1.3 Assessments

1. Who Can Undertake an Assessment?

Early Help: may be appropriate for families who have a range of needs or whose circumstances make them more vulnerable. It is not an approach based on working with families who consent to receive support and the services offered. Early Help is often a range of services delivered by different agencies although these may be coordinated by one specific agency. An assessment for Early Help can be undertaken by a Lead Practitioner who is not necessarily a qualified social worker.

Assessments for Early Help should consider how the needs of different family members impact on each other. This includes needs relating to education, mental and physical health, financial stability housing, substance use and crime. Specific needs should be considered such as disabilities, those whose first language is not English, fathers or male carers, and parents who identify as LGBTQ+. Early Help services may focus on improving family functioning and developing the family’s capacity to establish positive routines and solve problems. Where family networks support the child and parents, services may take an approach that enables family group decision-making, such as a family group conference.

The safeguarding partnership publishes a Threshold Document (Local Resources) which sets out the criteria for early help.

Child Protection Enquiries: in these cases, the Lead Practitioner should always be a qualified social worker with the appropriate skills, knowledge and capacity to carry out the assessment.

Under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives or is found in their area is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, it must make such enquiries as it considers necessary to decide whether to take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. Such enquiries, supported by other organisations and agencies, as appropriate, should be initiated where there are concerns about all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation whether this is taking place in person or online, inside or outside of the child’s home.

Assessments should consider the parenting capacity of both resident and non-resident parents and carers, as well as any other adult living in the household that can respond to the child’s needs. Assessments should also consider the influence of the child’s family network and any other adults living in the household, as well as the impact on the wider community and environment.

2. Focus on the Child

The SSCA is an assessment on each individual child in a family who has been referred into Children's social care. It will be a social worker led multi-agency assessment that is holistic and as far as possible is inclusive of the child and their family.

Children should to be seen and listened to and included throughout the assessment process. Their ways of communicating should be understood in the context of their family and community as well as their behaviour and developmental stage. Wherever possible children should be seen alone. Where a child requests to be seen with a trusted adult, this should be supported. The child’s communication needs should be taken into account.

Assessments, service provision and decision making should regularly review the impact of the assessment process and the services provided on the child so that the best outcomes for the child can be achieved. Any services provided should be based on a clear analysis of the child's needs, and the changes that are required to improve the outcomes for the child.

Children should be actively involved in all parts of the process based upon their age, developmental stage and identity. Direct work with the child and family should include observations of the interactions between the child and the parents/care givers.

All agencies involved with the child, the parents and the wider family have a duty to collaborate and share information to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child.

3. Planning

All assessments will be planned and coordinated by the lead social worker and the purpose of the assessment will be transparent, understood and agreed by all participants. There should be an agreed statement setting out the aims of the assessment process.

Planning should identify the different elements of the assessment including who should be involved. The planning meeting will clarify roles and timescales and agencies likely to play a part in the process.

The planning meeting will include consideration of:

• Who will undertake the assessment and what resources will be needed?
• Who in the family will be included and how will they be involved (including absent or wider family and others significant to the child)?
• What information is already available?
• What other sources of knowledge about the child and family are available and how will other agencies and professionals who know the family be informed and involved?
• What services are to be provided during the assessment?
• Are there communication needs? If so, what are the specific needs and how they will be met?
• How will the assessment take into account the particular issues faced by black and minority ethnic children and their families, and disabled children and their families?
• What the timescales will be?
• When the outcomes will be shared and the next planning stage take place.

The assessment process can be summarised as follows:

• Gathering relevant information;
• Analysing the information and reaching professional judgments;
• Making decisions and planning interventions;
• Intervening, service delivery and/or further assessment;
• Evaluating and reviewing progress.

Assessment should be a dynamic process, which analyses and responds to the changing nature and level of need and/or risk faced by the child. A good assessment will monitor and record the impact of any services delivered to the child and family and review the support being delivered. Whilst services may be delivered to a parent or carer, the assessment should be focused on the needs of the child and on the impact any services are having on the child.

4. Purpose of Assessment

The purpose of a social care assessment is to:

• Gather important information about a child and family;
• Analyse their needs and/or the nature and level of any risk and harm being suffered by the child including where harm or risk of harm is from outside the home;
• Decide whether the child is a child in need (section 17) or is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm (section 47);
• Provide support to address those needs to improve the child’s outcomes and welfare and where necessary to make them safe;
• Identify support from within the family network.

