A ParentAssess Assessment is a comprehensive, practical, evidenced-based assessment of parents or carers who learning or additional needs.
The assessment process is underpinned by the principles of accessibility, fairness and inclusivity and seeks to maximise opportunity for effective communication, parental engagement and early support. Further, the child is no longer secondary in the assessment process as the assessment incorporates voice of the child work exploring parenting from the perspective of the child.
All of our assessors undertaking these assessments have received 2 days of training, allowing them to focus on understanding parental limitations and to identify the most effective means of engaging the parent/facilitating parental participation.
The assessment itself, is based upon the Department of Health assessment framework and naturally goes beyond a parent’s ability to meet basic care needs, to incorporate an assessment of identified risk factors and explores amongst other things, the child’s experience of being parented, the parent’s daily living skills, how the parent functions, specific risk issues such as domestic or drug abuse and the availability and effectiveness of professional and family support networks.
The assessment uses a variety of pictorial means to meet the assessed parent’s learning and communication needs, such as the use of photos/cartoon images and short video recordings of parents interactions with their child. The voice of the child is established through the use of a ‘Feelings Chart’
The completion of a Strengths & Concerns assessment early into the full assessment process provides a corresponding early opportunity to identify parental support needs and the means by which these might be met. This creates a chance for the parents to access that support during the assessment process thereby allowing an opportunity to measure the parents ability to learn new skills, their capacity for change and, potentially reducing the need for re-assessment (post completion of support work) and consequent delay.
The focus of the assessment is the parent and child – time is diverted away from rigidly adhering to the completion of computer programmes thereby allowing greater time with the parents for the utilisation of traditional Social Work tools to assist investigation, analysis and assessment.
With a clear focus on the child’s experiences of being parented, the assessment process is supportive and inclusive of the parents throughout, offering greater opportunities for them to demonstrate a capacity for change within the limits of care proceedings.
The assessment report and tables are specifically designed to help the parent understand the outcome using a traffic light system and clear straightforward language.
The full assessment report is accompanied by an abridged version prepared specifically for the parent which is written and formatted in a way that makes this accessible to the parent.
We have a large number of Independent Social Workers on our panel who are trained to undertake ParentAssess Assessments. These types of assessments are generally completed in a timeframe of between 8 – 12 weeks.
Our highly experienced Family Support Workers can additionally deliver our TOP (Teaching, Observe and Practice) bespoke teaching programme, undertaking direct work with parents that are based on specific recommendations within the report.
