INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
A MULTI AGENCY GUIDE
Adult Services and Parent Support
Part 2
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Introduction
Parenting Support and Parenting Capacity
The importance of staff working with adults who have responsibility for caring for
children cannot be underestimated. For adult services, it is recognised that staff will
work undertake their own assessments, e.g. single shared assessment and care
pathways. For the purposes of this integrated assessment framework, the relevance
is for adults who have children or who may have the care of children.
Roles and Responsibilities
There is an expectation that if working with an adult, as described above, that
particular questions need to be considered to establish whether there is a need for
additional support for the child and family.
What is Parenting Capacity?
Parenting capacity refers to parents' ability to nurture their children, protect them
from risk and enhance their developmental experiences. Parenting capacity is the
ability to parent in a good enough manner long term. It is different from parenting
ability where an individual may be able to parent for a short period of time in specific
circumstances but not have the capacity to parent effectively long term. An
understanding of how a family usually functions and how it functions when under
stress can be very helpful in identifying what factors may assist parents in carrying
out their parenting roles. Of particular importance is the quality and nature of the
relationship between a child’s parents and how this affects the child. For example,
sustained conflict between parents is detrimental to children’s welfare. The quality of
relationships between siblings may also be of major significance to a child’s welfare.
Account must be taken of the diversity of family styles and structures, particularly
who counts as family and who is important to the child. (See Appendix 6 within
Integrated Assessment Framework)
Information Gathering and Sharing
One of the fundamental components of assessment is information gathering.
All workers should undertake direct checks within their own service and with other
agencies working with the child and family, to clarify if there has been previous
contact with other agencies or services, and if so, what the problem was at that time
and what solutions were found.
This could include all social work services, housing, education, health, police and the
voluntary sector. Some of these checks can be facilitated by using Client Tracking
System.
For all children there will be a named person. For example if the child is under 5
years of age the named person will be the health visitor. It may be in the first instance
than contact is made with the named person.
In general, consent should be sought before the sharing of information using the
Parenting Support Information sharing form, and consent, when sought, should be
informed and explicit. Children and families should understand what is going to be
shared, the reasons for this and the implications.
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However there are exceptions where consent of the parent is not needed to share
information.
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If a child is considered to be at risk of harm, relevant information must
always be shared for their protection
Circumstances where even the act of seeking consent may place a child or other
person at risk.
Practitioners must be aware of this and must consider whether seeking consent may
present a risk. If the decision is that seeking consent may present a risk,
consent should not be sought and this decision and the reasons for it recorded
appropriately.
The assessment of parenting capacity is integral to all assessments of children and
young people.
There are lots of factors which can affect the capacity of adults to parent such as a
learning disability, physical disability, mental illness, domestic abuse and substance
misuse. Some factors may result in short term problems, while others can be longer
term.
As a worker in contact with an adult who is living with, or having regular contact with,
children, whether their own, or a partner's, it is important that you gather some
information on the situation in which the child lives in order to begin to consider
whether the adults problems are affecting their ability to parent.
Definition of the Parenting Task
To meet a child's developmental needs a parent must:
 provide the child with basic care
 ensure the safety of the child
 provide emotional warmth
 provide appropriate stimulation
 provide guidance and boundaries
 provide stability
Where the child/family is an open case to Children's Services in the Social Work
Department, the responsibility for gathering the necessary information for assessing
parenting lies with them. You may need to check client tracking/the social work IT
system (K2) to see if there are other services already involved. If Children's Services
are involved there is no need for workers in adult services to complete the Parenting
Support Form,
Where children's services are involved there is an expectation that workers from both
adult services and children's services will share information and work together to
contribute to the assessment of the child or young person. In addition, workers in
adult services may be asked to contribute to the Child's Plan, (see Part 4 of the
Integrated Assessment Framework.
For many parents contacting adult services, there will be no children's services social
work involvement.
If more than one adult service is involved (e.g. housing and criminal justice services)
an agreement must be reached as to who is deemed the 'lead' service', and that
service will be responsible for completing the assessment, aided by the information
of the other service(s).
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The Parenting Support Form
Although the guidance refers to parenting capacity, for the purposes of the direct
work with the parent, the form to present the information on is called the Parenting
Support Form - Adult Services.
The form should be completed by adult service workers who have contact with
parents/service users where additional supports are felt to be needed to ensure
that the child's needs are better met.
Where the contact is 'one off' or very short, the form should be completed in as much
detail as possible, to assist you in deciding if more support is needed.
If the support is required from a single agency, the completed form should be sent to
that agency.
Where there are possible areas which might need support, the service/worker
identified to take this on will add to the form/assessment over the initial weeks of
contact as their relationship with, and knowledge of, the family grows.
If you have immediate concerns about a child then refer to your
representative on the Multi-Agency Screening Hub.
The Form provides some possible questions to be asked where you know there is a
child living in the house, or visiting the house. These are based on the definition of
parenting above and are deliberately focused on the needs of the child(ren). The
format and areas to be covered should be shared with the parent(s) from the
beginning of your involvement.
The Form should be used as a document to forward to any other agency where it has
been identified there is a need for additional support. This can include the Multi
Agency Screening Hub.
Some questions are clearly age dependent and there will be some information you
will be able to gather only if you have direct contact with the child. It will be important
to note what information you cannot gather (there is a box in the form entitled 'no
information at present'), as well as what information you can.
All these questions are only a guide of areas to be covered. More questions will
undoubtedly arise from the conversations you have with your service user.
The main question to bear in mind to ask, whatever information you gather is, "How
does this affect your child(ren)?" and to look at each child as an individual as they will
all have different needs and potentially be at different degrees of risk dependent on
their ages and needs.
