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The Basic Analysis of Child Need (page 1)One question you should ask yourself is how do you feel about writing analyses in various Assessments and Reports? Does it make you knot up inside? Do you feel positive about it - even excited? The writing of analyses is a creative endeavour. You are applying your knowledge and understanding to material in order to make sense of it and that is a creative exercise. Perhaps if you felt negative about the task then thinking in this way about it will make it a more attractive proposition. Another thing to bear in mind is the onerous responsibility you have. You are about the write the key aspect of a Report - the analysis of what has happened and why - and upon your findings there may very well be highly significant changes in a child's life. It is a very serious matter. There are few things out there which are more serious. So how detailed and long should the Report be? Think about this! We are talking about the lives of people and while a child might be just a few months old, the parents may be in their twenties or even older. Just think of the scope for error (see Error Theory) in terms of what you choose to put in and (even more so) what you choose to leave out or don't even ask about! The child deserves and needs an accurate portrayal of the situation and common decency (never mind professional practice) requires that the lives of people are treated with respect, sensitivity and accuracy. The moral of the story is never to cut corners where a child's future is concerned. Referral and initial analysis: What is this referral about? Why is it being referred now? What threshold does it meet, if any? Need Continuum Levels 1, 2a, 2b,S17 or S47? Who is making the referral? What is their motive in doing so? (purpose) What do they see as the outcome for the child if nothing is done? What do they want to happen? Post referral action will depend on the threshold categorisation but unless it is no further action (NFA) then all that follows remains the same no matter if it is CAF, S17 or S47 apart from the depth and intensity of the overall assessment. Therefore, a real risk of error lies in making a mistake about categorisation. Early hypotheses (Referral stage) How is the child being impacted? What is alleged? What seems to be the case? Why is this so? What alternative explanations might be possible? (think them!) Do you have existing information on the case (history)? Does anyone else have information? Who? Gathering information (Part 1) Simply gathering information is not analysis per se, although analytic thought will play a part in who to contact, what and why. Key aspects of gathering information: Child development: where is the child NOW (baseline outcomes) on all seven of the child developmental dimensions – this needs to be answered not simply in terms of the dimensional headings but the SUB-HEADINGS of each of the dimensions. For child development there are about 55 of them in the Framework model (see Framework guidance “Lilac Book”) To do this you may well need additional frameworks to help you ask the right questions about the child’s development. For example, you may wish to employ question sets which help you ask questions about the child’s behaviour and emotional development and family and social relationships (e.g. attachment theory). Analysis Analysis now kicks in although if you have employed “additional frameworks” you have already brought into play some of the apparatus of analysis: The question we want answered is: Why is the child where it is in terms of development? If you answer just in terms of the facts (e.g. the child gets hit) you are simply providing a “surface answer” which tells us nothing much about what is going on and why. You might also wish to peruse our many Social Work Information Pages
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OSIRIS: Lighting the Way Forward
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