Barnardos Assessment Framework Toolkit Child/young Person's History and Stage 1 and Stage 2 Assessments

Abstract

The purpose of the Barnardos Assessment Framework is to enhance and complement the professional training and skills of staff and its aim is to strengthen already existing quality practice with children, young people and their families. Barnardos Assessment is a framework which will support the worker to clearly record, consider and analyse information on the history of a family, while keeping the individual child’s' safety and healthy development at the centre of our work. The framework acts as a way of assisting staff in their work with children, young people and families in terms of gathering a clear picture of their strengths and needs, what they want to achieve and planning what interventions/services will be most successful and beneficial. Assessment information will be recorded in a concise way that will enhance clarity and lead to LESS writing and MORE meaningful analysis by workers. The aim of the Barnardos Assessment Framework is to focus on needs, in order to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people through successful interventions. The design of the framework enhances a holistic view of the child. Seeing their histories in a very visual, spatial format can help families in making connections between events and reactions in the life of the family and highlight the potential negative effects of these events on their child. This toolkit provides background information on assessment and outlines the steps involved in the assessment process within Barnardos. It will prove a useful resource for staff to refer to in their assessment work with families. It does not and cannot answer all the questions that will inevitably arise when doing an assessment because each child and family circumstance has unique characteristics which require professional judgement. These professional judgements should be made in the manner in which they always have been — though discussion with colleagues and other services and with the guidance of the line manager.