CP2. Referral and Assessment

1.1

Local authority children's social care will receive approaches from practitioners, agencies and the public which usually fall in to three categories:

1. Requests for information from local authority children's social care;
2. Provision of information such as notifications about a child;
3. Requests, for services for a child, which will be in the form of a referral.

Anyone who has concerns about a child's welfare can make a referral to a local authority children's social care service. Referrals can come from the child themselves, practitioners such as teachers, early years providers, the police, probation service, GPs and health visitors as well as family members and members of the public. local authority children's social care has the responsibility to clarify with the referrer the nature of the concerns and how and why they have arisen.

1.2

When practitioners refer into local authority children's social care, they should state if there are any pre-existing assessments such as an early help assessment in respect of the child. Any information they have about the child's developmental needs and the capacity of their parents and carers to meet these within the context of their wider family and environment should be provided as a part of the referral information. Such early help assessments should identify what services the child needs and why the child and family require further support to prevent the concerns from escalating to the child needing statutory services. The interagency early help assessments should be undertaken by a Lead professional acting as a coordinator of support services and as an advocate for the child. Local arrangements should be in place to promote effective early help assessments and services.

1.3

The referrer must always have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with a qualified social worker. local authority children's social care should make clear in their local area how this should happen as local arrangements vary for receiving referrals. Most Local Authorities have arrangements in place to screen referrals via a multi agency safeguarding hub process usually referred to as the MASH.

1.4

Within one working day of a referral being received, a qualified social worker and their line manager must make a decision about the course of action to be taken. The social worker will need to make a professional judgment as to what type and level of help and support is needed, record this and feed back in writing to the referrer and the child and their family.

1.5

Where an early help assessment has been undertaken by the referring agency, it should inform the assessment to be undertaken by the social worker. All good assessments should be based on the common principles, which are set out in the three domains represented by the assessment framework[1]. This provides a systematic approach, which addresses the interactions between the three domains when considering the impact on the child and assessing their needs. The three domains are:

1. The child's developmental needs, including whether they are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm;
2. The parents' or carers' capacity to respond to those needs;
3. The impact and influence on the child of wider family, community and environmental circumstances.

[1] (Working Together to Safeguard Children)

1.6

Each local authority must with its partners develop and publish their own local frameworks for assessment which must be based on good analysis, timeliness, and transparency and be proportionate to the needs of the child and their family.  Principles for an assessment should include that it is:

• Child centred and focussed on the child's best interests;
• Rooted in child development and informed by evidence;
• Focussed on action and outcomes for children;
• Holistic in approach and involves all relevant agencies;
• Timely to meet the child's needs;
• Involved with children and their families; including the child's views and wishes;
• Builds on strengths as well as identifies difficulties;
• Monitored and reviewed regularly as a continuing process;
• Transparent and open to challenge.

See Quick Referral Flowchart.

1.7

In all assessment processes, the safety of the child should always remain paramount and in all circumstances. The child must be seen alone by a qualified social worker as soon as possible following a referral. Practitioners involved with the child and family must decide on the timing of this meeting, based on their assessment of the child's needs. Age appropriate assessment tools should be used to structure the assessment of the child. The child's wishes and feelings must be considered when deciding what services to provide. It is important that the impact of what is happening to a child is clearly identified and that information is gathered, recorded and checked systematically, and discussed with the child and their parents/carers where appropriate.

1.8

Early help, assessment and intervention are important because incidents of neglect and abuse within families are on a continuum and situations where abuse is developing can, at times, be resolved by multi-agency preventative services outside the child protection procedures.

1.9

At all stages of referral and assessment, consideration must be given to issues of diversity, taking into account:

• The impact of cultural expectations and obligations on the family;
• The family's knowledge and understanding of UK law in relation to parenting and child welfare;
  • The analysis of the child's and family's cultural needs must not result in a differing expectation in applying standards of good practice to safeguarding the child.
• The family's nationality and immigration status so that, where required, families can be signposted for immigration advice and support [1];
• The impact on the family if recently arrived in the UK and their immigrant status;
• The need to use interpreters for discussions about parenting and child welfare, even though the family's day-to-day English may appear / be adequate (see Interpreters / Communication Facilitators Procedure);
• The set of principles for social workers working on child protection cases and care orders, where the child has links to a foreign country available in Working with Foreign Authorities: Child Protection Cases and Care Orders Departmental advice for local authorities, social workers, service managers and children's services lawyers (July 2014). Further guidance, reflecting the position from January 2021 is available at Cross-border Child Protection Cases: The 1996 Hague Convention.