Where alcohol and/or drug misuse is an issue please also complete the Drug
and Alcohol Checklist.
Where domestic abuse is an issue please also complete the SPECSSS
(Separation, Pregnancy, Exclusion, Cultural Factors, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual
Violence) and Domestic Abuse Risk Checklist. If you identify a cluster of risk
factors (3 or more) you should speak to your manager or identified Child
Protection Lead
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NON-DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION
On the front page of the form there is a box regarding non-disclosure of information.
If you are advised or become aware that information such as the address of the
parent or child should not be disclosed to others (e.g. where the mother is residing in
a refuge after fleeing domestic abuse or a Children's Hearing has ordered the nondisclosure of the child's address) then you should note this with a YES in the box,
and give more details within the appropriate part of Section 2 - SAFETY.
Under each of the sections there are headings - Direct observation of child (if
applicable). If you see a child then you will be able to fill in this part. If not, just note
that the child was not present.
At each heading on the form, you will find the link to the Scottish Government Getting
It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC). These are: Safe, Healthy, Active, Nurtured,
Achieving, Respected, Responsible and Included (often referred to as "SHANARRI").
You do not need to write something in all headings it depends on the age and
needs of the child and what supports are needed.
If, in collecting information about the household, you become aware that an adult
causing concern (e.g. previous violence or abuse to any adult or child including
domestic abuse, threats to staff members, substance misuse) is linked to, or has
moved into, the family you are working with, this information must be shared across
all relevant agencies involved with the children (health, education, social work).
If you have concerns from the information you gather, you must discuss the action to
be taken with your manager and, where available, your identified child protection
specialist.
It is crucial to gather information about the parents/carers strengths as well as any
areas of difficulty they are experiencing. The emphasis is on early intervention
and support for parents.
It is also important to differentiate between the parent's aspirations and intentions,
and the daily reality of their behaviour. Assessment needs to be based on evidence
and realistic expectations rather than on optimism alone.
For all assessments:
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there must be clarity of purpose about the questions to be answered by
the assessment process;
evidence, and not unsubstantiated opinion, of what is seen, heard and
read must be carefully collected and recorded;
attaching meaning to the information collected must distinguish the child’s
and family’s understanding from that of professionals;
there must be clarity about the sources of knowledge which inform
professional judgement;
severity, immediacy and complexity of the child’s situation will have
important influences on the pace, scope and procedural formality of
assessment;
co-ordinated and holistic assessments must be followed by judgement
leading to clear decisions and co-ordinated and holistic planning and
intervention/action; and
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there has to be clarity about what has to change, how it will be achieved,
in what timescale and how it will be measured and reviewed
Some of the important questions that will determine the process of assessment are,
for example:
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what are the strengths to be built on?
what are the difficulties that need addressing?
Analysis of need and assessment
If it is assessed that there is a need for additional support or that another agency
should be involved the worker that has completed the parenting support form should
forward this to which ever agency can provide additional support alongside your own
agency where appropriate.
Where the SPECSSS+ Domestic Abuse Risk Checklist highlights a cluster of risk
factors (indicating a high risk domestic abuse case) this should be discussed with
your manager or identified child protection lead.
Making Judgements
It is very important to ensure that judgements are made and considered before
decisions are taken. The intervention should be considered first, on the basis of the
assessment, identified need and what is known to best address this need. The
second stage is to make decisions regarding intervention in the light of the availability
of resources. (See Appendix 9 of the Integrated Assessment Framework.)
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PARENTING
Getting it Right for Every Child.
You will see that all the headings are covered - with some areas covering more than
one heading). The two Checklists (Drug and Alcohol/SPECSSS + Domestic Abuse
Risk) provide additional information when considering these well being indicators
Basic needs
GIRFEC - Healthy/Nurtured
 food - balanced nutrients
 drink
 warmth
 shelter/secure base
 clean and appropriate clothing
 appropriate bed and bedding
 adequate personal hygiene
 medical and dental care
 getting to school
Safety
GIRFEC - Safe
Different at different ages and stages
Protected from
 harm and danger
 safe adult supervision - not to be
left alone, or with strangers
 harmful and dangerous
substances,
 unknown, unsafe adults,
in the home and elsewhere
Emotional warmth
GIRFEC - Nurtured
Includes ensuring the child’s
requirements for secure, stable and
affectionate relationships with significant
adults, with appropriate sensitivity and
responsiveness to the child’s needs.
The child is:
 specially valued
 secure
 loved
 comforted and cuddled
 praised
 encouraged
This includes aspects such as putting
the child's needs before their own,
giving consistent emotional warmth
Guidance and boundaries
GIRFEC - Respected/Responsible
Demonstrating and modelling appropriate
behaviour so that the child will develop an
internal model of moral values,
conscience and appropriate social
behaviours.
This includes:
 problem solving
 anger management/ control of
emotions
 consideration for others
 effective discipline (consistent and
predictable)
 not over protective
 Parental responses change and
develop according to child’s
developmental progress.
 Authoritative parenting - authority
plus consistent warmth
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Stimulation
GIRFEC - Achieving/Active/Included
Promoting the child's learning and
intellectual development through
 encouragement
 cognitive simulation
 social opportunities
 effective communication
 play
 educational opportunities
Stability
GIRFEC - Nurtured
A stable family environment
Secure attachment to primary caregivers
Consistency/predictability of behaviour
Contact with family members and
significant others
Previous parenting experience
Family and environmental factors
GIRFEC - Safe/Active/Included
Extended family
Housing
Employment
Income
Social integration
Use of community resources
Neighbourhood and social networks
(Some of these are covered in previous questions)
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