Halton CAF Guidance & Lead Professional Procedures

Revised September 2014

Contents

Item / Page Number
Introduction / 3
Halton Levels of Need / 4
Halton Early Intervention Model – Locality Teams / 6
Features of CAF / 8
Quick Guide to CAF / 9
Steps Involved / 10
CAF Documentation / 11
Lead Professional role / 12
Multi-agency Meeting Guidance / 16
Cross-boundary Issues / 18
Transition into Adult Services / 19
Documentation & related documents / 20
Appendix 1 – Gathering Children’s Wishes and Feelings / 21
Appendix 2 - What the elements mean / 22
Appendix 3 – CAF documents with guidance / 24

Introduction

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is a standardised approach to assessing a family’s unmet needs and ensuring they access appropriate support. The CAFwas one of the changes introduced in the Children Act and plays a major part in improving services and outcomes for children, young people and families as it aims to co-ordinate support around early help in order to prevent needs from escalating and requiring statutory intervention. No single agency or organisation can ensure that these outcomes are achieved, it needs all agencies to work together to ensure that children, young people and their families receive services which are well co-ordinated, integrated, responsive and timely.

CAF is intended to be simple to use, is geared towards the practical delivery of support to families and is used by practitioners working in a wide range of agencies who work with children and families. Professionals may be concerned about additional work involved in undertaking CAF assessments, however, practitioners will already be assessing needs, planning and delivering services. The only change here is that these tasks are co-ordinated via the CAF framework.

In Halton, the early intervention locality teams can offer some advice and support with regards to the CAF process and this can be requested by contacting the relevant team to where the family resides as follows:

  • Runcorn West
  • Runcorn East
  • Widnes

The strategic direction and monitoring for CAF in Halton sits with the Halton Children’s Trust Early Help-Closing the Gap Strategic Group. There is representation from LA, health, education and voluntary agencies who participate within this meeting. All agencies have agreed to a number of early help principles and practices in order to support families as soon as additional needs are identified, in order to prevent needs escalating. The CAF is a crucial tool within Halton’s early help framework and the Lead Professional role can fall to any agency in Halton who works with children and families.

All individuals working with children, young people and their families 0 - 19 have a role in providing support to those undertaking the Lead Professional role i.e. from senior managers to practitioners. Additionally, there may be occasions when it is appropriate for a professional from adult services to take upon the Lead Professional role. Managers have a responsibility to be aware of the Lead Professional role and to provide necessary support. Agencies own supervision procedures may need to be reviewed in light of the Lead Professional role

Halton Levels of Need

The Halton Levels of Need Framework was revised and launched in April 2013 to support agencies all agencies and services to meet the needs of children, young people and their families to ensure the best possible outcomes. The Framework aims to assist practitioners and managers in assessing and identifying a child’s level of additional needs and how best to respond in order to meet those needs as early as possible to prevent needs escalating further.

The Framework sets out three levels of additional needs above Universal Services that captures the full range of additional needs as they present. Universal Services remain at the heart of all work with children, young people and their families and are in place for all whether additional needs present themselves or not. The fundamental relationship between Universal Services and the three levels of additional needs is captured in the diagram below:

The key principles of the Halton Level of Need Framework include:

  • Safeguarding runs throughout all levels.
  • Provide early help and support at the first possible stage and meet needs at the lowest possible level.
  • The focus is on Halton’s more vulnerable groups and directing service responses at preventing vulnerability.
  • Builds on existing good multi-agency working and formalises shared responsibility for meeting all needs.
  • Supports work of all agencies and is equally applicable to all agencies.
  • Flexible and fluid, allows free movement between levels as additional needs increase or reduce.
  • Clear and understandable
  • Focus on the needs of the child and family to ensure the best outcomes for all.

In Halton, CAFs should be undertaken when it is agreed that a family’s needs sit at level 2 multi-agency planning. At this level, a professional has decided that the family have a range of needs whereby a co-ordinated multi-agency package of support would help. If another holistic multi-agency plan is being offered, such as an APM or Family Assessment, then a CAF would not need to be done.

The level of need where a family sits is transient, however, if a Lead Professional has reason to believe that the level of need has escalated and that the case is on the cusp of level 3, multi-agency plan to protect from harm, then there needs to be a discussion with their line manager and with their authorisation, contact the Contact and Referral Team (CART), who will offer advice regarding whether a step-up into Children’s Social Care is required. Cases can also step-down from CiN to CAF and in these instances the Social Worker’s closure notes are used in place of the CAF.

Halton Early Intervention Model - Locality Teams

Halton have developed resources to offer support around early intervention, in order to prevent the escalation of needs and to reduce the demands upon specialist services. This journey started with a locality pilot, which led to the development of 2 Integrated Working Support Teams which sat within the Team Around the Family (TAF) framework. A redesign of this framework took place in 2014 and this has led to the introduction of early intervention locality teams from 1st September 2014.

