Assessments for children

An assessment is a discussion that involves collecting and reviewing information about people with the aim of understanding their situation and determining recommendations for any further involvement.

We are required to record the outcome of the assessment and we will offer you a completed form for you to keep for your records.

Requesting an assessment

• You can request an assessment at any time, this will be based on the child or young person’s needs and may be a child and family assessment (see below) or an early help assessment.
• You can telephone us on 0300 123 5012 option 3.

Child and family assessments

The social worker will see and talk to you and possibly any other children living in your house.

The social worker will make sure you and any other children are listened to and your views are taken seriously.

What is happening in your life is important. This may include:

• who you live with
• your religion, if you have one
• your race and culture
• who you and your family feel are important in your life
• what things are happening which you and your family feel are good or make you feel uncomfortable or unhappy
• how things are going at school
• if there are some difficulties with your health 

The social worker will also talk to other people who know you. This may be your teacher or your doctor for example.

If you are old enough to understand, the social worker will tell you what everyone thinks.

After the social worker has spoken to everyone they will make a plan that lists the ways you and your family can be helped.

How long the assessment takes

To begin with, the social worker will do a short assessment which will take 3 weeks to talk to everyone. 

Sometimes if there are lots of things going on in your life, the social worker will need to do a bigger assessment which will take a few more weeks.

If you have questions

You may think that some of the questions you have are silly. The social worker will listen to you about any of your questions. The social worker wants you to ask these questions so they can start to help you.

There may be words which you do not understand. It is important that you have information which is helpful to you, so do not worry about asking any questions.

You can phone your local social care office to speak to your social worker. If the social worker is not in the office, you can leave a message and the social worker will contact you.