The Common Assessment Framework For Children And Young People
Early identification, assessment of needs and interventionThe Common Assessment Framework for children and young peopleA guide for practitioners
ContentsThe Common Assessment Framework for children and young peopleA guide for practitioners
ContentsForeword5Executive summary: the CAF at a glance8About the CAF for children and young peopleWhy the CAF has been introducedCAF and Every Child MattersChildren and young people with additional needs10111313Who will do a CAF and whenWho can offer a CAF?When to do a common assessment?When not to do a common assessment?16191920What makes a good assessment?What makes a good action plan?2224CAF and integrated workingEffective communicationMulti-agency integrated support262932The common assessment and specialist assessments 34Information sharing, consent and confidentialityInformation sharingSeeking consentConfidentialitySharing information from the CAF discussionwithout consent58595961Annex A: The policy contextAnnex B: Every Child Matters outcomes and aimsAnnex C: CAF and specialist assessmentsAnnex D: Guide to definitions1. Development of the infant, child or young person2. Parents and carers3. Family and environmentalAnnex E: CAF formResources66686971617990KeyCase study4244455255Hints and tips3ContentsHow to do a common assessmentStep 1: Identifying needs earlyStep 2: Assessing those needsStep 3: Delivering integrated servicesStep 4: Reviewing progress
ForewordThe Common Assessment Framework for children and young peopleA guide for practitioners
ForewordThey cover:U information sharingU the Common Assessment Framework(CAF)U role of the lead professionalU multi-agency workingThe policy for integrated working remainswith DCSF.This guidance replaces the CommonAssessment Framework for childrenand young people: practitioners’ guideoriginally published by the DfES in 2006and reprinted in September 2007. Itremains non-statutory guidance. The newguidance has been updated and re-titledin order to reflect policy developments andinclude revisions identified in consultationwith practitioners and managersacross the children and young people’sworkforce. It also seeks to link togetherthe processes and tools mentioned above,to show how collectively they provide apackage of support to help practitionersand managers implement integratedworking in their practice.This publication, Early identification,assessment of needs and intervention,provides guidance for practitioners onthe CAF. A separate guide is availablefor managers.Two other relevant publications are: TheTeam Around the Child (TAC) and The leadprofessional: Co-ordinating and deliveringintegrated services for children and youngpeople. These provide guidance forpractitioners and managers on the leadprofessional functions and the TAC.A further publication Information Sharing:Guidance for Practitioners and Managersis also available providing guidanceto help practitioners work togethermore effectively to meet children andyoung people’s needs through sharinginformation legally and professionally.All guidance materials can be foundon the CWDC websitewww.cwdcouncil.org.uk and on theEvery Child Matters websitewww.dcsf.gov.uk/ecmAny enquiries relating to thisdocument should be directed tointegratedworking@cwdcouncil.org.uk5ForewordOn 1 October 2006, the Children’sWorkforce Development Council(CWDC) took over responsibility fromthe Department for Children, Schoolsand Families (DCSF) (previously theDepartment for Education and Skills– DfES) for the implementation of thetoolkits and guidance which support theimplementation of integrated working.
ForewordThis guide is for any practitioner in thechildren and young people’s workforce whowants to know about the CAF for childrenand young people, and when to use it.It is for anyone who works with children,young people and families, whether they areemployed or volunteers, and working in thepublic, private or third sector.It is for staff working in health; education;early years and childcare, for example SureStart Children’s Centres; schools providingaccess to extended service; social care;youth offending; police; youth support/Connexions services; advisory and supportservices; and leisure.It is also for practitioners who work inservices for adults, as many of the adultsaccessing those services are also parentsor carers and may need a commonassessment for their child.6It is part of a set of materials for practitionersto help implement the Every Child Matters:Change for Children 2004 programme.This set comprises:i. The Common Assessment FrameworkA framework to help practitioners workingwith children, young people and familiesto assess children and young people’sadditional needs for earlier, and moreeffective services, and develop a commonunderstanding of those needs and how towork together to meet them.ii. The lead professional The person responsible for co-ordinatingthe actions identified in the assessmentprocess; a single point of contact forchildren and young people, with additionalneeds, supported by more than onepractitioner in a TAC.iii. Information sharing Helping practitioners work togethermore effectively to meet children andyoung people’s needs through sharinginformation legally and professionally.
