Common Assessment Framework (CAF)
What is it?
The CAF is a common assessment process, which includes the completion of a simple to use standard form, for carrying out an assessment of a child with additional needs. It is designed to be used across the childcare workforce throughout England.
The CAF will help practitioners to gather and understand information about the needs and strengths of a child, based on discussions with the child, their family and other practitioners involved. The form will also help practitioners, to share with others the findings of their assessment. This will then help everyone to plan together what support is required, so that the child’s needs can be quickly and effectively met.
The CAF is completely voluntary, so the child, young person and parent/carer must agree for a CAF to take place. The child, young person and parent/carer also must agree who else they wish the assessment to be shared with.
The benefits
A CAF will reduce the number of different assessments that, in the past, some children and young people have undergone.This means that children and families will not have to keep repeating the same story to different workers.
The CAF will also support better shared understanding and communication between different agencies and practitioners. It will also enable children’s needs to be identified earlier and speed up service delivery.
Who is it for?
The CAF is to be used to support children, young people, parents/carers who have additional needs and where more than one service is likely to be involved. These are children and young people who according to the practitoners involved are likely to require extra support to help them to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes.
- Be Healthy
- Stay Safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic wellbeing.
The CAF is not intended to replace or delay specialist social work assessments or delay any concerns regarding children who may be at risk of abuse or neglect. If you think that a child may be at risk, then contact a duty social worker:
- Tel: 020 8359 4066
- Email: dutyfrontdesk@barnet.gov.uk
Email this pageLast modified by: Steve Lawlor on 04/06/2008