Children and Families – Assessment and Planning

Reid, James and Littlechild, Brian (2007) Children and Families – Assessment and Planning. In: The Post Qualifying Handbook for Social Workers. Jessica Kingsley, pp. 95-105. ISBN 9781843104285

Abstract

The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health, 2000), comprising three interacting domains, standardised forms, and time-limited initial and core assessments, is by now very familiar. The framework, developed to address concern about assessment practice in the 1990’s, has achieved a number of its aims including greater partnership with parents and carers (Cleaver and Walker, 2004). Furthermore, when used skilfully, the framework can have (in the broadest sense of the term) a therapeutic impact (Millar and Corby, 2006). Nonetheless, important questions remain about the framework’s focus and assessment practice. this chapter considers some of the issues that important for a practitioner to consider when undertaking an assessment.

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