be necessary if the child's first language is not English; the child appears to have a degree of psychiatric disturbance but is deemed competent; the child has an impairment; or where interviewers do not have adequate knowledge and understanding of the child's racial, religious or cultural background. Consideration should also be given to the gender of interviewers particularly in cases of alleged sexual abuse.

3.18 Following the publication of Speaking Up For Justice (Home Office, 1998), the report of the Working Group on Vulnerable or Intimidated Witnesses, Part II of the Youth 35 Children in Need Services
Child in Need
Possible Significant Harm
NFA
Not Registered
Registered
Core Group
Meeting
NFA Charge Outline
CP Plan
Core
Assessment Children in Need
Services
NFA
Child
Not in Need
NFA
Section 47 Enquiry
Criminal Investigation
Reviewed
CP Plan
Referral
out
Initial Assessment
Suspected Crime
Child in Need
Significant Harm
Confirmed Initial Child Protection Conference
Detailed CP Plan
Child in Need No Significant Harm
No Child Protection Conference
Children in Need Services Review
Conference
Further Review
Conference(s)
Emergency Intervention?
Referral
Strategy Deregistered
Discussion


Figure 5 Working Together to Safeguard Children

(Individual Cases Flowchart)
36
Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 extends the range of measures available to assist child witnesses.

The Act provides different levels of protection for three groups of child witnesses according to the nature of assistance each group is considered to need. These are:

l All children in need of special protection – because they are giving evidence in a case that involves a sexual and/or violent offence – will give video-recorded evidence-inchief unless this would not be in the interests of justice.

l Children under 17 who are giving evidence in a case involving violence, neglect, abduction or false imprisonment will be cross-examined via a live link at the trial.

l When facilities are available, children under 17 who are giving evidence in a sexual offence case will be cross-examined at a video-recorded pre-trial hearing unless the child informs the court that he would prefer to be cross-examined at trial (on live link or in court).

There is a presumption that all children who are giving evidence in cases involving other offences will give evidence-in-chief by means of a video recording, and will be cross-examined on live link at the trial.

3.19 The Act also provides a range of other measures to assist child witnesses including: l assistance with communication;

l the use of an intermediary to assist with the questioning;

l screening the witness from the accused in court;

l the removal by judges of their wigs and gowns;

l clearing the public gallery in sexual offence cases.

The majority of these measures will be available to the Crown Court and youth courts by the end of 2000.



Use of Assessments in Family Proceedings

3.20 It may be appropriate to use evidence gathered during the assessment process for family proceedings. This may arise where an assessment has been completed before the commencing of proceedings or because it is necessary to undertake an assessment during the proceedings. The following paragraphs set out some issues around the interface between the assessment processes and reporting in writing in family proceedings.

3.21 The term family proceedings is one that is defined statutorily in section 8 of the Children Act 1989. It includes all public law applications (care, adoption, emergency protection, contact) and a large range of private law matters concerning divorce and separation, including those within applications under section 8 for contact, residence, specific issue and prohibited steps.



Care Applications and Assessment

3.22 In court proceedings involving the local authority, such as an application for a care or 37 supervision order, the local authority’s main evidence will be set out by way of one or more formal statements. These include the relevant history and the facts to support the threshold criteria (ie. significant harm) for an order under section 31. Information concerning the welfare checklist (section 1(3)) to which the court must have regard will also be included in the application.

3.23 Before making any order, the court must also consider the no order principle (section 1(5)).

The court will look to the detail of the local authority’s care plan for evidence as to how the care order, if made, would be implemented. Guidance about the structure and contents of care plans was issued in 1999 (Care Plans and Care Proceedings under the Children Act 1989 LAC (99(29)).

3.24 Evidence arising from assessments may be used within the proceedings in one or more of the following ways by providing evidence:

l in support of the threshold criteria;

l around issues in the welfare checklist;

l about the rationale for the overall aim of the care plan or specific details within it (such as contact arrangements).

Disclosure

3.25 In family proceedings, documents produced by parties are normally shared among all parties – typically, the local authority, the parents and the guardian ad litem. It should be remembered that an assessment undertaken for the purpose of the proceedings will generate information for the court and this cannot, save