Child and family assessments

After meeting with you and your child, and assessing any other relevant information, the social worker can decide what help you need.

We may recommend our services or services from other professionals.

The social worker will give you a written copy of the decisions made following the assessment. If relevant, they will also give you a copy of the action plan that recommends what services you need.

Support services

We may offer you a number of options to help resolve the difficulties you're experiencing with your children. These can include one-to-one work with and group work at our Children in Need Centres.

Staff at our centres may offer specific help around issues such as drug misuse. They can also help you to get together and work out what's best for the child.

We may request involvement from other professionals, for example, child guidance or the health services.

Help where it's needed most

There are many more people needing services than there are services available. So we need to make decisions based on the most urgent cases.

This means that you might not get the services you prefer for the amount of time you'd like. Where possible, we'll try to find alternatives.

Serious risks

During the assessment, if we believe there may be serious risk to the welfare of your child, we'll need to conduct a more in-depth assessment called a core assessment. This is part of the child protection enquiry process.