Key Underlying Principles Of Halton Local Offer Of Early Intervention:

Early intervention is underpinned by a robust universal offer, through which all Children’s Trust professionals pro-actively identify those children, young people and families who need additional help and support and encourage them to take up services, in order to reduce the escalation of needs.

Early intervention is delivered across the age range of children aged 0 – 19 and their families, with a particular focus on 0-5 year olds, as this is a crucial time of development during which the foundations for later healthy development can be set.

For all families with children of pre-school age, across both universal and early help services, a focus on enhancing language and communication will have the best overall effect on their future school readiness and achievement.

Early intervention services will focus on a strengths’ based model, which enables the development of strong attachments and healthy family relationships.

One front door for additional services, with early help workers as part of CART so that all professionals have a single point of contact to find out who else is involved with a child or family and to facilitate the identification of appropriate support for the family.

Where more than two services are being delivered to a family and/or when the level of need is assessed at level 2, CAF will be used as the key assessment tool. The use of pre-CAF will be encouraged to identify early help support requirements. For families with multiple children/multiple needs and/or needs are identified as being at the top end of level of need 2, on the Halton Framework, the Family Assessment will be used.

Multi-agency working is crucial to the success of the early help offer in Halton. Children’s Trust partners will be expected to actively engage in processes and developments to enable team around the family principles to support families

Locality Based Early Help Teams:

Three locality based early help teams have been established, one to cover Widnes and two in Runcorn, one covering the Runcorn West area and one covering Runcorn East. These teams now house the functions previously carried out by IWST, Family Support and Intensive Family Work. Each team consists of a Principal Manager, Senior Early Help Officer, CAF Support Workers, Family Support Workers, Intensive Family Support Workers and Community Support Workers. Staff from other services, such as EWOs, Health Visitors, School Nurses and Midwives are expected to either join the teams very soon or act as “virtual team members” by being co-located and working closely with the team and building upon the success of the multi-agency Working Together Meetings.

Purpose of the Teams:

•Develop and maintain strong links to universal services

•To support the early identification of children, young people and families who could benefit from early

intervention and support to prevent the risk of the escalation of needs

•To support Children’s Trust professionals to act as CAF Lead Professionals

•To provide signposting/advice and guidance to families and professionals regarding support services

and to encourage families to take up these services

•Named locality workers will be linked to schools within the school support project to ensure swift and

easy access into early help services

•Named early help workers will be linked to Children’s Centres and early years settings to ensure swift

and easy access to support children in the early years and to support the “ready for school” agenda

•Health engagement workers will act as the bridge between the locality early help services and GP

practices for families presenting at surgeries with early help support needs

•Offer direct family support when needs are identified through a pre-CAF, CAF or Family Assessment

(1:1 work with children, delivery of group work and structured parenting programmes with parents,

through group work with parents and children together)

•Supporting the ”step down” process from Children’s Social Care to early intervention

•Offer support, advice and guidance to Children’s Trust professionals

•Facilitate Working Together Meetings, which will provide a multi-agency forum for case discussion for

cases being held at a pre-CAF or CAF i.e. level 2 on Halton’s Level of Need Framework.

•To offer short term mentoring and coaching for professionals who need support in completing CAFs and

/or acting as Lead Professional

•To offer regular training to professionals in the Children’s Workforce around CAF and the Lead

Professional role

•To quality assure the CAF process, including disseminating findings from CAF audits widely amongst

practitioners to improve practice and support reflective practice and continuous improvement

Features of the CAF

CAF offers a standardised approach to conducting an assessment of unborn babies, children, young people, parents and carers and deciding how they can best be met. It helps practitioners of all agencies undertake a holistic assessment of need using a common format, determine the level of need and identify and appropriate response which can include:

•Single agency response

•Request for support from another agency

•Multi-agency response

The principles underlying the approach to common assessment are that it:

•is undertaken with consent, therefore needing to be built around co-operation

•is holistic and adopts a ‘Think Family’ approach

•takes account of strengths as well as needs

•understands the role of parents/carers and a wide range of family and environmental factors on child development;

•is simple to use and geared towards the practical delivery of support to families

•is empowering for families and completed in partnership with them

•enables and encourages information to follow the child, e.g. as they get older, change schools or move house (subject to controls to protect confidentiality and consent)

•is a tool to support practice; is not used mechanistically or when it adds little value; and supports and enhances on-going and effective communication within and between agencies

Quick Guide To The Common Assessment Framework

How will this help?

CAF can help you identify what the unmet needs are for a family. It provides a structure for recording information that you pick up in conversation with them and is a tool to demonstrate that your concern is based on evidence, not just your assumption. You don’t have to be an expert to do a CAF. The key thing is to record what information you do have. Others will be able to add more detail later, if a specialist assessment is needed.

