ParentAssess is an assessment framework for parents with learning disabilities or additional needs for use within the Pre-Proceedings process and throughout Care Proceedings. It utilises many years of experience, traditional social work skills and assessment tools. It is fully Re G compliant and it has a strong emphasis on working together with parents, incorporating elements of education and visual aids to assist parents with cognitive deficits to better articulate their parenting knowledge. The child is central to the assessment and focus is on the child’s experience of being parented. In this sense, the voice of the child is a crucial element of the assessment.
Training is over two days and three quarters of that time is focussed on the development of practitioner skills and knowledge when working with parents who have learning difficulties or additional needs. Practitioners learn how to better interpret the Cognitive Assessment findings to understand areas of strength and weakness and tailor the assessment to harness those strengths to mitigate against identified areas of difficulty. An interesting element of the training examines baby cues and how this can offer a clear insight into relationships and how the baby is responding to the parent, offering the pre-verbal child their own voice and a more in-depth measure of parent and child interactions.
Providing the Best Chance for Change
Assessment is transparent and in the very early stages, parents are provided with a very clear understanding of the professional’s concerns, giving them the opportunity to begin to address those issues and for the assessor, a measure of the parent’s capacity for change. There is a separate abridged report provided to parents at the conclusion of the assessment, which uses simplified language and does not confuse the parent with professional jargon.
ParentAssess generates clear tables, using a traffic light system that offers the reader a simple visualisation of areas of strengths and concerns. This traffic light system is one that parents have found extremely helpful and it has been highly commended within the Courts. Without the need for complicated scoring, the assessment is comprehensive and focusses more on time spent with parents and children, allowing the assessor to be innovative and go beyond the assessment framework in developing their understanding of the parent’s abilities. The report format interfaces well with the Framework Assessment and the assessment forms provide practitioners with effective assessment tools to inform assessments of parents with learning difficulties. ParentAssess is designed so it can be easily updated and so it reflects any changes in lifestyle. The Assessment will equally accommodate an assessment of couples when one parent does not have a learning difficulty.
The Aim of ParentAssess
The aim is to reclaim the process of assessing parents for Social Workers, to simplify assessments and to re-skill professionals and inspire them to work together with parents to maximise their potential to care for their children. It is a framework that was established in 2016 and is widely used within the Courts in Luton and London but is developing across the Country. It was specifically developed for the Courts and relates strongly to Threshold.
ParentAssess is an alternative to the PAMS Assessment, and both are available through Advanced CCA. Get in touch today to make a referral.
