4.4 Completing the parental strengths and needs assessment tool
Purpose
This procedure outlines the process for completing a parental strengths and needs assessment prior to the development of the case plan, or in preparation for a case plan review.
Responsibilities
- CSOs are responsible for completing and recording the parental strengths and needs assessment.
- Team leaders are responsible for approving the parental strengths and needs assessment on ICMS.
The purpose of the parental strengths and needs assessment
The purpose of the parental strengths and needs assessment tool is to provide a snapshot of the parent/s functioning at a specific point in time to inform the development, or review, of a case plan for a child. Completion of the tool assists the CSO to identify and prioritise the three key parental needs to be addressed in order to meet the child's protection and care needs.
The completed parental strengths and needs assessment enables the family group meeting participants or relevant people to:
- identify the parental behaviours that place the child at most risk; and
- develop strategies to reduce the risk to the child, by building on the parent/s abilities and strengths as a resource.
The tool is designed to improve the consistency of assessments of strengths and needs, by ensuring that each assessment considers the parental functioning within the same specified areas of their life, using the same criteria.
Reassessing the parental strengths and needs is one of the key tasks during the ongoing intervention cycle. It provides current information about the parent/s strengths and needs, allows the CSO to evaluate the effectiveness of departmental intervention and identifies any areas that need to be amended to meet the child's protection and care needs.
When to complete a parental strengths and needs assessment
The parental strengths and needs assessment tool will be completed:
- during the assessment stage following the decision that a child is in need of protection, and prior to the initial or family group meeting to develop a case plan for the child; or
- prior to the review of a case plan, unless the case plan goal is not reunification, for the following ongoing intervention cases:
- intervention with parental agreement; and
- intervention with a child protection order (including an interim order).
The information is given to the family group meeting convenor to assist with the preparation and development of the case plan. When a parental strengths and needs assessment is completed prior to a review of a case plan, it will be completed in conjunction with the other required structured decision making tools.
The parental strengths and needs assessment is not used for:
- a support service case; or
- intervention with a child protection order where the child is subject to a custody or guardianship order and the case plan goal is not reunification.
Structure of the parental strengths and needs assessment
The parental strengths and needs assessment identifies nine domains of parental functioning, that may impact positively or negatively on the risk to the child in the home, and provides a framework to assess the parent/s functioning within each of these domains (see table below).
| Parental strengths and needs assessment domains |
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| 1. Alcohol and drug use |
| 2. Household relationships |
| 3. Social and community support network |
| 4. Parenting skills |
| 5. Mental and emotional health |
| 6. Parental history of child abuse and neglect |
| 7. Household resources and basic care |
| 8. Parental physical health |
| 9. Family identified strength/need |
The CSO will assess the parent/s level of functioning within each domain. There are four levels of strength or need in each domain. Detailed definitions for each level of functioning within each of the above domains, are provided in the 'SDM™ tools and definitions - parental strengths and needs assessment tool'
. The appropriate level is determined by matching the level of functioning of each parent within each domain, to the definitions provided.
The areas of need are scored and the tool provides a framework to prioritise the three most serious parental needs to be addressed in the case plan.
Practice considerations and appropriate completion
The following information guides the completion of the parental strengths and needs assessment:
1. General completion information
Prior to completing the parental strengths and needs assessment tool, the CSO must be aware of the following:
- to effectively complete the parental strengths and needs assessment, the CSO must be familiar with, and have a good understanding of, the definitions;
- only one parental strengths and needs assessment document is completed for a household, however, the tool allows for an assessment specific to each parent in the household;
- the parental strengths and needs assessment tool is structured to allow the assessment of the primary and secondary parents. To determine the 'primary parent', select the first of the following options that relates to the family situation (or refer to the procedure on Structured Decision Making™):
- the parent who assumes most of the child care responsibility;
- the adult who is the legal guardian of the child, where child care responsibility is shared equally between two parents/persons;
- the person responsible or alleged responsible for the harm, where both parents are legal guardians; or
- the parent demonstrating the more severe behaviour, where both parents are alleged responsible for the harm; and
- the detailed definitions provided for each level of functioning within a domain are structured to include parental behaviour, attitude or experience and:
- the impact this has upon their ability to care for, and protect the child; and
- the impact this has upon the child's safety and well-being.