[1] If as EU / EEA nationals the family have been granted pre- settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, establishing their status will ensure practitioners can support them to apply for settled status at the point at which they accrue 5 years' continuous residence in the UK. See GOV.UK, Switch from pre settled status to settled status.

1.10

Assessments should, as far as possible, build on rather than repeat recent assessments and specialist assessments and have a clear purpose.

1.11

All assessments should be updated and reviewed regularly for example when new information comes to light or prior to consideration of case closures.

Related assessments:

1.12

Where a local authority is assessing the needs of a disabled child, a carer of that child may also require the local authority to undertake an assessment of their ability to provide, or to continue to provide, care for the child, under the Care Act 2014. The Children and Families Act 2014 also includes duties for the assessment of young carers and parent carers of children under 18. The local authority must take account of the results of any such assessment when deciding whether to provide services to the disabled child.

1.13

Under provisions in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, local authorities have established Channel panels, which will assess the extent to which identified individuals are vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism or extremism and arrange for support to be provided to those individuals. Local authorities and their partners should consider how best to ensure that these assessments align with assessments under the Children Act 1989. Concerns relating to radicalisation should be referred to the police using the Prevent National Referral Form.

1.14

In some cases where there are social workers employed by voluntary/charitable/private organisations undertaking assessments with children and families, they should be invited to share information in the best interest of the child to ensure that no aspects of significance are lost in safeguarding the child's welfare.

3.1

Each local authority will have local agreements in place for early help assessments. These should be based on an agreed set of principles and values and reflect the statutory guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018. The aim is to facilitate the access to appropriate services across local boundaries and different agencies.

3.2

The Threshold Document: Continuum of Help and Support aims to provide guidance to explain how Local Authority Children's Social Care apply thresholds when making decisions about how to receive and respond to referrals made to them.

3.3

Who Can Undertake an Assessment?

Early Help: may be appropriate for families who have a range of needs or whose circumstances make them more vulnerable. It is not an approach based on working with families who consent to receive support and the services offered. Early Help is often a range of services delivered by different agencies although these may be coordinated by one specific agency. An assessment for Early Help can be undertaken by a Lead Practitioner who is not necessarily a qualified social worker.

Assessments for Early Help should consider how the needs of different family members impact on each other. This includes needs relating to education, mental and physical health, financial stability housing, substance use and crime. Specific needs should be considered such as disabilities, those whose first language is not English, fathers or male carers, and parents who identify as LGBTQ+. Early Help services may focus on improving family functioning and developing the family’s capacity to establish positive routines and solve problems. Where family networks support the child and parents, services may take an approach that enables family group decision-making, such as a family group conference.

The safeguarding partnership publishes a threshold document (trix link) which sets out the criteria for early help.

Child Protection Enquiries: in these cases, the Lead Practitioner should always be a qualified social worker with the appropriate skills, knowledge and capacity to carry out the assessment.

Under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives or is found in their area is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, it must make such enquiries as it considers necessary to decide whether to take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. Such enquiries, supported by other organisations and agencies, as appropriate, should be initiated where there are concerns about all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation whether this is taking place in person or online, inside or outside of the child’s home.

Assessments should consider the parenting capacity of both resident and non-resident parents and carers, as well as any other adult living in the household that can respond to the child’s needs. Assessments should also consider the influence of the child’s family network and any other adults living in the household, as well as the impact on the wider community and environment.

3.4

Local arrangements vary for receiving referrals as some Local Authorities have arrangements in place to screen referrals against the Threshold Document: Continuum of Help and Support. Whatever the local route for a referral, it should be assessed by a qualified social worker and a decision should be made by the relevant line manager within the time scale of one working day about what should happen next.

4.1

New referrals and referrals on closed cases should be made to the local authority children's social care duty social worker. New information on open cases should be made to the allocated social worker for the case (or in their absence their manager or the duty social worker). Referrals should ideally be in writing unless a child is at immediate risk of significant harm. In these circumstances, referrals should be made by telephone without delay and the referrer should discuss their concerns with a qualified social worker.

The referrer should outline their concerns and will be asked to provide information to explain what they are concerned about and why, particularly in relation to the welfare and immediate safety of the child. See 4.4 for details of the information that might be requested. The referrer should not refrain from making a referral because they lack some of the information as the welfare of the child is the priority.

4.2

For all referrals to local authority children's social care, the child should be regarded as potentially a child in need, and the referral should be evaluated on the day of receipt. A decision must be made within one working day regarding the type of response that is required.

4.3

Local authority children's social care should ensure that the social work practitioners who are responding to referrals are supported by experienced first line managers competent in making sound evidence based decisions about what to do next.

