Other tools - Specialist assessment tools to focus on specific areas of concern
- The Risk Model includes a range of tools that are available to support workers during assessment if required, for example a concern about neglect or the capacity of a parent to change.
- Specialist Assessment Tools are included within the Risk Model but can also be used in other more generic assessments such as the Assessment of Care and Support Needs.
There is a contradiction within the Assessment Framework and other assessment protocols. It is based on a holistic principle of assessment, incorporating the gathering and interpretation of information across a number of domains. For example, the Assessment Framework included the domains of:
- child’s development needs,
- parental capacity
- family and environmental factors.
At the same time, many of the concerns submitted in referral for service and assessments are focussed on exploring very specific themes. For example, substance misuse, domestic violence or neglect. The gathering of specific information in these areas are specialist areas of assessment. During assessment, workers may need to consider neglect as a theme and judge whether the parents have the capacity to change. Workers enquire:
“How do I recognise neglect? How can I assess this in detail and incorporate the results into my analysis?”
“How do I assess whether the parent has the capacity to sustain the changes required to ensure that the children are safeguarded?”
The Specialist Assessment Tools provide a format to assist in the assessment.
We reviewed the research, evaluated existing assessment tools and identified areas where assessment support was weak. Where assessment tools were available, these were updated and adapted. Where there were no assessment tools, new ones were developed.
Examples amongst the 30 Specialist Assessment Tools include resilience and vulnerability, change, substance misuse and the effect of mental health.
Tools are catalogued according to themes. Which include:
- Motivation/capacity to change
- Neglect and Home Conditions
- Substance Misuse – parental and child / young person
- Domestic Abuse
- Young Carer,
- Attachment and family relationships,
- Mental health of parent /carer,
- Resilience and emotional well-being - child / young person.
Other tools focus on prediction. These include:
Reunification post child sexual abuse, Rehabilitation of child post abuse, Characteristics of child and family prone to abuse, Level of abuse as an indicator of need to protect.
The document “Help with finding the right tool” organises the tools according to the domains of the Assessment Framework or assessment themes.