Improving Child and Family Assessments

Turney et al. (social work, adoption and foster care studies, and child and family studies, U. of Bristol, UK) draw together information collected in a review of about 100 studies from reports, journals, and other documents conducted for the UK's Department of Education from 1999 to 2010 and aimed at improving understanding of the relationship between the quality of child and family social work assessments and outcomes for children. They examine how information from an assessment impacts future planning, interventions, and placements and psycho-social outcomes in the short and long term, and how variations in local policies and practices affect decisions about whether initial or core assessments should be undertaken and whether intervention thresholds have been met. They discuss the thresholds used in recognizing children's difficulties; the process of information gathering that underpins assessment and what the research evidence indicates about their content; assessments in different practice contexts, such as cases of child abuse and neglect, disability, and ethnic and cultural differences; and contributors and barriers to the production of quality assessments, including analysis, critical thinking, reflection, engaging with children and their parents, interprofessional working, and structural, procedural, and organizational factors. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The authors are all members of the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, UK. Danielle Turney is Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Director of the Post-Qualifying Specialist Award in Social Work with Children and Young People. Dendy Platt is Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Programme Director for the MSc in Social Work. Julie Selwyn is a Reader and Director of the Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies. Elaine Farmer is Professor of Child and Family Studies.