Checks and information gathering 

4.5

When taking a referral, local authority children's social care must establish as much of the following information as possible:

• Full names (including aliases and spelling variations), date of birth and gender of all child/ren in the household;
• Family address and (where relevant) school / nursery attended;
• Identity of those with parental responsibility;
• Names and date of birth of all household members;
• Where available, the child's NHS number and education UPN number.
• Ethnicity, first language and religion of children and parents;
• Any special needs of children or parents;
• Any significant / important recent or historical events / incidents in child or family's life;
• Cause for concern including details of any allegations, their sources, timing and location;
• Child's current location and emotional and physical condition;
• Whether the child needs immediate protection;
• Details of alleged perpetrator, if relevant;
• Referrer's relationship and knowledge of child and parents;
• Known involvement of other agencies / practitioners (e.g. GP);
• Information regarding parental knowledge of, and agreement to, the referral;
• The child's views and wishes, if known.

4.6

At the end of the referral discussion the referrer and local authority children's social care should be clear about proposed action, timescales and who will be taking it, or that no further action will be taken.

4.7

The social worker should lead on an assessment and complete it within the locally agreed time scale by:

• Discussion with the referrer;
• Consideration of any existing records for the child and for any other members of the household;
• Involving other agencies as appropriate (including the police if an offence has been or is suspected to have been committed and probation, if the child is at risk of harm from an offender).

4.8

This assessment should establish:

• The nature of the concern;
• How and why it has arisen;
• What the child's and the family's needs appear to be;
• Whether the concern involves abuse or neglect; and
• Whether there is any need for any urgent action to protect the child or any other children in the household or community.

4.9

Personal information about non-professional referrers should not be disclosed to third parties (including subject families and other agencies) without consent.

4.10

Referrals from practitioners that have been made by telephone or in person should ideally be confirmed in writing, by the referrer, within 48 hours.

4.11

If the referrer has not received an acknowledgement within three working days, they should contact local authority children's social care again.

4.12

It is not necessary to seek permission from parents before sharing information by way of making a referral to another agency. See Information Sharing - S24 onwards - WT 2023 and the Information Sharing Advice for Practitioners.

4.13

Interviews with family members and, if appropriate, with the child should also be undertaken in their preferred language and where appropriate for some people by using non-verbal communication methods.

4.14

A decision to discuss the referral with, or request information from, other agencies does not require permission so long as it is to help identify, assess and respond to risks or concerns about the safety and welfare of children, whether this is when problems are first emerging, or where a child is already known to local authority children's social care (e.g. they are being supported as a child receiving early help, in need or have a child protection plan).

4.15

Local authority children's social care should make it clear to families (where appropriate) and other agencies that the information provided for this assessment will be shared with other agencies as appropriate.

4.16

This checking and information gathering stage must involve an immediate assessment of any concerns about either the child's health and development, or actual and/or potential harm, which justify further enquiries, assessments and / or interventions.

4.17

The local authority children's social care manager should be informed by a social worker of any referrals where there is reasonable cause to consider s47 enquiries and authorise the decision to initiate action. In most cases this will first involve an assessment, which may be brief when the threshold for child protection enquiries is met (see Child Protection s47 Enquiries Procedure). If the child and / or family are well known to professional agencies or the facts clearly indicate that a s47 enquiry is required, the Local Authority should initiate a strategy meeting / discussion immediately, and together with other agencies determine how to proceed.

4.18

The threshold may be met for a s47 enquiry at the time of referral, following checks and information gathering or at any point of local authority children's social care involvement.

4.19

The police must be informed at the earliest opportunity if a crime may have been committed. Failure to notify police could adversely affect any future decision making concerning the child as past concerns would not be known by police. The police must decide whether to commence a criminal investigation and a discussion should take place to plan how parents are to be informed of concerns without jeopardising police investigations.

4.20

The Police should assist other agencies to carry out their responsibilities, where there are concerns about the child's welfare, whether or not a crime has been committed. 

Outcomes of Referrals

4.21

The immediate response to referrals may be:

• No further action at this stage;
• Signposting to other agencies and services;
• Provision of services;
• An assessment of needs with a stated timescale and plan including regular reviews;
• Emergency action to protect a child;
• A s47 strategy meeting / discussion.

4.22

A local authority children's social care manager must approve the decision about the type of response that is required and ensure that a record of the outcome of the referral has been commenced and/or updated.

4.23

Local authority children's social care must acknowledge all referrals within one working day. It is the responsibility of local authority children's social care to make clear to the referrer when they can expect a decision on next steps.

