Incorporating multi-family days into parenting assessments: the Writtle Wick model.

ABSTRACT This paper describes a project undertaken by family centre staff, drawing on the ideas of the Marlborough Family Service in using multi-family groups as part of their parenting assessments. Child protection assessments are complex and have a far reaching effect on the lives of vulnerable children; practitioners can carry the burden of assessing parents' capacities to meet their children's needs without adequate supervision or support. Our project was developed following the implementation of a new policy, the Public Law Outline, requiring parenting assessments to be completed within a 40-week time frame. We were concerned that this would not afford the opportunity to develop a sufficient relationship with families to provide a thorough assessment. The paper describes the incorporation of multi-family days into the parenting assessments and the effect of this work on clients and practitioners. This paper is a practice paper, rather than a formal evaluation, and describes a project in which family centre workers sought to provide a model of assessment based on working as part of a team, managing uncertainty and valuing the opportunity to develop a relationship with clients in order to make an assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]