In 2015/16, over 3,600 special guardianship orders were made in relation to children in the care system, while nearly a fifth of foster placements were with family and friends carers. Undertaking a connected person / family and friends assessment is designed to help social workers to manage and complete a comprehensive and evidence-based assessment of connected people / family and friends who wish to foster or be special guardians to a known child or children. It is to be used by assessing social workers to complete this assessment using the CoramBAAF Form C for England, published in 2017.
Who is this book for?
This guide will be invaluable for all those completing connected person / family and friends assessments in England, and of particular use to those who are new to the task, overwhelmed by it or concerned about covering all necessary aspects.
What you will find in this book
The guide focuses primarily on Section C of Form C which requires information about the applicant – historical and current – and how it is relevant to their suitability to be foster carers or special guardians for known children. This includes descriptive information about the applicant, information about their relationships and networks, and consideration of their parenting capacity. Each chapter in the guide considers a different aspect of the assessment, and presents a list of trigger questions that can facilitate further discussion as well as reminders of which details should be included in the report.
Logically structured and very accessibly presented, this guide:
• assists the assessing social worker in collecting some of the information necessary to complete a comprehensive connected person / family and friends assessment;
• prompts the worker to analyse the information they have collected with regards to its effect on the decisions to be made about this assessment and the placement of the child;
• alerts the assessing worker to relevant research and good practice.
The guide also includes explanations of the context of assessment, particular issues to be considered with regard to family and friends carers, safeguarding, and the legal orders that could apply in these cases. Helpful examples of family trees and ecomaps are also included.