The maximum timeframe for the assessment to conclude, such that it is possible to decide on the next steps, should be no longer than 45 working days from the point of referral. If, in discussion with a child and their family and other practitioners, an assessment exceeds 45 working days, the Lead Practitioner should record the reasons for exceeding the time limit. In some cases, the needs of the child will mean that a quick assessment will be required. In all cases, as practitioners identify needs during the assessment, they do not need to wait until the assessment concludes before providing support or commissioning services to support the child and their family.

5. Developing a Clear Analysis

The SSCA retains the Framework for the Assessment for Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health et al. 2000) as an underpinning framework to examine children's developmental needs, parents' or care givers' capacity to respond appropriately and family and environmental factors which are specific to the purpose of assessment for that child.

The interaction of the Framework Triangle domains requires careful investigation during the assessment. The aim is to reach a judgement about the nature and level of needs and/or risks that the child may be facing within their family and/or community. Importantly the assessment, in looking at the domains, should also consider where the strengths are in a child's circumstances and in what way they may assist in reducing the risk.

Children may be vulnerable to neglect and abuse or exploitation from within their family and but increasingly also from individuals they come across in their day-to-day lives. These threats can take a variety of different forms, including: sexual, physical and emotional abuse; neglect; exploitation by criminal gangs and organised crime groups; trafficking; online abuse; sexual exploitation and the influences of extremism leading to radicalisation.

An assessment should establish:

• The nature of the concern and the impact this has had on the child;
• An analysis of their needs and/or the nature and level of any risk and harm being suffered by the child;
• How and why the concerns have arisen;
• What the child's and the family's needs appear to be and whether the child is a Child in Need;
• Whether the concern involves abuse or Neglect; and
• Whether there is any need for any urgent action to protect the child, or any other children in the household or community.

Note: if there is a concern with regards to exploitation or trafficking, a referral into the National Referral Mechanism should be made – see Digital Referral System: Report Modern Slavery.

The assessment will involve drawing together and analysing available information from a range of sources, including existing records, and involving and obtaining relevant information from professionals in relevant agencies and others in contact with the child and family. Where an FCAF (Family Common Assessment Framework) has already been completed this information should be used to inform the assessment. Any historical information known about the child or the family should be understood and analysed.

The social worker should analyse all the information gathered from the enquiry stage of the assessment to decide the nature and level of the child's needs and the level of risk, if any, they may be facing. The social work manager should provide regular supervision and challenge the social worker's assumptions as part of this process. An informed decision should be taken on the nature of any action required and which services should be provided. Social workers, their managers and other professionals should be mindful of the requirement to understand the level of need and risk in a family from the child's perspective and ensure action or commission services which will have maximum positive impact on the child's life.

When new information comes to light or circumstances change the child's needs, any previous conclusions should be updated and critically reviewed to ensure that the child is not overlooked as noted in many lessons from Serious Case Reviews.

6. Contribution of the Child and Family

The Child

The SSCA will engage with children to explore their wishes and feelings, focussing upon the child's journey and the impact of the concern upon their safety and wellbeing from the child's perspective.

The child should participate and contribute directly to the assessment process based upon their age, understanding and identity. They should be seen alone and if this is not possible or in their best interest, the reason should be recorded. The social worker should work directly with the child in order to understand their views and wishes, including the way in which they behave both with their care givers and in other settings.

The pace of the assessment needs to acknowledge the pace at which the child can contribute. However, this should not be a reason for delay in taking protective action. It is important to understand the resilience of the individual child in their family and community context when planning appropriate services.

Every assessment should be child centred. Where there is a conflict between the needs of the child and their parents/carers, decisions should be made in the child's best interests. The parents should be involved at the earliest opportunity unless to do so would prejudice the safety of the child.

The Parents'

7. Contribution of Agencies Involved with the Child and Family

All agencies and professionals involved with the child, and the family, have a responsibility to contribute to the assessment process. This might take the form of providing information promptly and direct or joint work. Differences of opinion between professionals should be resolved speedily but where this is not possible, the Effective Challenge and Escalation Procedure should be used.

It is possible that professionals have different experiences of the child and family and understanding these differences will actively contribute to the understanding of the child / family.

The professionals should be involved from the outset and through the agreed, regular process of review.

