How to Access Services

The Common Assessment Framework

Adults working with child

The Common Assessment Framework or CAF is a new way of planning extra help for families. The CAF is being rolled out in services for children across the country and is being used across the county and city. The CAF happens whenever someone who works with a child or family thinks they are going to need extra help; specifically help that goes beyond a single issue or involvement with just one service or professional. The aim is to coordinate what is planned and avoid you having to have lots of different assessments and meetings. You have to agree to the CAF and be involved from the start.

If a CAF goes ahead there are three stages:

  1. Assessment – you talk to a worker who knows you or your child, they find out more, fill in a CAF form and agree with you whether to go ahead with the CAF.
  2. Action plan – you, and the workers who can help, discuss how to support you and your child. This is written up as an action plan and a lead professional is picked to follow it through.
  3. Review – you and everyone involved look at how the plan has worked and what comes next.

Social workers

Access to the kinds of help and support that social care can provide is most often gained via a social worker. Social workers can be a great source of practical and emotional support including:

  • providing adaptations and special equipment
  • short breaks (respite care), which can be with another family, outreach or residential
  • help with filling in forms and getting financial help
  • support from family support teams

Many of parents turn down the offer of a social worker when they first discover their child has disabilities and additional needs. They can't see how it is relevant to their situation or they think that social workers only deal with families where there is abuse or neglect, and where children are 'at risk'. Some parents only ask for help when they reach crisis point and feel they can't manage any more. A lot of parents realise, as they gradually get to know 'the system', that the backing of social workers is essential for getting the help they need.

Getting help from a social worker

By law, social workers have to put at the top of their list families where children are 'in need' (this includes eligible disabled children), 'at risk' or need protection. So, unless you make it clear just how difficult things are, it's possible you may find your request for help falling to the bottom of the pile with a long wait ahead of you. If you need help now, say so, or try to ask for help before you reach crisis point.

Before you meet the social worker, try to think about how your life has changed and become more difficult as a result of caring for your child with special needs, and what kind of help you think you all need, now and in the future.

T get help and advice click on the contacts below:

Disabled Children's Team City Contact details. 

County contact details:
Each Local Authority district has a Children and Family Duty Team, please click here for details of your duty team.

They have a duty to make an initial assessment within seven days and, if it is necessary, a more detailed core assessment within 35 days. If you already have a CAF they’ll use this as their starting point.

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What happens when the social worker visits?

On the home visit the social worker will carry out an initial assessment of your child's and your family's needs. You are legally entitled to this if you request it. This 'needs assessment' is taken to the service manager and 'Resource Panel'. They will decide if you are eligible for support and if the area office can pay for your needs as stated in the assessment, or whether more work is needed to make those decisions.

If your child needs equipment or adaptations to the home, an occupational therapist from the Children & Young People's Trust – the local authority, will carry out their own specialist assessment. Find out more about equipment and adaptations.

There are regulations that require Social Care to make formal plans for supporting children. This includes producing a care plan which is agreed with the parents, a placement agreement and systems for monitoring your child's welfare. In reality, Social Care struggle to achieve these requirements and in practice, you need to keep an eye on what is happening yourself.

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Tips for working with social workers

  • Just because you get a 'no' this time, don't take that as their final answer. You can have more luck if you ask at the beginning of the financial year (April) rather than later when all the money's been spent. And even if you get a 'no' now, don't be afraid to ask again as your needs and your child's needs change.
  • Find out what other parents have got, and how they managed it. Inside knowledge can be very useful.
  • Get other people on your side - your GP, consultant, health visitor, school - get them to write letters for you, explaining what you need and how much you need it.
  • It's important to build up a good relationship with your GP and social worker as you go along, so that when you are desperate they already know who you are and what you and your child's problems are.

For more detailed advice about working with professionals see the Survival Strategies section of this website.

However, if you're not happy about the way things are going in your contact with social workers, do not be afraid to say so. Challenging decisions or making a complaint can be stressful, but unfortunately it is sometimes necessary.