Our resources for safeguarding children
The practice aids below are derived from a range of sources and some are not Cafcass original documents. Each practice aid has been identified for use by Cafcass staff. Information on the source of each document is referenced in the further information section below.
Resources for safeguarding children
| Resource | Guidance on use | Source |
|---|---|---|
To be used in an interview to establish an | SCODA | |
To be used in an interview to establish an evidence base for analysis. | Cafcass – adapted from Fowler, 2003 | |
To be used in an interview to establish an | Adapted from | |
| Mental health thinking practice aid | This is a practice aid to help organise FCAs’ thinking and support them to critically review evidence in cases where parents have mental health difficulties. It is not designed to be a prescriptive or definitive measure of risk and should be used in the context of the overall structured professional judgement, in conjunction with the broader evidence in the case. | Dr Sheena Webb, Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust for Cafcass, 2017. |
| Helping young people affected by parental mental illness | General resources for professionals to be used when working with young people affected by parental mental illness. | Our Time, 2018 |
To be used in an interview to establish an | Department of Health, 2000 | |
This practice aid can be applied to all children (male and female) under the age of 18. Its purpose is to enable practitioners to assess a child’s level of risk of CSE in a concise and consistent manner. | Cafcass | |
To be used to explore parents’ understanding of their child’s needs according to age and stage of development. | Cafcass – adapted from Fowler, 2003 | |
| An assessment practice aid which can be used with the parents/carers to consider their view of the children’s needs and how they are coping with these needs. | Department of Health, 2000 | |
The practice aid methodology was derived from the Graded Care Profile which helps to ascribe levels of risk and was intended for public law practitioners to use when doing their gap analysis in order to help them independently assess levels of risk and so inform and evidence their position regarding interim removal, where neglect is a key issue. | NSPCC (date unknown) |