How to do a common assessment diagram
Identify Needs Early
1. Identify potential unmet needs of a child or young person that you would not routinely meet within your usual service provision.
2. Discuss the Common Assessment process with the family / young person and record their consent or refusal within your own records keeping a signature on relevantconsent documentation.
3. Assuming they agree to a common assessment check if there is an existing Common Assessment by contacting the CAF Team. In the future ContactPoint must be used to assist this process. Also consider whether a CAF may have been completed by colleagues in another local authority.
4. Register the intention to undertake a Common Assessment with the CAF Team provide the necessary details and obtain a reference number.
5. Receive the CAF form electronically. This Word version can be used to make notes in meetings. The
form you will be sent is in Excel format.
Discussion To Assess those Needs
1.Gather information by visiting the parent, child / young person and liaising as necessary with other professionals using ContactPoint once available.
2. Record all the relevant information on the Common Assessment form which will ensure a clear, complete picture of the current situation
3.Return the completed form to the CAF team to be put on the database
Deliver Integrated Services
1. Agree appropriate service delivery
2. Agree recording monitoring and evaluation mechanisms through the completion of Action Plans and Reviews. Word version of the Action Plan & Review Form can be
used to make notes in the meetings
3. Deliver the agreed service and evaluate the impact with the family
4. Where progress is stuck despite agencies engaging in the Common Assessment Process practitioners can refer to Local Intervention Panels, or for more serious cases wedge based Multi Agency Panels
Review Progress
Following the completion of an action plan a review needs to be arranged to monitor progress. Each is recorded electronically on a review proforma which will be stored on the CAF database. Reviews should be set at intervals appropriate to the needs of the child/young person but not more than 6 monthly. Following a review it may be appropriate to close the CAF episode, refer to specialist service or agree to hold another review. Any decision / outcome of the review must be recorded on the form stating the reason why. All paperwork should then be submitted to the CAF team including any changes, outcomes and future planned meetings.
All Word documents forms are for use in meetings to make
notes only. Information should be transferred to the Excel form to submit to
the CAF team