3.2 Initial Assessment

What is an Initial Assessment?
Timescale
The Process of the Initial Assessment
Involving Parents
Common Pitfalls
Possible Outcomes of the Initial Assessment
Emergency Protective Action
Feedback after Initial Assessment
Recording the Initial Assessment

1. What is an Initial Assessment?

If, as a result of a Referral, there are indications that the child is In Need, which may include concerns of Significant Harm, Children, Young People and Families will conduct an Initial Assessment.

This is a brief assessment to determine whether the child is In Need, the nature of any services required and whether a further, more detailed Core Assessment should be undertaken, including where necessary a Child Protection Assessment.

The Initial Assessment should be undertaken in accordance with the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families.

The Initial Assessment will address the following questions:

What are the developmental needs of the child?
Are the parents able to respond appropriately to the child’s identified needs?
Do the parents have the capacity to respond to the child’s needs?
Are the parents able to promote the child’s health and development?
What impact are the family functioning and history, the wider family and environmental factors having on the parent’s capacity to respond to their child’s needs and the child’s developmental progress?
Is there any evidence of domestic abuse/parental substance misuse/serious mental health problems/serious learning difficulties?
Is the child adequately safeguarded from Significant Harm and/or are any services required to promote the child’s health and development?
Is emergency action required to safeguard the child’s welfare?
Are there any other children in the household or elsewhere who should be included in the Initial Assessment?

2. Timescale

This assessment must be completed within a maximum of seven working days of receipt of the referral. However, the time taken to complete the Initial Assessment may be very brief if it quickly becomes clear that there is reasonable cause to suspect the child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm.

Any extension to this timescale must be authorised by a Children, Young People and Families manager and the reasons recorded, for example there may be a need to delay in order to arrange for an interpreter or avoid a religious festival. Any such decision must be consistent with the safety and welfare of the child.

3. The Process of the Initial Assessment

The Initial Assessment should be led by a qualified and experienced social worker. It should be carefully planned, with clarity about who is doing what, the time-scales and what information is to be shared with the parents.

The assessment will involve drawing together and analysing available information from a range of sources, including the child, parents, existing records, professionals in relevant agencies and others in contact with the child and family. All relevant information (including historical information) should be taken into account. Where an assessment under the Common Assessment Framework has been completed, this information should be used to inform the Initial Assessment.

The process of the Initial Assessment should involve seeing and speaking to the child or children involved in their preferred language and according to their age and understanding and should also involve significant members of the family (see Section 4, Involving Parents).

A visit to the place where the child resides should be undertaken but the social worker must be clear about the purpose of the home visit, the information to be gathered during the visit as well as the steps to be taken if it is not possible to gain access to see the child and assess the child’s home environment.

Where there is an allegation of deliberate harm to a child, the child should be seen and spoken to within 24 hours of the receipt of the referral. If this timescale is not met, the timescale should be recorded.

The social worker carrying out the assessment must also consult and keep the following people/agencies informed:

The Police and all agencies involved with the child and family.
The person/agency who made the referral.

All agencies consulted should make immediate checks of their records for previous history and information that is relevant and helpful in deciding the level of enquiry that is required.

This includes seeking information from relevant services if the child and family have spent time abroad. Professionals should request this information from their equivalent agencies in the country or countries in which the child has lived. See Contact Details Appendix for information about who to contact.

The worker carrying out the Initial Assessment should make it clear to the agencies consulted that the information provided will contribute to the assessment and may be shared with the family and other agencies unless to do so would put the child at risk of suffering Significant Harm.

4. Involving Parents

5. Common Pitfalls

The following have been identified in research as common pitfalls when initial visits to children and families are undertaken and should be borne in mind when Initial Assessments are undertaken:

The potential help of family, friends and neighbours is overlooked
Not enough attention is paid to what children say, how they look and how they behave
Attention is focused on the most pressing problems and other warning signs are not appreciated
Pressure from high status referrers or the press, with fears that a child may die, lead to over-precipitate action
Professionals think that when they have explained something as clearly as they can, the other person will have understood it
Assumptions and prejudgments about families lead to observations being ignored or misinterpreted
Parents’ behaviour, whether cooperative or uncooperative, is often misinterpreted
When the initial enquiries reveal that the child is not at risk of Significant Harm, families are seldom referred to other services which they need to prevent longer term problems
When faced with an aggressive or frightening family, professionals are reluctant to discuss their own safety and ask for help
Information taken at the time of the referral is not adequately recorded, facts are not checked and reasons for decisions are not noted.

