Single Assessment (Children and Family Assessment)
Introduction and background
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 [external link] communicates a clear aim of the revised framework for assessment, which brought in the expectation for Darlington Borough Council to develop a Single Assessment.
The focus of the Single Assessment is to draw on the professional judgement to analyse and reflect on information gathered regarding that child or young person, and focus the assessment on the specific needs identified, leading to a high quality assessment that is child focused.
The Single Assessment will provide an opportunity for social workers to focus on the specific needs of children, young people and their families and allow appropriate time within the assessment for reflection and direct work with the child/young person to ensure a robust and analytical assessment.
An assessment is a fluid process that considers emerging needs and sustainability of any change for the family.
Timeliness
Working Together to Safeguard Children is clear that Single Assessments should be undertaken within a maximum of 45 working days from the point of referral (see Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023) [external link].
The timeliness of an assessment is a critical element of the quality of that assessment and the outcomes for the child. The speed with which an assessment is carried out after a child’s case has been referred into local authority Children’s Social Care should be determined by the needs of the individual child and the nature and level of any risk of harm faced by the child. This will require judgement to be made by the social worker each individual case. Adult assessments, for example parent carer or non-parent carer assessments, should also be carried out in a timely manner, consistent with the needs of the child.
The purpose of the assessment is to determine if there is identifiable evidence of risk or identifiable significant harm to the child or whether they are unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development or they have a disability.
The assessment is intended to be used proportionately to gather the most significant and relevant information according to the circumstances of particular children and will determine the range and type of detail of the assessment.
Darlington Borough Council will undertake assessments of the needs of individual children to determine which services to provide and what action to take.
The assessment will determine whether the child is a child in need (Section 17) or a child in need of protection (Section 47). The assessment will describe how those needs will be addressed through a plan, including whether they would benefit from input from other relevant services.
Once the assessment has been completed it is necessary to communicate the outcome to the child, family and all key practitioners involved.
Should the analysis of the case lead to closure – clear rationale must be recorded and made in respect of this decision and based on transparent and evidence based information.
The framework of the single assessment
The focus of the Single Assessment will follow the domains of the Regional Framework for Assessment Diamond as illustrated in the diagram [pdf document].
Please refer to the Regional Assessment Framework [pdf document] which is a tool to provide an agreed range of assessment domains whether the assessment is an 'early help assessment' or a 'statutory assessment' undertaken under statutory guidance. It is intended to provide the practitioner with an understanding of what factors need to be understood within the assessment and practice pointers when considering the domains of the assessment.
The practitioner who made the initial contact and any practitioners who have been involved in the single assessment process should be informed of the outcome and any next steps. Where this has not been done this should be followed up with the relevant Children’s Services contact. Should any practitioner disagree, they should consider to instigate the DSP Professional Challenge Procedure [PDF Document].