Chapter
Reflection and acknowledgements
1 Chronologies:The start and heart of a good assessment
Chronologies and assessments
Why you should write the chronology at the start
How chronologies help your relationship with service users
Chronologies as a tool to avoid ‘start-again syndrome’
Using professional judgement to develop a chronology: why a computer can’t (yet) do it for you
Chronologies as a tool to make connections
Focusing a chronology on the service user, not the service
Thinking beyond the referral
Consider ‘did this matter to them?’
Chronologies versus case notes
Chronologies for the Family Court
Chronology for Joe Bloggs, rough copy prior to visit
Chronology for Joe Bloggs
Genograms: more than a family tree
How a genogram or ecomap helps your practice
The context of social work: is a good, timely assessment even possible in the current climate?
Creating the foundations for good assessments
Staying on top of casework
Only write everything once
Write case notes as though they’re going into a report
Timeliness, not timescales
Count up, don’t count down
Think outside the box (and the office)
Boundaries with colleagues
Context: the changing nature of social work language
Write so it can be read, not so it can be written.
The dangers of the passive voice
You lose crucial information
The dangers of ‘categories’
You can’t make a detailed assessment of risk
You may end up addressing a specific issue with a generic response
Language as a tool of oppression
A false choice: not just ‘true or malicious’
Analysis versus description
Causation, information and implication
Using analytical and theoretical models
Make your argument ‘flow’
Avoid ‘mid-Atlantic thinking’
Categorising is not analysing
The link between protectiveness and risk
Always assume you’re wrong
Analysis as a means of oppression or empowerment
After the assessment: making plans
‘Engagement’ and blaming the service user
Focus on what’s important
Example of a table to weigh up reliability
The context of your assessment
Organise your everyday practice
Have a system to organise your work
Plan your visits and even your phone calls
Plan the nuts and bolts of your visits
If you want to talk to someone, talk to them
Write things thoroughly, but only write them once
Deadlines are useful, but arbitrary ones are not
Manage your office boundaries
Don’t let fear stop you working
Writing an analytical report
Appendix: Writing for child care proceedings
Detailes reporst for child care proceedings: special guardianship and parenting assessments
The format/template for a parenting assessment
The difference between an assessment of a fostercarer and a kinship carer
Writing a statement under the new public law outline
Section 2: Court chronology
Section 3: Analysis of harm
Section 4: Child impact analysis
Section 5: Analysis of parents’ capacity, and Section 6: Analysis of wider family and friends’ capacity
Section 7: The proposed s31A care plan: the ‘realistic options’ analysis (the ‘Re. B-S’ compliance check)
Section 8: Analysis of views and issues raisedby other parties
Section 9: Case management issues and proposals
Section 10: Statement of procedural fairness
Taking it further/references
Writing Analytical Assessments in Social Work
( 1 )
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