4.24

The social worker should inform, in writing, all the relevant agencies and the family of their decisions and, if the child is a Child in Need, about how the assessment will be carried out or of a plan for providing support.

No further action

4.25

Where there is to be no further local authority children's social care action, feedback should be provided to the child, the family and referrers about the outcome of this stage of the referral. This should include the reasons why a case may not meet the statutory threshold to be considered by local authority children's social care for assessment and suggestions for other sources of more suitable support.

4.26

In the case of referrals from members of the public, feedback must be consistent with the rights to confidentiality of the child and their family.

5.1

The assessment should be undertaken in accordance with the relevant local assessment protocol based on the guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023. Where an early help assessment has previously been completed, this information should be used to inform the assessment, although the information must be updated and the child must be seen.

5.2

The assessment must be completed in a timely manner as identified by the social worker and local authority children's social care manager but should not exceed 45 working days from the point of referral. Where it becomes apparent that this timescale will require extension, a local authority children's social care first line manager must review the file, record the reason for the extension and agree the new timescale. Local Authorities may have different local Assessment framework agreements in place which may contain timescales to be observed. Any timescale should be regularly reviewed.

5.3

The assessment must be led by a qualified local authority social worker who is supervised by an experienced and qualified social work manager. The social worker should, in consultation with their manager and the other agencies involved with the child and family, carefully plan the assessment actions and steps for who is doing what by when:

• Arrangements for when and how to speak to the child/ren alone:
  • If it is decided that the child/ren should not be seen alone (e.g. babies) or the parent(s) prevent the child being seen alone, then this must be discussed with the manager and other agencies and consideration given to whether further action should be taken.
• Whether the child/ren should be seen and spoken to with or without their parents;
• When to interview parents and any other relevant family members;
• What the child and parents should be told of any concerns;
• What contributions (historical and contemporary information) to the assessment from other agencies should be and who will provide them;
• What background history, for whom, should be gathered including the community context;
• Whether information from abroad is required. If it is, then practitioners from each agency will need to request information from their equivalent agencies in the countries in which the child has lived. See guidance in Working with Foreign Authorities: Child Protection Cases and Care Orders Departmental advice for local authorities, social workers, service managers and children's services lawyers (July 2014) and Cross-border Child Protection Cases: The 1996 Hague Convention for updated information applicable from January 2021;
• Whether or not checks should be undertaken on social media (see Child Protection s47 Enquiries Procedure, paragraph 4.2 and Accessing Open Source Information about Children and Adults for Safeguarding Purposes).

5.4

Personal information about non-professional referrers should not be disclosed to third parties (including subject families and other agencies) without consent.

5.5

It is not necessary to seek parents' permission before discussing a referral about them with other agencies. See Information Sharing - S24 onwards - WT 2018 and the Information Sharing Guidance.

5.6

The checks should be undertaken directly with the involved practitioners and not through messages with intermediaries for example reception staff in GP Practices.

5.7

The relevant agency should be informed of the reason for the enquiry and asked for their assessment of the child in the light of information presented.

5.8

All discussions and interviews with family members and the child should be undertaken in their preferred language and where appropriate for some people by using non-verbal communication methods.

5.9

Local authority children's social care should make it clear to families (where appropriate) and other agencies that the information provided for this assessment may be shared with other agencies.

5.10

If during the course of the assessment it is discovered that a school age child is not attending an educational establishment, the local authority education service where the child resides should be contacted to establish the reason for this. local authority education must take responsibility for ensuring that the child receives education as soon as possible.

Action must also be taken, if it is discovered that a child is not registered with a GP, to arrange registration. Depending on the age of the child the relevant community services named health professional should be contacted and action taken to arrange for the child to have access to all health services and an NHS number.

Where the child who is the subject of the assessment unborn or a baby, the assessment should consider the risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) [1] and how professionals are addressing these risks with the parent(s).

[1] Out of routine: A review of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) in families where the children are considered at risk of significant harm - The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel 2020 found that the risk factors known to increase the risk of SUDI were more likely to be present where children are considered to be at risk of significant harm.

Purpose of Assessment

5.11

The purpose of a social care assessment is to:

• Gather important information about a child and family;
• Analyse their needs and/or the nature and level of any risk and harm being suffered by the child including where harm or risk of harm is from outside the home;
• Decide whether the child is a child in need (section 17) or is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm (section 47);
• Provide support to address those needs to improve the child’s outcomes and welfare and where necessary to make them safe;
• Identify support from within the family network.

5.12

An assessment should be planned in accordance with Local Assessment guidance / protocols in place and set out to aim to understand the child's developmental or welfare needs and circumstances and the parents' capacity to respond to those needs, including the parents' capacity to ensure that the child is safe from harm now and in the future.

