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The Assessment Of A Child And Their Situation

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The assessment of a child and their situation is a process which is important to find out the level of need and risk that a child is facing. Although a service may be delivered to a parent or carer, child protection assessments must be focused on a child’s needs and how the services are impacting the child. Working Together (2010) states that a high quality assessment must be child centred with the decisions being made with the child’s best interests in mind. The decisions must take an integrated approach, ensuring equality of opportunity and must lead to action, including the provision of services. A strong assessment must follow the three categories that have been set out in the Assessment Framework diagram. These include a child …show more content…

The Lord Laming report (2003) stated that one of the reasons for the failure of assessment in the Victoria Climbie case was due to the professionals receiving a high intake of referral. The social worker who was assigned to Victoria Climbie’s case claimed that there was not clear guidance and protocols set for working with families and children coming from abroad and presenting themselves as homeless which is what Victoria Climbie’s family had done. The social worker claimed that she felt she was left to make decisions based on professional judgement rather than set rules and regulations. Social workers working on Victoria’s case claimed that there was a high work load and that it was difficult to monitor all of the cases. However the Lord Laming Report (2003) stated that there was no excuse for not having an in place system to deal with incoming referrals and cases. An initial assessment used is a ‘risk indicator checklist’. This provides an overview of a family detailing information that is already known about them. From this checklist, professionals are able to identify the level of risk, how the risk is currently being managed, in what areas the family is currently functioning acceptably and in which areas there is insignificant information available in order for professionals to make decisions (Fowler, 2003). This checklist aims to aid decisions making and professional thinking when protecting

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