3.2 Initial Assessments

Contents

1. What is an Initial Assessment?
2. Timescale
3. The Process of the Initial Assessment
4. Seeing the Child
5. Involving Parents
6. Possible Outcomes of the Initial Assessment
7. Emergency Protective Action
8. Feedback from Initial Assessment
9. Recording the Initial Assessment

1. What is an Initial Assessment?

If, as a result of a referral, there are indications that the child is a Child in Need at Level 3 of Walsall’s Child Concern Model, which may include concerns of Significant Harm, Children’s Social Care Services 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 Section 47 Enquiry.

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? – see Domestic Abuse (including Multi Agency Screening Tool and Walsall Response Flowchart for Intervention) Procedure
• 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 7 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’s Social Care Services 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

All workers undertaking Initial Assessments will have access to support from an appropriately qualified and experienced social worker and access to support and management direction from a suitable qualified and experienced team manager. It should be carefully planned, with clarity about who is doing what, the time-scales (i.e. a maximum of 7 days) and what information is to be shared with the parents.

The process of the Initial Assessment should involve seeing and speaking to the child or children involved (see Section 4, Seeing the Child) and involving family members as appropriate (see Section 5, Involving Parents). 

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

• The Police, where appropriate, and all agencies involved with the child and family
• The person/agency who made the referral

The assessment will involve drawing together and analysing available information from a range of sources, including existing records, and involving and obtaining relevant information from professionals in relevant agencies and others in contact with the child and family. Where a Common Assessment in line with the Child Concern Model has been completed, this information should be used to inform the Initial Assessment.

All relevant information (including information about the history and functioning of the family both currently and in the past, and adult problems such as domestic violence, substance misuse, mental illness and criminal behaviour/convictions) should be taken into account. All agencies consulted should make immediate checks of their records for previous history and make available 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.

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 or pose a risk of harm to adults or obstruct a criminal investigation.

4. Seeing the Child

The Initial Assessment should involve the worker leading the assessment seeing and speaking to the child or children involved in their preferred language and according to their age and understanding. The child should be seen without his or her caregivers unless inappropriate to do so.

Care should be taken to ensure that the child is observed and spoken to alone according to his or her age and understanding. 

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 and the steps to be taken if access to assess the child’s home environment is denied.

5. Involving Parents

Parents should be informed of the referral and their permission sought to share information with other agencies unless to do so would not be in the child’s interests because it would:

• Be prejudicial to the child’s welfare
• Cause concern about the behaviour of the adult concerned with the child
• Cause concern that the child would be at risk of further Significant Harm

For further details, see Information Sharing and Confidentiality Procedure.

In these circumstances, a Children’s Social Care Services manager may decide to consult other relevant agencies without seeking parental consent or where parental consent is sought but not given. Any such decision must be recorded with reasons.

Where parents and family members are consulted, the worker carrying out the Initial Assessment should make it clear to them that the information provided for the assessment may be shared with other agencies and will contribute to the assessment. 

6. Possible Outcomes of the Initial Assessment

An Initial Assessment is deemed completed once the assessment has been discussed with the child and family and endorsed by a Children's Social Care Services manager.

As a result of the Initial Assessment, Children’s Social Care Services will decide one of the following:

• That the child is not at Level 2 or 3 of Walsall’s Child Concern Model - in which case Children’s Social Care Services will take no further action other than, where appropriate, to provide information and advice or signposting to another agency
• That the child appears to be at Level 2 of Walsall’s Child Concern Model in which case this can be dealt with via a multi-agency Child Concern Model meeting (see Section 8 of the Step Down: Framework for Continuing Support to Vulnerable Children Procedure)
• That the child appears to be a Child in Need at Level 3 but there are no concerns about actual or likely Significant Harm in which case Children’s Social Care Services will determine under the Child Concern Model whether services can be put in place or whether to initiate a multi agency Child Concern Model meeting to decide whether a Core Assessment is required. (see Section 8 of the Step Down: Framework for Continuing Support to Vulnerable Children Procedure)
  
  In these circumstances, consideration will also be given to holding a Family Group Conference - see the Walsall Family Group Conference Service Procedure
  
  
• That the child is a Child in Need at Level 3 and that there are concerns that the child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm in which case Children’s Social Care Services will initiate a Section 47 Enquiry and a Core Assessment; and consider whether any immediate protective action is required – see Section 7, Emergency Protective Action

7. Emergency Protective Action

Where there is a risk to the life of a child or the possibility of immediate serious 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
• The removal of the alleged abuser
• A voluntary agreement for the child to remain in or move to a safer place
• Application for an Emergency Protection Order
• The Police using their powers of Police Protection
• 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’s Social Care Services 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. Where in exceptional circumstances it is necessary to use the powers of Police Protection, the arrangements for the child will be determined by Children’s Social Care Services.

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 - see also Children Moving Across Boundaries Procedure.

Where Police Protection applies, Children’s Social Care Services need to consider whether to initiate Care Proceedings in relation to the child or whether the safety of the child is assured.  Where the child’s circumstances lead to Children’s Social Care Services being confident that the risks to the child have been removed, they may allow the Police Protection to lapse.

8. Feedback from Initial Assessment

Parents will usually be informed of the outcome of the Initial Assessment unless to do so would not be in the child’s best interests because it would:

• Be prejudicial to the child’s welfare
• Cause concern about the behaviour of the adult concerned with the child
• Cause concern that the child would be at risk of further Significant Harm

Any decision not to share the outcome with the parents must be endorsed by a Children’s Social Care Services manager and recorded, with reasons for the decisions.

The social worker carrying out the 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, where appropriate, and all agencies involved with the child and family
• The person/agency who made the referral

9. Recording the Initial Assessment

A clear record of the Initial Assessment must be made, setting out who has been contacted, the information received, when the worker leading the assessment saw the child alone (unless inappropriate to do so),  the assessment of the child's needs and their circumstances with a full analysis, the outcomes and decisions. A Children's Social Care Services manager must agree in writing with all decisions taken. The decisions must be reviewed by the manager to ensure that they are followed through.

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