5.13

The assessment must set out the timescales and the child must be seen within a timescale that is appropriate to the nature of the concerns expressed at referral.

5.14

A local authority children's social care manager must approve the assessment and ensure that:

• There has been direct communication with the child alone and their views and wishes have been recorded and taken into account when providing services;
• All the children in the household have been seen and their needs considered;
• The child's home address has been visited and the child's bedroom has been seen;
• The parent has been seen and their views and wishes have been recorded and taken into account;
• Background history of both mother and father, or other adult carer, and their parenting skills and capacity has been considered;
• The analysis has been completed;
• The assessment provides clear evidence for decisions on what types of services are needed to provide good outcomes for the child and family;
• The records and the child's chronology within the records are up-to-date;
• The assessment will be reviewed regularly;
•  The action points have been distributed to all participants.

Information from previous local authorities / countries

5.15

If the child and their parents have moved into the local authority children's social care area, all practitioners should seek information from their respective agencies covering previous addresses in the UK and abroad. See also guidance in Working with Foreign Authorities: Child Protection Cases and Care Orders Departmental advice for local authorities, social workers, service managers and children's services lawyers (July 2014) and Cross-border Child Protection Cases: The 1996 Hague Convention for updated information applicable from January 2021.

5.16

For information from foreign countries, see Accessing Information from Abroad Procedure. In some cases, specialist assessments and information can be undertaken or obtained through independent consultants or through specialist agencies such as International social services (ISS) and Children And Families Across Borders (CFAB).

5.17

It is never acceptable to delay immediate action required whilst information from foreign countries is accessed.

Notifying the police 

5.18

It will not necessarily be clear whether a criminal offence has been committed, which means that even initial discussions with the child should be undertaken in a way that minimises distress to them and maximises the likelihood that they will provide accurate and complete information, avoiding leading or suggestive questions.

5.19

The police must be informed at the earliest opportunity if a crime may have been committed, , regardless of whether the S47 threshold has been met, using Referral to Police Form 87A. The police will decide whether to commence a criminal investigation and should work jointly with the Local Authority. The police should assist agencies to carry out their responsibilities, where there are concerns about a child's welfare, whether or not a crime has been committed.

Outcome of assessment 

5.20

The focus of the multi-agency assessment is to gather important information about the child and family, to analyse their needs, and the level and nature of any risk and harm, and to provide support services in order to improve the outcomes for the child. In the course of the assessment, local authority children's social care should ascertain:

• Is this a child in need? (s17 Children Act 1989); if so, is there a need for further social work support or provision of support?
• Is there reasonable cause to suspect that this child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm? (s47 Children Act 1989);
• Is this a child in need of, or requesting, accommodation? (s20 or s31 Children Act 1989).

5.21

Every assessment should be focussed on outcomes, deciding which services and support to provide in order to deliver improved welfare for the child.

The possible outcomes of the assessment are:

• No further action;
• The development of a multi-agency child in need plan for the provision of child in need services to promote the child's health and development;
• Specialist assessment for a more in-depth understanding of the child's needs and circumstances;
• Undertaking a strategy meeting / discussion, a s47 child protection enquiry;
• Emergency action to protect a child (see Child Protection s47 Enquiries Procedure, Immediate protection).

5.22

The outcome of the  assessment should be:

• Discussed with the child and family and provided to them in written form. Exceptions to this are where this might place a child at risk of harm or jeopardise an enquiry;
• Taking account of confidentiality, provided to professional referrers;
• Given in writing to agencies involved in providing services to the child.

5.23

A local authority children's social care manager must have approved the outcomes of an assessment and have recorded and authorised the reasons for decisions, future actions to be taken and also that:

• The child/ren have been seen alone or there has been a recorded management decision that this is not appropriate (e.g. a s47 enquiry and police investigation initiated which will plan method of contact with child);
• The needs of all children in the household have been considered;
• Records and a chronology have been completed and / or updated;
• Written feedback has been provided to the family, other agencies and referrers about the outcome of this stage of the referral in a manner consistent with respecting the confidentiality and welfare of the child.

5.24

If the criteria for initiating s47 enquiries are met at any stage during an assessment a Strategy meeting/discussion should take place.

5.25

If the assessment is that further support is required, a child in need plan should be agreed with the family and other agencies. This plan should be monitored and reviewed regularly in line with local standards but within a maximum of six months to ensure that the outcomes for the child are met.

6.1

See Chapter CP2(A). Pre-Birth Referral and Assessment.