8. Actions and Outcomes

Every assessment should be focused on outcomes, deciding which services and support to provide to deliver improved welfare for the child and reflect the child's best interests. In the course of the assessment the social worker and their line manager should determine:

• Is this a Child in Need? (Section 17 Children Act 1989);
• Is there reasonable cause to suspect that this child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, Significant Harm? (Section 47 Children Act 1989);
• Is this a child in need of accommodation? (Section 20 or Section 31A Children Act 1989).

The outcomes of the assessment will be decided on by the social worker and the social work team manager, who will agree a plan of action setting out the services to be delivered how and by whom in discussion with the child and family and the professionals involved.

The outcomes may be as follows:

• No further action;
• Additional support which can be provided through universal services and single service provision; early help services such as the FCAF process;
• The development of a multi-agency child in need plan for the provision of child in need services to promote the child's health and development;
• Specialist assessment for a more in-depth understanding of the child's needs and circumstances;
• Undertaking a Meeting, and a Section 47 child protection enquiry;
• Emergency action to protect a child.

The outcome of the assessment should be:

• Discussed with the child and family and provided to them in written form. Exceptions to this are where this might place a child at risk of harm or jeopardise an enquiry;
• Taking account of confidentiality, provided to professional referrers;
• Given in writing to agencies involved in providing services to the child with the action points, review dates and intended outcomes for the child stated.

Though the rigid timescales of initial and Core assessments are no longer adhered to, there is still a maximum time limit of 45 days to complete an assessment, however timescales can be tailored to the purpose of the assessment and the individual needs of children and their families. Timeliness in the identification of children's needs and the provision of help is still important therefore procedures and guidance are in place that will ensure that assessments are timely and drift is avoided.

9. Regular Review

The assessment plan should set out timescales for the actions to be met and stages of the assessment to progress, which should include regular points to review the assessment. The work with the child and family should ensure that the agreed points are achieved through regular reviews. Where delays or obstacles occur these must be acted on and the assessment plan must be reviewed if any circumstances change for the child.

The social work team manager will review the assessment plan regularly with the social worker and ensure that actions such as those below have been met:

• There has been direct communication with the child alone and their views and wishes have been recorded and taken into account when providing services;
• All the children in the household have been seen and their needs considered;
• The child's home address has been visited and the child's bedroom has been seen;
• The parents have been seen and their views and wishes have been recorded and taken into account;
• The analysis and evaluation has been completed;
• The assessment provides clear evidence for decisions on what types of services are needed to provide good outcomes for the child and family.

10. Recording

Recording by all professionals should include information on the child's development so that progress can be monitored to ensure their outcomes are improving. This is particularly significant in circumstances where neglect is an issue.

Records should be kept of the progress of the assessment on the individual child's record and in their Chronology to monitor any patterns of concerns.

Assessment plans and action points arising from plans and meetings should be circulated to the participants including the child, if appropriate, and the parents.

The recording should be such that a child, requesting to access their records, could easily understand the process taking place and the reasons for decisions and actions taken.

11. Assessment of Risk Outside the Home

As well as threats to the welfare of children from within their families, children may be vulnerable to abuse or exploitation from outside their families. These extra-familial threats might arise at school and other educational establishments, from within peer groups, or more widely from within the wider community and/or online.

These threats can take a variety of different forms and children can be vulnerable to multiple threats, including: exploitation by criminal gangs and organised crime groups such as county lines; trafficking, online abuse; teenage relationship abuse (including controlling or coercive behaviour); sexual exploitation and the influences of extremism leading to radicalisation.

Assessments of children in such cases should consider whether wider environmental factors are undermining effective intervention being undertaken to reduce risk with the child and family. Parents and carers have little influence over the contexts in which the abuse takes place and the young person's experiences of this extra-familial abuse can undermine parent-child relationships.

Interventions should focus on addressing the wider environmental factors, which are likely to be a threat to the safety and welfare of a number of different children who may or may not be known to local authority Children's Social Care. Effective information sharing and intelligence gathering is crucial in developing effective coordinated multi-agency responses.

Further Information

The International Child Abduction and Contact Unit includes the form for local authority staff to ask the authorities in another country for information or assistance in a child protection case.

Modern Slavery (GOV.UK) details about the government’s work to end modern slavery, including details about how to refer victims into the national referral mechanism (NRM).

Cross-border Child Protection Cases: The 1996 Hague Convention

Cross-border child protection cases: the 1996 Hague Convention (GOV.UK) – Guidance for local authorities dealing with international child protection cases.