Assessment

Our aim is to support families with caring for their children.  We have a key responsibility to help ensure the wellbeing of children and young people through providing or arranging services to meet their needs and protecting them from harm.

 

One of the first steps to doing this is to understand a child’s needs.  This is done through assessment.

 

If a parent or someone else, such as a teacher or health visitor, thinks that a child needs some help, they can ask a social worker to visit the family and discuss this with them. So that we get a clear picture the social worker will want to find out about the child’s health, education, emotions, how they get on with the family, social skills and self care skills. They will also want to know how the parents meet the child’s needs through basic care, ensuring safety, emotional warmth and stimulation, and providing guidance and a stable family situation. We will also look at how the wider family, family history and the local community affect the child. We will also want to talk to other agencies that have contact with the child.

 

There are two types of assessment – the main difference is the level of detail.  An Initial Assessment will take a brief look at the child’s needs, the parents’ situation and the family and local environment. This will take up to 7 days.

If a child’s situation seems complex then a Core Assessment will be done by the social worker and will look at each topic in more depth – this will take up to 35 days.

 

Once the assessment has been completed we will look at the best way to meet the child’s needs.  More information can be found in our assessment leaflet and our leaflet, “Supporting Children and Families in Dudley.” (See Related Documents below)