Common Assessment Framework Introduced In Childrens Services Social Work

Why was the Common Assessment Framework introduced in Childrens Services, what does it try to accomplish and how successful is it in making this?

This will discourse why Common Assessment Framework was introduced to Children ‘s Services, what it attempts to accomplish and whether or non it has been successful, the construct behind it and briefly, the troubles in working with other wellness professionals to acquire the Common Assessment Framework to make what it was set out to make.

The Every Child Matters Green Paper proposed the debut of a Common Assessment Framework ( CAF ) as a cardinal component of the scheme for assisting kids, immature people and their households.

( DfES 2004 )

Common Assessment Framework is a standard appraisal tool to be used by all professionals working with kids for appraisals and referral ( British Journal of Social Work ( 2009 ) . The reform docket in Children ‘s Service was catalysed by the public enquiry into the decease of Victoria Climbie ( Crippling 2003 ) , an eight twelvemonth old West African miss who was abused and murdered in the UK in 2000 as a consequence of extreme inhuman treatment and disregard by her grandaunt and the her spouse, who were her defenders.

An enquiry into the decease of Victoria Climbie ( Crippling 2003 ) exposed a failure to set in topographic point the necessary basic processs to protect her. Factors identified included deficiency of early intercession, hapless co-ordination, failure to portion information and the absence of anyone with a strong sense of answerability. As a consequence, the Common Assessment Framework ( CAF ) was one of the steps introduced under the alterations in kid protection policies and the green paper, Every Child Matters ( 2003 ) therefore was introduced to put out proposals for major alterations in kids ‘s programmes to let every kid, whatever their background or their fortunes, to hold the needed support towards the accomplishment of a better result in the undermentioned cardinal countries: being healthy, remaining safe, basking and accomplishing doing a positive part and accomplishing economic wellbeing

The design, in concurrence with the lead professional and better information sharing policies and processs ; to alter the method by which services are delivered, traveling the focal point from covering with the effect of troubles in kids ‘s lives, towards a more proactive preventive and precautional step.

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CAF is intended to be used for kids who have extra demands which may non be complex or terrible plenty to necessitate statutory intercession. It is for usage in state of affairss where there are concerns with how a kid is come oning in any manner ( raised by the kid, a parent or a professional ) , the kid ‘s demands are ill-defined, the kid ‘s demands are broader than a professional ‘s ain service can turn to or where it is thought that CAF would assist to place the kid ‘s demands.

The bill of exchange ‘Common Assessment Framework ‘ was developed in late 2004 with its revised version published in 2005. CAF is a new, more standardized attack for measuring the demands of kids for service and make up one’s minding howA those demands should be addressed and met. It is meant for kids with extra demands ; that is, kids at hazard of hapless results ( DfES, 2005b, p1 ) . CAF is designed to be evidence-based, concentrating on demands and strengths, instead than ‘concerns ‘ as seen in the British Journal of societal work ( 2009 ) 39, 1197-1217.

The three stated purposes of CAF are to back up earlier intercession, better multi-agency working by, for illustration ’embedding a common linguistic communication of appraisal ‘ ; cut down ‘bureaucracy for households ( DfES, 2005b, p1. )

CAF is non meant to replace many other appraisal agendas used in the assorted bureaus, such as the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families certification, but the authorities would wish the CAF to stand for the chief appraisal tool to back up inter-agency referral and multi-agency working ( DfES, 2005b, p 2 ) .

Common Assessment Framework ( CAF ) is one of the lending elements to the following both of which are outlined in the Children ‘s Act 2004, the bringing of incorporate services the support inter-agency co-operation ; and the safeguarding and advancing the public assistance of kids and immature people.

How are kids services organised? What is the cardinal statute law that governs kids and kids ‘s services,

The purpose of Every Child Matters is to hold a few bureaus working together bearing in head their professional boundaries to intercede and back up kids from 0 to 19, utilizing a simple linguistic communication to run into the demands of these kids. It came up with the Integrated Children ‘s System ( ICS ) , the Contact Point and the Common Assessment Framework ( CAF ) , they all have different systems and manner of working but have one common end which is to better the well being and to safeguard and advance the public assistance of kids and immature people.

