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Contents

1. What is an Initial Assessment?  
2. Timescale 
3. The Process of the Initial Assessment  
4. Involving the Child  
5. Involving Parents
6. Possible Outcomes of the Initial Assessment  
7. Emergency Protective Action 
8. Feedback from Initial Assessment  
9. Recording of 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, which may include concerns of Significant Harm, Children and Young People’s 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 cover the areas set out in the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families.

2.  Timescale

The Initial Assessment must be completed within a maximum of  ten working days of receipt of the referral, except in Telford and Wrekin, where the maximum timescale remains at seven working days having regard to the government's continuing requirement for local authorities to report on Initial Assessments completed in this timescale.

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.

3.  The Process of the Initial Assessment

The Initial Assessment should be led by a qualified and experienced social worker and supervised by a highly experienced and qualified social work manager.  It should be carefully planned, with clarity about who is doing what, the time-scales and what information is to be shared with the parents. 

The process of the Initial Assessment will involve the social worker carrying out the Initial Assessment seeing and speaking to the child or children involved, without his or her caregivers when appropriate,  in their preferred language and according to their age and understanding (see Section 4, Involving the Child) and involving family members as appropriate and in their preferred language (see Section 5, Involving Parents).  The child’s accommodation should also be seen. 

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

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

The assessment will involve drawing together relevant information from a range of agencies, the child, the family, friends and neighbours, and analysing this information with a view to establishing whether the child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm.  Where a Common Assessment has been completed this information should be used to inform the Initial Assessment.

All relevant information (including the child’s ethnicity, culture and religion; as well as information about the history and functioning of the family both currently and in the past, such as domestic violence, substance misuse, mental illness and criminal behaviour/convictions) should be taken into account.

As part of the assessment, the social worker should seek to establish and understand the role of male partners, and/or fathers, in the lives of the child or children concerned.

The worker carrying out the Initial Assessment should make it clear to the agencies consulted that the information provided for the assessment may be shared with the family and other agencies and will contribute to the assessment unless to do so would put the child increase the likelihood of the child suffering significant harm.

All agencies consulted should make immediate checks of their records for previous history and information that is relevant and helpful in deciding the level of enquiry that is required.  This will include 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.  See also Section 5, Involving Parents in relation to parental consent to the sharing of information.

See the chapter on Contact Details for information about who to contact.

4.  Involving the Child

Parental consent should be sought (see Section 5, Involving Parents) to involve the child in the assessment so that the child is observed and spoken to alone (unless this is inappropriate), according to his or her age and understanding and in his or her preferred language.  This should take place within 24 hours from the start of the assessment.

Where the child is of sufficient age and understanding to agree to or refuse such involvement, their wishes should be sought and respected.

Where it is not appropriate to see the child alone, the reason should be recorded and a decision made as to who should be present and why.

Where appropriate, children should be given information about the availability of advocacy services to assist them in the assessment process.

If the child and parent consent, a visit to the child at the place where he or she resides should be undertaken but the social worker must be clear about the purpose of the home visit and the information to be gathered during the visit.

If the social worker is unable to gain access to assess the child and the home environment, legal advice should be sought about the next steps including the need for legal action.

Practitioners should ensure that in responding to the child, they take account of any language or communication difficulties that the child has.

5.  Involving Parents

An Initial Assessment is deemed completed once the assessment has been discussed with the child and family and authorised by the manager.

Parents’ permission should be sought to share information with other agencies and to speak to the child unless to do so may:

• Place the child at increased risk of Significant Harm or
• Place any other person at risk of injury or
• Obstruct a Police investigation 

In these circumstances, a Children and Young People’s 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.  For additional guidance, see Information Sharing and Confidentiality Procedure.

Parents should also be involved in the assessment process and where they have additional needs and require assistance to enable them to participate fully, this must be facilitated, for example by arranging an interpreter.

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

As a result of the Initial Assessment, Children and Young People’s Services will decide one of the following:

• That the child is not a Child in Need, in which case Children and Young People’s Services will take no further action other than, where appropriate, to provide information and advice or signpost to another agency under the Common Assessment Framework.
• That the child is In Need but there are no concerns about actual or likely Significant Harm, in which case Children and Young People’s  Services will determine what services they should provide immediately, which should be referred to other agencies and whether to initiate a Core Assessment
• That the child is In Need and that there are concerns that the child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm, in which case Children and Young People’s Services will arrange a Strategy Discussion/Meeting and consider the need for a Section 47 Enquiry and a Core Assessment; and whether any immediate protective action is required – see Section 7.

The decision will be endorsed by a Children and Young People’s Services manager.

7.  Emergency Protective Action

Where there is a risk to the life of a child or the possibility of serious immediate 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 arrest of the alleged abuser by the Police.
• A voluntary agreement for the child to move to a safer place
• The removal of the child by the Police using their powers of Police Protection
• Application for an Emergency Protection Order

Planned immediate protection will normally take place following a Strategy Discussion/Meeting. 

Where a single agency has to act immediately to protect a child, a Strategy Discussion/Meeting should take place as soon as possible to plan further action.

Legal advice must be sought in every case where emergency action may be undertaken by the local authority to safeguard the child.  If legal advice is not obtained, the reason must be recorded on the child’s record.

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 area, 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 Local Authority Boundaries Procedure.

Where an Emergency Protection Order is applied for, Children and Young People’s Services needs to consider whether to initiate Care Proceedings in relation to the child or whether to allow the Order to lapse.

8. Feedback after Initial Assessment

Parents will usually be informed of the outcome of the Initial Assessment unless to do so may:

• Place the child at increased risk of Significant Harm or
• Place any other person at risk of injury or
• Obstruct a Police investigation 

Any decision not to share the outcome with the parents must be endorsed by a Children and Young People’s 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 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, the assessment of the child's needs and their circumstances with a full analysis, the outcomes and decisions.

The Initial Assessment Record should include when the child was seen by the Lead Social Worker, whether he or she was seen alone and if not, who was present and the reasons for their presence.

A Children and Young People's Services manager must agree in writing with all decisions taken and record this agreement.

The decisions must be reviewed by the manager to ensure that they are followed through.

End