National shortage of secure children’s homes
A shortage of secure children’s homes is resulting in children being placed far away from home, government figures have shown.
There were 13 secure children’s homes at 31 March 2021 and when operating at full capacity, they offer 234 places. The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on secure children’s homes as with staff isolating [...]
Multi-Disciplinary Family Assessment – the social work perspective
Clare Jerrom speaks to Independent Social Work Mary Cullen about her experience as the lead assessor on the MFA model and how it helps vulnerable children and families.
Effective information-sharing, experienced professionals from various disciplines working together collaboratively and an abundance of observations forming a clear and transparent evidence base are just a few of [...]
Multi-disciplinary working with children: the context
Select any Serious Case Review from a decade ago and the report will likely point to two areas of deficit: information sharing and multi-disciplinary working – with the two going hand in hand.
Undoubtedly, multi-disciplinary or multi-agency working is far more established today but is it completely embedded in social work practice?
The Social Care Institute [...]
What is the Systemic Family Assessment?
Following the success of the Multi-Disciplinary Family Assessment service, WillisPalmer has launched the innovative Systemic Family Assessment, which is available at legal aid agency rates.
The SFA can be used for private and public law cases and is designed to provide courts with a multi-disciplinary assessment so that they have all the evidence required to make [...]
What is the Multi-Disciplinary Family Assessment?
When a decision is made that a parenting assessment is required, a social worker may carry out the assessment and conclude that parental mental health problems exist and a psychiatric assessment is required. The psychiatrist may then carry out the psychiatric assessment only to conclude that a forensic risk assessment is required.
As parents wait for [...]
COVID-19 problems require a multi-disciplinary solution
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on everybody although the hardest hit has been vulnerable children.
Mental health problems have increased and been exacerbated , calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline have risen drastically during lockdown meaning children have witnessed abuse and it has been widely accepted that abuse and neglect will [...]