The CAF is generally used with childrenand young people up to the age of 18, butits use can be extended beyond 18 whereappropriate, to enable the young person tohave a smooth transition to adult services.In the case of the Connexions service,the CAF can be used with young peopleup to the age of 19, and up to the age of24 where a young person has a learningdifficulty or disability.Parents and carersThe terms ‘parent’ or ‘carer’ refer tomothers, fathers, carers and other adultswith responsibility for caring for a child oryoung person.For more information on parentalresponsibilityGO TO:www.direct.gov.uk/parents/parentsrights/DG 40029547ForewordChildren and young peopleThe terms ‘child or young person’ and‘children or young people’ are usedthroughout this document to refer to unbornbabies, infants, children and young peopleaged 0 to 19.
Executive summary: the CAF at a glanceStatus of this initiativeThe CAF for children and young people isone of the elements of integrated frontlineservice delivery. This is outlined in thestatutory guidance supporting section 10(inter-agency co-operation) and section 11(safeguarding and promoting the welfare ofchildren) of the Children Act 2004. All localauthorities and relevant partners have totake account of this guidance. If they decideto depart from it, they must have clearreasons for doing so.What is the CAF?The CAF is a shared assessment andplanning framework for use across allchildren’s services and all local areasin England. It aims to help the earlyidentification of children and young people’sadditional needs and promote co-ordinatedservice provision to meet them.What does the CAF consist of?U a pre-assessment checklist to helpdecide who would benefit from acommon assessmentU a process to enable practitioners in thechildren and young people’s workforceto undertake a common assessment andthen act on the resultU a standard form to record the assessmentU a delivery plan and review formThe assessment covers three domains:development of the child or youngperson; parents and carers; and familyand environment.8Who is the CAF for?The CAF is aimed at children and youngpeople with additional needs who haveneeds that are not being met by theircurrent service provision.Who will use the CAF?Every practitioner in the children and youngpeople’s workforce should understand thegovernment outcomes for all children andyoung people as set out in Every ChildMatters (ECM). They should know aboutthe CAF and how to undertake one. Everymanager offering services to children andyoung people should ensure at least someof their staff are equipped to undertakecommon assessments.
How does the CAF operate?There are four main stages in completinga common assessment: identifying needsearly, assessing those needs, deliveringintegrated services and reviewing progress.9Executive summary: the CAF at a glanceHow does the CAF link with otherassessments?The CAF has replaced the assessmentaspects of the Connexions Framework forAssessment, Planning, Implementationand Review (APIR). Other assessmentssuch as universal checks and specialistassessments (for Children in Need; thosewith special educational needs etc) remainin place. However, the CAF may beappropriate to be used before, after, or inconjunction with these assessments to helpunderstand and articulate the full range of achild or young person’s needs.
