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Child protection referral and assessment

Introduction to child protection referral and assessment service

Who can make a request for help

You can make a request if you're a: 

  • parent
  • carer
  • doctor
  • teacher
  • health visitor
  • neighbour
  • relative
  • friend
  • person aware of a parent, child or young person who needs help or support

We may need to speak to these people to better understand what's happening within your family and how best we can help you.

If someone else contacts us

If someone else contacts us, we'll share with you what we've been told. We may also need to speak to other members of your family or professionals that know you and your child. We'll always seek your permission to contact these people and explain why we need to do so. We'll only do this without your permission if we think your child is at risk of harm.

Who does the assessment

A social worker from the referral and assessment service will assess your children and families' needs. Sometimes we'll ask other specialists to help us, such as our health specialist for children under five. We may also visit you with other professionals known to you. Sometimes we can complete an initial assessment when you visit the office. It may then be possible to help you straight away.

Alternatively we may need to make an appointment to see you at home. The government requires us to complete this initial assessment within seven working days, so once we have set a time to see you and your children you should try and keep this. 

We understand that some issues are more complex so the assessments may take longer. In this case, we'll allocate a social worker to you and your family who will carry out a full assessment. Southwark children's services will ensure assessments include other Southwark agencies that know you and your family.

The assessment

We'll speak to you in detail about your situation and the difficulties you may be having and how you manage these. Together we'll explore other services and how they can help. To fully understand your family's needs, we'll ask you questions about your culture and ethnic background and whether you have any disabilities. We want to hear from all family members; if your children are old enough, we'll give them the opportunity to talk to us as well. This helps us build a clear picture of what issues we can help you with.

After the assessment

When the assessment is complete we will talk to you about the outcomes of our assessment. You'll be given a copy of the assessment. We'll discuss with you what services could be helpful and whether you're happy for us to approach them.

If you feel your situation has changed or you're still worried about your children, you can contact us again.

If your family has more complex needs, or we think children are at risk of harm or abuse, you'll receive help from an allocated social worker in one of our other specialist social work teams for as long as is necessary.

Will your children be taken away

This rarely happens as our first aim is to help you look after your child yourself. We'll always consider alternative options. If we're worried about your care for your child, we'll work hard with you to improve the situation, which may include your child living with other family members or friends for a period of time.

A child coming in to care is very unlikely unless he or she would be at serious risk if they were to remain living with their family.

For more information, see the referral and assessment service - information for parents and carers leaflet (PDF, 153kb). 

Page last updated: 18 October 2019

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