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Knowsley Children's Social Care Operational Procedures Manual
Practice Standards for Child and Family (C&F) Assessments and Child in Need Planning
Scope of this chapter
This chapter establishes the key practice standards for C&F Assessments and Child in Need planning and effectively provides a 'checklist' for practitioners and auditors of basic practice processes that should be expected in interventions with children and their families.
- Assessment and child in need planning lead to improving outcomes for children and young people;
- Children in need of protection are quickly identified and responded to in line with the level of identified risks.
- Practice is consistently focused on children and young people's needs and experiences and is evidenced in recording;
- Social worker(s) build a relationship centred on the child's needs, and take account of their views and their understanding of their world.
- Needs arising from children and young people's ethnicity, religion, culture, disability are effectively recognised, assessed and included in child in need planning.
- Children whose needs require C&F Assessment by Children's Social Care are promptly identified via MASH.
- Assessments commence promptly and are completed within agreed timescales;
- Parental consent is sought except where in seeking this a child is likely to suffer Significant Harm; Consent forms to be completed and uploaded to ICS records as per C&F assessment packs;
- Children and young people are seen promptly (within 3 days (C&F) or within 24 hours for a Section 47) following the referral start date (alone where appropriate);
- Assessments effectively capture the child's views and wishes, including using their own words/direct work, as well as their experience of living in this family;
- Agencies involved with the child are consulted and their views obtained;
- Significant family members, friends and fathers living away from their children participate in the assessment;
- Information is comprehensively gathered;
- Historical information about the child and family, including the history of both birth parents and current partners, significant events and previous involvement with services is understood and effectively analysed;
- SOS Matrix is to be well evidenced and analysed. Their impact on the child is explained;
- Appropriate recommendations clearly flow from the analysis;
- Actions to ensure that the right level of service is provided are identified;
- Outcomes of assessments are shared with parents/carers, children and young people (as appropriate) and their comments recorded.
- CiN plans clearly flow from the recommendations contained in the C&F Assessment;
- CiN plans identifies how the plan will improve outcomes;
- CiN plans contain a balanced summary of needs, strengths and concerns;
- CiN plans clearly identify the role and focus of partner agencies and other professionals;
- Objectives and actions are realistic, focused on needs and are SMART;
- Where appropriate, Contingency Plans are agreed and are appropriate to needs and risks;
- CiN plans are regularly updated and amended;
- Multi-agency interventions clearly flow from the plan and are targeted at identified needs and risks.
- Children benefit from purposeful direct work, when this identified as a need;
- Social workers see children at the frequency specified in the plan, see them alone and observe family relationships;
- CiN planning clearly tackles protection related issues linked to neglect, alcohol or substance misuse, domestic abuse and mental illness;
- CiN planning identifies and responds to culture and diversity.
- Initial CiN meetings are promptly held;
- Children and young people are enabled to meaningfully participate in CiN meetings;
- The first CiN plan review takes place within 7 days and at 4-6 weekly intervals thereafter. (NB: With the exception of child in need cases held in the Children with Disability Team. The frequency of reviews should be agreed by a Team Manager and the reason for the frequency should be recorded on the child's supervision records);
- Social workers and others consider Advocacy when preparing, carrying out and reviewing plans.
- Social workers and partner agencies quickly identify any emerging safeguarding or protection concerns;
- Where there is a possibility of Significant Harm, Strategy Meetings and child protection enquiries take place in a timely way AND/OR timely decisions are made to convene an Initial Child Protection Conference.
- Partner agencies are active and well engaged in achieving agreed outcomes for the child;
- All agencies engaged in delivering the plan demonstrate active engagement with the child and/or family as appropriate to the plan and are actively involved in achieving agreed objectives.
- There is evidence of an up-to-date Chronology for each child;
- Comprehensive records are up-to-date and demonstrate that needs and risks have been sufficiently explored.
- Management set clear timescales and instructions when allocating assessments;
- Managers formally review the progress of assessments at 0 to 10 working days and record the reason for any extension to timescale;
- Managers offer constructive feedback and do not sign off assessments that are below the expected standard;
- Supervision records demonstrate that the CiN plan is regularly reviewed (2 monthly), progress against objectives is reviewed and that managers challenge lack of change.
Last Updated: March 17, 2025
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