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2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
The recognised entity must be consulted as part of the completion of the parental strengths and needs assessment for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child.
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3. Information gathering
- The primary source of information to complete the parental strengths and needs assessment will be the parents, however, information will be also gathered from any person who can contribute relevant information, such as the child, family members, other significant community members, members of the child and parent/s cultural community, staff from service providers involved with the family and other professional agencies (for example, police). Any departmental history regarding the parents will also be considered.
- In addition to information provided by parents or relevant service providers, the CSO will consider whether parental behaviours or actions (for example, parental substance misuse) are likely to place a child at risk of contracting an infectious or communicable disease, for example, HIV, Hepatitis C and sexually transmissible infections. This information will also inform the child strengths and needs assessment.
- A professional assessment or expert opinion may assist the assessment. Information provided by a SCAN AM Team may also inform the parental strengths and needs assessment.
- In situations where a parent resists the CSO contacting particular people, the CSO will make the final decision regarding the contact, taking into account the relative importance of the person's contribution to the assessment.
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4. Working with parents
Engaging the parents in the process is of key importance, but can, at times, be challenging.
Some parents may resist involvement or try to sabotage the assessment process. When parents are reluctant to be involved in the assessment, the CSO may consider:
- the use of a support person to assist the parents in the process; and
- the engagement of a community agency worker to gather the information required to complete the assessment.
To help engage the parents the CSO will:
- communicate openly and clearly in a respectful, empathic and genuine manner;
- communicate a commitment to achieve a positive outcome for the child and the parents;
- acknowledge the involuntary nature of the department's involvement, where appropriate;
- explain the purpose of the assessment and emphasise the importance of the parents' involvement; and
- identify and address any fears the parents may have.
When parents refuse to be involved in the assessment phase, the parental strengths and needs will still be assessed. This may be done by gathering information from a range of other people, considering information contained in departmental records and from any previous contact with the parents. A parent is not precluded from the case planning process because they refuse to engage in the assessment of their strengths and needs.
5. When children are placed in different geographical areas
When children in one family are residing in different areas and case responsibility is held in more than one CSSC, negotiation may be required to determine who will undertake the various activities required to complete the parental strengths and needs assessment. Where necessary, this negotiation will occur between the relevant team leaders.
6. Prioritising parental needs
The three priority parental needs will be identified and considered during the family group meeting or development of a case plan, and are to be addressed in the case plan. As a result of discussions and/or new information arising during the family group meeting the department may agree to change the prioritised needs. If this does occur, a rationale for the change should be clearly documented in the case plan.
Each of the levels of strength or need within a domain have a score attached. The three priority needs are those with the highest negative point value for either the primary or secondary parent. Where less than three parental needs are identified, the needs identified (one or two) will be addressed in the case plan.
If more than three parental needs are identified and there are a number of needs with the same score, the CSO will prioritise these needs in consultation with the parents, using professional judgement, and considering the following factors:
- the needs that cause the most harm or risk to the child; and
- the needs that are most likely to prevent reunification (where the child is placed in out-of-home care).
While the parental needs are prioritised, the parental strengths are not prioritised, but considered as resources available to meet the protection and care needs of the children.
Completing the parental strengths and needs assessment tool
To complete the parental strengths and needs assessment, the following steps must be completed.
- Work through each of the nine domains and record one of the four levels of strength or need for both the primary and secondary parent in each domain, taking into consideration all the information gathered and the definitions provided ('SDM™ tools and definitions - parental strengths and needs assessment tool').
- Identify the three priority parental needs that will be addressed in the case plan.
- Submit the completed parental strengths and needs assessment tool to the team leader for approval.
- Following team leader approval, either:
- provide the completed parental strengths and needs assessment to the family group meeting convenor to inform the development of a case plan; or
- use the completed parental strengths and needs assessment to inform the review of a case plan.
Detailed definitions are provided for each level of functioning within each domain, as outlined in the 'SDM™ tools and definitions - parental strengths and needs assessment tool'.
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- Last updated
- 21 April 2009
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