When a kid is seen as suffered disregard, maltreatment or has any waiter trouble or being looked after under the Children ‘s Act 1989, their demands are assessed utilizing the Framework for Assessment of Children in Need and their households. The Integrated Child System ( ICS ) is used at this phase, this is done by seting information together measure by measure and entering information about both the kid and household, where a thorough appraisal is required an in deepness information is needed at this phase and must be gathered in a manner that can put as the footing for determination devising and can be used for different intents. ICS is supported by information engineering and it ‘s the footing of the electronic societal attention record for kids. The IT system is besides known as ISC. Contact Point is a fast method to happen out who else is working with a peculiar service user, doing it a lighter manner to intercede and back up, it is a major tool Every Child Matters uses to present a better service to Children and immature people, holding said that Contact Point merely holds a small information about a kid, parent, practicians supplying services to the kid and carers until their 18th birthday, except for exceeding instances for illustration kids with mental wellness and sexual wellness jobs where their inside informations are still held under sever security. Common Assessment Framework on the other manus comes in every bit shortly as appraisal is needed at the really early phase and make up one’s minding what action to take. It gives practicians the opportunity to set together and enter information about a kid or immature individual with extra demands in an orderly, consecutive frontward and simple. Work start from so and practicians begin to look out for the demands and what should be done and it ‘s dealt with. CAF makes practicians across all bureaus, after the needed preparation to travel harmonizing to the processs to accomplish a reliable appraisal that can be used by everyone covering with the instance. The national IT system to back up CAF will be developed. ( eCAF ) . This will assist authorized practicians to electronically make, portion and shop CAF within the bureaus. Unlike Contact Point CAF merely holds the information about some immature people and kids, with consent, and for a limited period of clip. Both Contact Point and CAF were created to for usage within kids ‘s services, their end is to assist kids with extra demands get the aid and support they need, it ‘s a tool to do easy early intercession and assist cover with extra demands before they get out of control and go more hard to decide. CAF and ICS has a common method to assessment, they both have a common manner of roll uping informations about a kid or immature individual around the spheres of developmental demands of a kid ; parent capacity ; and household and environmental factors. CAF and ICS are supported by engineering where as Contact Point is a fundamentally engineering solution www.evertchildmatters.gov.uk

Why was CAF introduced and what ‘s it ‘s purpose

The green paper, Every Child Matters, proposed the debut of a national Common

Assessment Framework ( CAF ) as an of import portion of a scheme for assisting kids and immature people to accomplish the five precedence results of:

being healthy: basking good physical and mental wellness and populating a healthy life style ; remaining safe: being protected from injury and disregard ; basking and accomplishing: acquiring the most out of life and developing the accomplishments for maturity ; doing a positive part: being involved with the community and society and non prosecuting in anti-social or piquing behavior ; economic wellbeing: non being prevented by economic disadvantage from accomplishing their full potency in life.

The Common Assessment Framework ( CAF ) was decided upon based on the five basic keys. By the aid of a lead professional and better information shearing process CAF was designed from the concerns that the bing processs for placing and reacting to the demands of kids who are non accomplishing the five results identified in Every Child Matters do non work every bit efficaciously as they were meant to, to convey a better manner of how services could be delivered, due to the fact that services have in the past been delivered based on covering with the effects of troubles in kids ‘s lives to forestalling things from taking the incorrect path from the start. It ‘s chief focal point is to achieve to the fact that every kid gets the five keys. It is besides created to assist measuring kids with extra demands which are non excessively complex or sever as to demand external intercession such as statutory intercession. CAF ‘s purpose is to give a method of appraisal to give support to early intercession, to assist make up one’s mind what needs to be done at an early phase instead than subsequently, it ‘s to supply good and a batch more grounds based referral to targeted and specialist services. CAF is created to heighten on joint working and communicating between practicians in a common linguistic communication of appraisal and positions and as to how it could be resolved, it was besides designed to better the coordination and consistence around appraisals taking to fewer and shorter specializer appraisals. CAF was designed to assist to make up one’s mind whether other specialist appraisals are needed and if so provide information to assist acquire it done. It was to give a clear image of a kid or immature individual ‘s demands to be built up over clip and with the right consent shared among professionals.

Has CAF achieved its purpose? ( positives and negatives )

Through CAF some practician began to accept shorn duty for kids and immature people with extra demands. Apart from holding to acquire parents accept to be portion of the appraisal process some practicians and directors are in position that in concurrence with other services CAF has a batch more chances in support to early intercession largely cosmopolitan services. Some besides had uncertainty as to whether there was adequate financess to run into the jobs raised and the demand of CAF.