6. Possible Outcomes of the Initial Assessment

When carrying out an Initial Assessment, consideration must be given to whether support should be provided to the child and family as well as whether there is a need for further assessment or enquiry.

As a result of the Initial Assessment, Children, Young People and Families will decide one of the following:

That the child is not In Need. In which case, Children, Young People and Families will take no further action other than, where appropriate, to provide information and advice or signposting to another agency.
That the child is In Need but there are no concerns about actual or likely Significant Harm. In which case, Children, Young People and Families will determine what support services they and/or other agencies should provide immediately under a Child in Need Plan to meet the child’s needs and whether to initiate a Core Assessment
That the child is In Need and that there are concerns that the child is suffering or is at risk of suffering Significant Harm. In which case, Children, Young People and Families will hold a Strategy Discussion/Meeting, initiate where necessary a Child Protection Assessment and Core Assessment, consider whether any immediate protective action is required (see Section 7, Emergency Protective Action) and plan for a possible Initial Child Protection Conference.

This decision will be endorsed by a Children, Young People and Families manager.

7. Emergency Protective Action

Where there is a risk to the life of a child or the possibility of serious immediate harm, the Police officer and/or social worker must act with urgency to secure the safety of the child.

The agency taking protective action must also always consider whether action is required to safeguard other children in the same household, the household of an alleged perpetrator or elsewhere (for example the place of work).

Immediate protection may be achieved by:

An alleged abuser agreeing to leave the home (where he or she can be relied upon to comply)
A voluntary agreement for the child to remain in or move to a safer place
Application for an Emergency Protection Order
Removal of the child to Police Protection
The removal of the alleged abuser, for example through the enforcement by the Police of a Court Order (Sexual Offences Prevention Order or Risk of Sexual Harm Order) made under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 or an Exclusion Requirement attached to an Emergency Protection Order or an Interim Care Order
Gaining entry to the household under Police powers

Planned immediate protection will normally take place following a Strategy Discussion. Where a single agency has to act immediately to protect a child, a Strategy Discussion should take place as soon as possible to plan further action.

Legal advice must be sought in every case where emergency action may be required to safeguard the child. If legal advice is not sought, the reason must be recorded on the child’s record.

Children, Young People and Families should only seek the assistance of the police to use their powers of Police Protection in exceptional circumstances where there is insufficient time to seek an Emergency Protection Order or other reasons relating to the child’s immediate safety.

The local authority where the child is found is responsible for taking emergency action. If the child is Looked After by another local authority or the subject of a Child Protection Plan in another local authority, the local authority responsible for the child should wherever possible be involved. Only if that authority accepts responsibility for taking action is the first authority relieved of the responsibility to take emergency action.

Where an Emergency Protection Order is applied for, Children, Young People and Families need to consider whether to initiate Care Proceedings in relation to the child or whether to allow the Order to lapse.

8. Feedback after Initial Assessment

Parents will usually be informed of the outcome of the Initial Assessment unless to do so would be prejudicial to the child’s welfare. For further guidance on this issue, see the Information Sharing Protocol.

Any decision not to share the outcome with the parents must be endorsed by a Children, Young People and Families manager and recorded, with reasons for the decisions.

The social worker carrying out the Initial Assessment will also advise the following people/agencies of the outcome, consistent with respecting the confidentiality of the child and not jeopardising future action:

The Police and all agencies involved with the child and family.
The person/agency who made the referral.

9. Recording the Initial Assessment

An Initial Assessment Record must be completed by the assessing social worker, setting out who has been contacted, the information received, the assessment of the child’s needs and circumstances with a full analysis, the outcomes and decisions.

A Children, Young People and Families manager must agree in writing with all decisions taken.

The decisions must be reviewed by the manager to ensure that they are followed through.

End