Practitioners who do not routinely contribute to s47 enquiries may be uncertain about what is required of them as part of the process.
The following provides an outline:
- An effective assessment depends on a holistic understanding of the family’s circumstances, areas of concern and family strengths from a range of professional perspectives. It is important therefore to go beyond the incident or concern and provide information about the child’s developmental needs, parenting capacity and socio-economic factors.
- Child-focused assessments take place when practitioners not only describe child and carer behaviours and family circumstances but also consider why parents behave as they do and the impact of these on the health and development of each child in the family.
- Drawing on the lived experience of family members helps practitioners understand the why and impact. For example, if there are concerns about domestic violence, what has the child and carer described about the circumstances that give rise to the violence and the affects during the day?
- Draw on what you have observed and know about the family.
- Do not provide a list of dates of agency contacts without give some indication as to the nature of the contact and the outcome.
- When deciding what to include in the assessment ask yourself if this relevant? Is the information increasing our understanding of the child, the family and their situation? If in doubt discuss with the social worker.
- Practitioners are contributing to the assessment because they not only have contact with the child and family they also have a professional background that enables them to make judgements about the concerns and family strengths, from their professional perspective. Do not be afraid to draw on this; the professional opinion of everyone is valued.
- The Assessment Framework enables one to consider the various dimensions of child and developmental needs, parenting capacity and family and environmental factors. When considering the impact of abuse and neglect on a child try and draw on these dimensions to demonstrate how the health and wellbeing of the child is being affected. Also, consider how adult-orientated issues such as drugs misuse are impacting on the various dimensions of parenting capacity.
- Be sure to support your analysis with evidence from what you have observed, have been told by the family or research.
- Consider what you know about culture, religion impacting on each family member’s daily life. Draw on this to avoid making generalised statements about parenting issues, culture and diversity.
- It is your responsibility to share your contribution to the assessment with the family. If you have any concerns about doing so then discuss with the social worker.
When contributing to an assessment the following questions can assist in keeping a focus on both family strengths and concerns:
- What do I know about the child and their family that provides evidence that some/all of the needs of the child are being met? What evidence do I have to support this?
- What does this tell me about parenting strengths?
- What concerns do I have that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm? What evidence do I have?
- What concerns do I have about the health and development of the child that are not yet causing significant harm but indicate they have care and support needs?