It is evident that CAF has had mixed responses. One appraisal of path-finding governments revealed that practicians and directors believed it has enabled a more strict follow-through of service bringing, publicity of better multi-agency working and were optimistic that it would finally draw down thresholds for service reception ( Brandon et al. , 2006 ) . The debut of CAF like everything has its strengths which in general gives a positive position seen by all, nevertheless, others have expressed their concerns about its been excessively formal to some organisations as ‘descriptive dictatorship ‘ , curtailing the narrative devising sense of the state of affairs ; the troubles of assorted professionals and practicians with other accomplishments and outlooks finishing CAF otherwise or partly in the appraisal procedure ( Garrett, 2008 ; Gilligan and Manby, 2008 ; White et Al, 2008 ) . CAF in the East Riding for illustration is entirely aimed as a minimum degree engagement which will assist utilize cosmopolitan services to pull off early jobs and depress incorrect referrals to Social Care. The major knowing degree for engagement bureaus with the CAF has broader duty than CAF entirely, covering all included services proviso. The different bureaus involved is wide, but some bureaus are less active in go toing meetings and purchase in, in footings of resource input is limited. However, there some jobs which lessen the positive engagement, and makes CAF less effectual, these include less engagement of some bureaus in footings of resources input. Practitioners were of position that CAF was non cut downing the demand foe reappraisal, giving illustrations of some parents forced to reiterate their narratives during reappraisals, I can understand sometimes practicians would merely desire to be certain that things have non changed since the last appraisal, but the populace is of the position that CAF ever has the updated information at any clip needed, but for fortune of preparation and human mistake we find out that CAF still is non making what it was set out. Equally good as deflecting story-telling manner of composing studies, the CAF authors frequently found that the boxes did non assist them adequately to qualify the kid and parents. The format of the CAF was opposed by some professionals and practicians working with it.. Merely some professionals used the linguistic communication of demand, whereas over 80 per cent talked about challenges. In add-on to the descriptive demands, CAF forms besides do

“ CAF does n’t state a narrative it feels like school tests, multiple pick, you can click the boxes with the right reply, but it truly does n’t give you er the Er aˆ¦.The narrative. It is about narrative is n’t it. It ‘s about people ‘s lives. It is n’t approximately um spliting a life up into a batch of little boxes. And when you put all those boxes together it will be EQUAL to the narrative ” As seen in ( BJofSW 2009 39, 1197-1217 )

“ Certain start worker said “ I prefer a clean sheet of paper to show by ideas ” ibid..

Upon a period of over a decennary ‘s work in human services organisations, Gubrium et al depict what they call the ‘descriptive dictatorships ‘ of ‘people signifiers ‘ , signifiers used in one manner or the other to depict and categorise people coming to the attending of human service professionals, hence, for Gubrium et Al, the dealingss of signifier completion to human activity is double. They are concerned with what kinds of descriptions the signifiers invite or the ‘reportorial outlooks assumed to underlie credence organisational description ( Gubirum et al, 1989, p 197 ) . What may be the rational, moral and disingenuous capacities of form-completers? That is, what ‘wiggle room ‘ ( Erickson, 2004, P, 20 ) do they have with these descriptive demands? ( Oxford University imperativeness 2008 ) . Gubrium et al argue that, completed signifiers like any manner of description, have transformative effects. They do non merely describe events as they occurred in existent clip. For illustration they may incorporate reciprocally sole classifications, which demands that the form-computer suspend incredulity that merely one class can use at any one clip, bearing in head that CAF is designed to hold evidence-based, focused on demands and strengths, instead than ‘concerns ‘ . Professionals are encouraged to measure strengths, demands, actions and solutions for kids across three spheres derived from the model for Assessment of Children in Need and their Families ( DoH 2000 ) .

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Recommendation and decision

It is clear to me that the intent of the CAF and its work burden is to guarantee that professionals attend to, and record information deemed most relevant to their primary activities as distinct at this historical minute. The CAF is besides an over position presented as a complete professional opinion. However, I have shown above that the demands of the signifier cause information to be ordered in preferable ways, which can be unintelligible. I have talked about the fact that CAF constrains professional pattern in peculiar ways, it is so designed to exercise its ain stiff demands, which can experience rough to the one individual finishing the signifier. CAF in peculiar relies on the premise that it can further unvarying professional application and an ordinary ( White, Hall and Peckover, 2009 ) . Crippling ( 2009 ) still recommended that we need to affect more bureaus to do the work load easier and effectual and said

“ the usage of Common Assessment Framework CAF needs to be farther promoted with Agencies ” .

To accomplish the ground it was introduced practicians and everyone involved in utilizing CAF must be to the full cognizant of what it ‘s all about and must be to the full trained to cognize the pros and cons of what CAF wants to accomplish, other Agencies working in line with CAF must besides maintain their systems and information updated to accommodate the demands of the kids and immature people who might necessitate this service to besides populate the lives they deserve. Parents and the general populace must be to the full cognizant of what CAF is trusting to accomplish in that manner they do n’t experience pressured if they are called upon to give their blessing before an appraisal is carried out for their kids.