Assessment Process
Our parenting assessments are undertaking using the ParentAsses Framework which focuses on identifying strengths and concerns of parenting in five (5) areas:
• The Child ‘s Experience
• The Parents Daily Living Skills
• How the Parent Functions
• Specific Issues
Placement Planning Meeting and Expectations
On day one of placement, parent/s and child social worker are expected to attend a placement planning meeting with the unit manager. A discussion will take place to agree a plan of the support needed. Parents will be provided with a resident’s guide allocated an experienced family support worker who will arrange a timetable of support/activities and shown around the home. Parents will be introduced to their lead assessor by week one to map out their assessment.
• Support Our parenting Assessment also considers the impact of wider factors on the parenting and the child's development. Which may include some of the following:-
• Family history and functioning
• Extended family
• Housing
• Employment
• Income
• Social Integration and community resources (HM Government, 2013).
During a
parenting assessment it is important to establish whether poor parenting is a
regular occurrence (Kellett and Apps, 2009).
Consequently,
to obtain a full picture of parenting capacity, we would consider the care
parents provide in a variety of settings and at different times of the day
(Jones, 2010).
Parenting
capacity assessments involve:
• Interviewing
parents/carers
• Interviewing
children
• Whole family
assessments
• Observations
of mother-child interaction in several settings and at different times of the
day (Jones, 2010).
ParentAssess Framework is a strengths-based framework that is widely used across social work
teams to help parents understand potential risks and to support practitioners
to offer areas of support as and when the need arises. ParentAsses framework
encompasses five (5) areas to consider the parent’s overall ability to care for
their child in the medium and long term.
Our Assessment Tool – ParentAssesS Framework
Our
assessment framework will use a traffic light system, this enables the parents
to share their views and supports the family assessment practitioners to
demonstrate how the parents are doing within the home.
The
assessment framework aims to be very clear in showing the parents areas in
which they need to develop within and uses colour coding to reference. See
Indicators below
Red - that there are significant concerns
Yellow - that there are some concerns and that
monitoring required
Green – No concerns reported
Admissions process
Our unit accommodates up to 3 parents and their children who may be deemed as vulnerable and require assessment of their parenting capacity and support develop skills with the long-term goal of reintegration into society.
We support parents who have:
• Mental health concerns
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Minor learning difficulties
• Experienced domestic abuse
• Pregnant mothers – due within a few weeks of their arrival.
Prior to admission to Safe Haven the placing local authority will complete a referral form, as a unit we request background information and immediate care needs for both the parent and the baby/child.
