1.5 Common Assessment Framework |
For detailed information relating to the CAF process please see Early Intervention when there are Child Welfare Concerns Procedure.
The Common Assessment Framework for children and young people (CAF) is a shared assessment tool used across agencies in England. It can help practitioners develop a shared understanding of a child’s needs, so they can be met more effectively. It will avoid children and families having to tell and re-tell their story.
The CAF is an important tool for early intervention. It has been designed specifically to help practitioners assess needs at an earlier stage and then work with families, alongside other practitioners and agencies, to meet them.
The CAF is not for when there is concern that a child may have been harmed or may be at risk of harm. In these circumstances the procedures set out in Part 3 of this Manual must be followed.
Some children have important disadvantages that currently are only addressed when they become serious. Sometimes their parents know there is a problem but struggle to know how to get help.
The most important way of ensuring that these children can be identified earlier and helped before things reach crisis point is for everyone whose job involves working with children and families to keep an eye out for their well-being, and be prepared to help if something is going wrong.
The CAF has been introduced to help do this. It is a tool to identify unmet needs. It covers all needs, not just the needs that individual services are most interested in, so a holistic package of support can be offered. A CAF should be undertaken where additional needs have been identified that require integrated targeted support, but where it has been agreed that the threshold for statutory specialist services is not met.
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