The use of whole family assessment to identify the needs of families ...

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL: Department for EducationThe Use of Whole Family Assessment to Identify the Needs of Families with MultipleProblems4.2 Conversely, the intensive, family focused approach to assessment anddelivery has meant that staff have been able to swiftly identify childprotection concerns (see Figure 4.2). Their approach has also helped toensure a smooth transition into care for those children and young peoplewhere this has been deemed appropriate.Figure 4.2: Identifying Child Protection IssuesExample 1“It has been possible on a number of occasions to quickly refer families tosafeguarding services following the assessment process and the intensive nature ofthe work which has helped to identify that neglect is such a chronic issue that itshould be considered in the context of the Child Protection Plan” (PathfinderManager).Example 2This family (the father and three children) had been working with social care forseven years. All the children were classed as Children in Need. The father’s drug use(initially thought to be amphetamines) was significantly impacting on the children,resulting in issues of neglect and poor school attendance. The social care teamreferred the family to the Pathfinder because although the family were not deemedto be in crisis their difficulties were entrenched. The whole family were assessedover a period of time to enable staff to build up relationships with family members.Pathfinder staff were able to visit the family on a regular basis at critical points inthe day (early mornings and evenings), as well as undertaking unannounced and outof hours visits, e.g. at the weekend, to provide practical support and develop anunderstanding of family functioning.The intensity of the support provided, the frequency of contact and the trustingrelationships developed meant that Pathfinder staff were able to gather informationwhich the social care team were unaware of (because the latter were only able toundertake pre-arranged monthly visits) i.e. that the father was scared of parentingand was addicted to heroin: “The way we got to know dad, he could say things hehadn’t told other practitioners, like ‘I can’t do it’” (Practitioner).“The eldest daughter never told anyone her concerns before – all the children werereally wary of social work support and knew the right things to say. But she told usthat she was fed up and that was down to how much they saw us and trusted us”(Practitioner).“We had someone to talk to that we could be honest with. This helped usunderstand it all better” (Eldest daughter).Initially the intensive support package appeared to be working and things wereimproving. However, once the Pathfinder team reduced the intensity of theirsupport, issues began to emerge again and the team became increasinglyconcerned about the father’s ability to parent the children and that there were child33