When not to do a common assessment:

Children who are progressing well, or have needs that are already being met, do not need one.

You don’t need to do a common assessment where you have identified the needs and your service can meet them.

If the family are at level 3 on the on the Halton level of need framework.

When to do a common assessment

You can do a common assessment at any time. A common assessment can be initiated for unborn babies, new babies, children or young people and should also consider the needs of their parents/carers. It is designed for when:

•you are concerned about how well a child (or unborn baby) or young person is progressing. You might be concerned about their health, welfare, behaviour, progress in learning or any other aspect of their well-being;

•the needs are unclear, or broader than your service can address; and

•it would help identify the needs, and/or get other services to help meet them

Examples of situations where a common assessment might be appropriate

•where a routine post-natal visit causes the practitioner to be concerned about the living circumstances of a new born baby

•where there are concerns that a baby is significantly behind on developmental milestones or a child isnot progressing in learning as expected

•where a practitioner believes a child may have additional needs and wants to understand better what they are and what the appropriate response is, for example, where a school or early years setting perceives a child is being affected by elements such as domestic situations or health which are not necessarily related to SEN

•where a practitioner is considering a requesting support from another agency

•where a child is displaying aggressive behaviour, e.g. carrying a knife, or in relation to bullying, truancy, withdrawal or other behavioural and emotional issues

•where a child is exhibiting problematic or anti-social behaviour and where the underlying cause may be hidden (e.g. substance abuse/misuse)

•where a child appears to have additional needs, but is unlikely to be eligible for support under existing threshold criteria for specialist services e.g. a statement of SEN

Steps Involved

Step 1: Preparation - discussion with the family around the issues raised so far and what you can do to support. Discuss with others eg line manager and other agencies already involved. There is an easy-to-use checklist to help you decide whether a common assessment should be completed (Pre-CAF). Whether to do the assessment is a decision you should make jointly with the family. If the child is old enough to understand and competent to make their own decision, they should be the one to decide whether they would like to be supported via a CAF. Always encourage them to discuss things with their parents, however, and also ensure that parents and carers’ are considered. Contact CART to establish if the family are already being supported via a holistic plan and request support via the relevant locality team if needed. If you decide a CAF would be useful, seek agreement from the family and consent to proceed. After you have gained consent, the CAF should be completed within 4 weeks, in order to prevent drift and further escalation of needs.

Step 2: Discussion- talk to and / or observe the child (depending on age and level of understanding), parents/carers and siblings as appropriate (remembering to include those who are non-resident). Make use of information you have already gathered to avoid duplication. If there has been a previous holistic plan, utilise this information, with the family’s permission. At the end of the discussion you should have a better understanding of the family’s strengths, needs/worries and what can be done to help. You can agree actions that your service and the family can deliver and those which will require support from others.

The common assessment discussion has 6 parts:

  1. Explain the purpose of the assessment, why you are recording information and what will happen to it. Ensure the family understand that the CAF is a resource to help them access services. There is no stigma attached. Check they consent to what is proposed. If the child is old enough to understand what you are proposing, they should give consent themselves. Do not assume that children with a disability or learning disabilities are not capable of understanding. Ensure that you capture the family’s view throughout the discussion.
  2. Complete the front page of basic details.
  3. Go through the main assessment areas. You should consider each of the three broad groups separately ie child development, parenting and family/environmental factors (see further guidance within the appendix).
  1. For each assessment domain, you should consider each of the elements in turn, to the extent they are appropriate in the circumstances. Concentrate on the presenting issues but you should consider the whole child, not just your own agency focus. You should also focus on areas of strength in the family, not just needs. The conversations should not be threatening. You should base your comments on evidence, not opinion, unless you have evidence to support your opinion. Evidence would be what you have seen, what the child/young person has said and what the family members have said.
  2. Record, with the child or parent, your overall conclusions and the evidence behind them. Agree what you say with the child or parent and record any major differences of opinion. Identify solutions and actions. Try to focus on what the child and family can do for themselves. If they additional support identify where this can be sourced or highlight that this will be a task as part of the plan.
  3. Agree who will do what and when you will review progress. Record the child/young person’s or parent/carer’s consent to share the assessment information with other agencies and any limitations on that consent. Give a copy of the assessment to the child or family and explain that they can show it to other services if they wish to, so they don’t have to keep repeating their stories from the beginning.

Step 3: Service delivery- you deliver on your actions. You request support from other agencies as appropriate, using the common assessment to demonstrate evidence of need (with consent). Progress is monitored using the delivery planning and review process and documentation. Where the family require support from more than 2 agencies, including your own, a multi-agency meeting should be held and a lead professional identified.