About the Common Assessment Framework for children and young peopleThe Common Assessment Framework for children and young peopleA guide for practitioners01
1.11.21.31.41.51.1 - 1.51.1The CAF for children and youngpeople is a standardised approach toundertaking an assessment of a childor young person’s additional needsand identifying how best to meet thoseneeds. The CAF is a key part of deliveringintegrated frontline services focused onchildren and young people’s needs andstrengths. It can be used by practitionersacross the children and young people’sworkforce in England.1.2The CAF consists of:U a pre-assessment checklist to helpdecide who would benefit from acommon assessmentU a process to enable practitioners in thechildren and young people’s workforceto undertake a common assessment andthen act on the resultU a standard form to record the assessmentThe assessment covers three domains:development of the child or youngperson; parents and carers; and familyand environment.1.3The CAF has been designed to helppractitioners assess needs at an early stageand work with children, young people andtheir families, alongside other practitionersand agencies, to meet those needs.1.4The CAF is not for a child or youngperson about whom you have concerns thatthey might be suffering, or may be at risk ofsuffering, harm. In such instances, you shouldfollow your Local Safeguarding ChildrenBoard (LSCB) safeguarding procedureswithout delay. If you are unsure what to do,contact your local safeguarding or childprotection team. For further advice, see:U Working Together to Safeguard Children(2006), which provides guidance on howall agencies and practitioners shouldwork together to promote children andyoung people’s welfare and safeguardthem from harmU What to do if You’re Worried a Child isBeing Abused (HM Government, 2006)Why the CAF has been introduced1.5We all want better lives for childrenand young people. We have highaspirations for this to be the best place inthe world for children and young people togrow up. Most children and young peopledo well. Most move in and out of difficultiesthrough their lives, and some haveimportant disadvantages that currently areonly addressed when they becomeserious. Sometimes their parents knowthere is a problem but struggle to knowhow to get help.We want to identify these children andyoung people earlier and help thembefore things reach crisis point. Themost important way of doing this is foreveryone in the children and young people’sworkforce to pay attention to their progressand well-being, and be prepared to help ifsomething is going wrong.1101 About the Common Assessment Framework for children and young peopleAbout the Common Assessment Framework for childrenand young people
1.61.6The CAF is one way to help you dothis. It is a framework to identify unmetneeds and agree how to meet those needs.It covers all needs, not just those thatindividual services are most interested in.Even if you are not trained to do a commonassessment yourself, knowing about theCAF will help you recognise when it mightbe needed so that you can arrange forsomeone else to do the assessment.There is also an easy-to-use CAF preassessment checklist, which can be usedby any practitioner at any time to helpdecide whether a common assessmentshould be egy/deliveringservices1/caf/cafframework121.71.7If you are expecting to undertakecommon assessments, you will need toattend a locally approved CAF trainingcourse and you should discuss this withyour line manager. A range of trainingmaterials has been produced. They are partof a broader training strategy to supportintegrated working, which also includestraining on the lead professional andInformation Sharing. More information isavailable atGO TO: ingservices1/iwtraining/training
CAF and Every Child Matters1.8The government is committed toimproving outcomes for all children andyoung people. The policy frameworkunderpinning this includes Every ChildMatters (2003), Youth Matters (2005),the Children’s Plan (2007) and the 2020Children and Young People’s WorkforceStrategy (2008). All are concerned withimproving the lives of children and youngpeople so that they can all achieve thefollowing five outcomes:U be healthyU stay safeU enjoy and achieveU make a positive contributionU achieve economic well-being1.91.9Children, young people and familiesexperience a range of needs at differenttimes in their lives (see Figure 1 overleaf).However, while all children and youngpeople require access to high-qualityuniversal services, some of them also haveadditional needs which may relate to theirdevelopment, education, health, socialwelfare or other areas. These needs will inmany cases be cross-cutting and might beassociated with:U disruptive or anti-social behaviourU overt parental conflict or lack of parentalsupport/boundariesU involvement in, or risk of, offendingU poor attendance or exclusion from schoolU experiencing bullyingU special educational needsU disabilitiesU disengagement from education, trainingor employment post-161.6 - 1.9UUUUUUUpoor nutrition or inadequate clothingill healthsubstance misuseanxiety or depressionexperiencing domestic violencehousing issuesteenage pregnancy and parenthood(including the risk of pregnancy and earlyparenthood, as well as actual pregnanciesand parenthood among young people)U young carers who exhibit additional needswhich are as a direct result of their caringresponsibilities, eg. truancy/lateness, illhealth, housing issues1301 About the Common Assessment Framework for children and young people1.8
