The Association of Directors of Social Services (ADCS) and Cafcass have produced a template for a national social work statement which has been developed to highlight a child’s needs where in the opinion of a local authority that child needs long-term protection and support, at home or elsewhere. 

It is hoped that by becoming an expectation in all family courts, the statement will make it easier to train social workers on its use, especially where social workers move between local authorities. The statement has been developed so that all court requirements are summarised in one document. In this way, it is hoped that the child’s situation can be more clearly understood.

The statement was developed in partnership with DfE and the senior judiciary, and its use is recommended by the President of the Family Division, the Department for Education, the Ministry of Justice, ADCS, Cafcass and Her Majesty’s Court Service. It complements the nationally prescribed court forms and is compliant with all relevant statute and current case-law.

The expectation is that by 31 December, all social workers will be using the statement.

---

1. All social work statements should be submitted on the national template and filed and served with the C110A application and in accordance with the Public Law Outline (April 2014 version).

2. This template must be completed to include all the children subject to an application. Whilst the social work statement is a legal document, its primary purpose is to tell the child’s story and to advise the court how the child can best be helped in the future.

3. The template is available to download on the DfE, MoJ, ADCS and Cafcass websites. The statement should include the totality of social work evidence gathered in the case. The statement should support the judicial management of the case and also be fair to all parties and balanced (see section 10). The updating section (9) may be completed for the Issues Resolution Hearing (IRH) and/or the Final Hearing if updates are minor. It will be more normal to file and serve a final case analysis on the national template provided for this purpose.

4. Use one template per family, not one per child. The template allows for the common concerns for all children in a family, identified in assessments, to be recorded, as well as for the distinct needs of each child to be set out. The template is designed to set out clearly the social work evidence. That evidence can be primary – the direct experience of the social worker – or secondary – evaluation by the social worker of evidence from assessments or from the views and judgments of other people who know the child or who have assessed the child’s needs. Facts should be confined to those relied upon in evidence. An indication of whether they are accepted or contested should be given where possible in section 8.

5. Each section of the template has to take account of the relevant welfare checklist (see below at paragraphs 24 and 25). The social work statement must apply a welfare checklist analysis throughout, as relevant to each section and in accordance with section 1(3)(a)-(g) of the Children Act 1989 and with s1(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

6. With respect to each child, when making recommendations on the appropriate order to be made, the report writer must be mindful of the ‘no order’ principle (Children Act 1989, s1(5) and the Adoption and Children Act, s1(6). This legal principle states that the making of any order must be better for the child than making no order at all.

7. Experience has shown that local authorities with a strong case management and case progression function and capacity have been able to support social workers to write and submit a good evidence-informed social work analysis. This benefits the court and all parties equally.

8. A case analysis can be strengthened by using well-validated tools for the assessment of domains like parenting capability and children’s resilience. Such tools can support and strengthen the accuracy of evidence, if used appropriately.

9. To show due respect, adults should be referred to as Ms, Mr, Mrs…and children should be referred to by full names initially and thereafter by their first names. Professionals should be referred to as Dr, Ms, Mr, Mrs….with their professional role identified.

Key terms and practical points about using the templates

10. The genogram (in section 1.2) must be completed and this will normally be through using standard software.

11. Use of an ecomap (in section 1.3) can be helpful by setting out diagrammatically those individuals who are keeping a child safe and those individuals who pose a risk or a threat to that child.

12. The chronology (in section 2) lists those events or a sequence of events which are significant in terms of their impact on the child. The chronology should be confined to the last two years unless an event before that point in time has a current – and therefore lasting - significance. The chronology can be cut and pasted into a stand alone document if required.

13. The analysis of harm (in section 3) is the social work analysis of the significant harm the local authority says the child has suffered or is likely to suffer, and why the child is at a continuing high level of risk.

14. A child impact analysis (in section 4) demonstrates an understanding of the impact on the individual child of what has been happening to them. The impact of the same event can be different on different children within the same family, so this section analyses the differential impact, as well as the factors supporting a child’s resilience in the face of what has happened.

15. The analysis of parenting capability (in section 5) and of wider family and friends capability (in section 6) should address the fundamental question in each case – ‘can this parent or carer provide this child with a good enough standard of care for the rest of their childhood?’

16. The care plan, including the placement and contact framework (in section 7) must set out how the local authority proposes a child can be given the security, stability and care she or he needs, for the rest of their childhood. This plan for placement and contact is separate from the LAC Care Plan, which should be filed separately.
Gathering and collating evidence

17. Gathering and collating evidence starts as soon as a case is opened to a local authority at a high level of risk and concern. Planning for the child’s future starts at this stage, initially by ensuring the help a parent needs to keep a child safe and at home is made available. The timescale for improvement in the quality and safety of care a child receives should be set out. Depending on the nature and/or severity of the parent/s problems, the help offered may need to be intensive and should be the best possible to address the mix of problems the parent/s is going through. In some cases, a longer-term less intensive or episodic service may need to be available e.g, when parents or a child have a disability or a long-term mental health condition. Progress should be kept under regular review, with the assessment of a child’s needs evolving over time and as the evidence base for the standard and level of parenting accumulates.