It is not always easy to know what to do if you are concerned about a child – particularly if you are not sure exactly what their needs are, or whether your service can help.
The common assessment process is designed to get a complete picture of a child's additional needs at an early stage. It can be used for children and young people of any age, including unborn babies. The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) enables information to be gathered in a structured way, through discussions with the child, their parents and other practitioners. It looks at all unmet needs and is an approach that helps children get access to the right services earlier.
The CAF is:
- A common process which enables practitioners to make an assessment and act on the result, using a standard form to record the assessment and where appropriate, share with others
- It covers all aspects that affect a child's development - health, education and social development through to housing and family relationships
- CAF is the only assessment that can be used by practitioners in all agencies in England that deliver services to children and young people
The CAF form and pre-assessment checklist can be downloaded from the 'Do it Now' section of this page. The new CAF toolkit is available to read from the 'Other websites' section of this page along with example CAFs. For further information on the common assessment framework, please visit the 'Every Child Matters' website by clicking on it in the 'Other websites' section of this page.