1.101.11Figure 1: Continuum of needs and services1.10 Within the group of children andyoung people with additional needs, asmall proportion has more significant orcomplex needs which meet the thresholdfor statutory involvement. These are:U children and young people who are thesubject of a child protection planU looked-after children and young peopleU care leaversU children and young people for whomadoption is the planU children and young people with severeand complex special educational needsU children and young people with complexdisabilities or complex health needsU children and young people diagnosedwith significant mental health problemsU young offenders involved with youthjustice services (community and custodial)Note: Diagram is not to scale in representing the proportion of children and young people ineach section of the windscreen.1.11 In addressing the needs of children andyoung people with additional and complexneeds, the CAF provides a generic and holisticassessment of a child or young person’sstrengths and needs This enables decisionsto be made about how best to meet thoseneeds, in terms of both what the family can doand also what services could be provided.This diagram has been provided by the Department for Children, Schools and Families14
1.10 - 1.11CAF in Practice: Schools“They do have those sorts of problems,”she says. “They just don’t know aboutthem.” Heather only realised the CAF’s truevalue after it was introduced to her schoolthree years ago. She now looks back on itsintroduction as a watershed moment: “TheCAF is the most positive intervention in thewhole of my 27-year school career.”Since the introduction of CAF, WilliamBeamont Community High School hasissued 30 CAFs and Heather believes itplays an important role in child protection.“CAF has prevented children from slippingthrough the net. I doubt that they wouldhave been picked up through otherchannels. Without CAF we probablywouldn’t know the extent of these children’sdifficulties,” she says.“When I hear that head teachers say theydon’t have issues like we do, then I say justbecause a child is not acting out, it does notmean that they are not crying out for help.”To illustrate her point she cites the caseof a boy whose behaviour gave no causefor concern at William Beamont, thoughsuddenly his academic achievement beganto decline.“I went to his house and when I got there itwas immediately obvious what the problemwas. The boy was living with his father, histwo-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister ina one-bedroom flat with water running downthe walls, in a block that had been designatedas accommodation for single men.“They weren’t the type to make a fuss.This family was trying to function in thisenvironment, but the children were afraid togo out as both the boy and his sister hadbeen assaulted. Housing became involvedas part of the CAF and I would say they area vital partner to us. Within eight weeks thefamily were in a new house and back asa functioning family, getting on with it anddoing fine.“The point is that if we did not haveCAF we’d probably have put an entirelyinappropriate intervention into placethat would have achieved nothing. We’dprobably have instigated academicmentoring. But that obviously was nothingto do with the real cause of his distress.It would have been a total waste of time.”CAF is just one area where the school hasfound value in integrated working. Heatherdescribed how through multi-agencyworking with the police, youth workers andother health and local authority partners, theschool is able to offer a full-time alternativeeducation to children who might otherwisebe excluded.The evidence is not purely anecdotal forintegrated working; the statistics that shecites are further proof. “We have not hadany permanent exclusions for the last threeyears. Fixed-term exclusions have dropped.In 2006-2007 when there were 128, in thesame period last year we had 68 and thisyear it is 28.”But Heather is far from complacent, shebelieves that even more can be achievedwith integrated working and intends todevelop every opportunity that arises.Heather Clifford, Deputy Head Teacher1501 About the Common Assessment Framework for children and young people“I’ve had head teachers say to me that theydon’t have the kinds of problems in theirschools that require the CAF,” says HeatherClifford, a deputy secondary head teacher.
Who will do a CAF and when?The Common Assessment Framework for children and young peopleA guide for practitioners02
2.12.22.32.42.52.1 - 2.5Who will do a CAF and when?2.2 A common assessment can help youwork with the child or young person andtheir family to identify the needs. It providesa structure for recording information that yougather by having a conversation with them,and for identifying what actions need to betaken to address the recognised needs.It will also help you get other services toassist, because they will recognise thatyour concern is based on evidence. Otherservices in your area will also be using theCAF, so they will recognise and expect anassessment in this format.12.3The CAF can be used to assess theneeds of unborn babies, infants, childrenor young people. You do not have to bean expert in any particular area to do acommon assessment. You do, however,need to have the right skills and to havebeen on a locally approved training course.Your local area will have a policy aboutwho should do common assessments.Contact your local CAF co-ordinator or thedesignated person within your organisation.2.4If you are worried about a child oryoung person, but not able to do a commonassessment yourself, refer this to your linemanager or supervisor.2.5If you are unsure about whether acommon ass
Effective communication 29 Multi-agency integrated support 32 . It aims to help the early identification of children and young people’s . About the Common Assessment Framework for children and young people 1.1 - 1.5. 1.6 1.7 1.6 The CAF is one way to help you do this. It is a framework to identify unmet
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