Specialists in supporting families to provide a positive, healthy and safe environment for both children and their parents.

Residential Family Assessments

Being a parent brings with it the most incredible highs and lows that anyone can imagine. For a variety of reasons, some people may struggle to meet their child’s needs. In some instances, parent(s) are referred for assessment to help them to achieve change and get the support they need to provide a stable environment for their child.

Twenty Four-Seven specialises in supporting families to provide a positive, healthy and safe environment for both children and their parents.

Our parenting assessments are carried out at our Family Assessment Centres in Barnsley, South Yorkshire or Kings Heath, Birmingham. Our experienced Social Workers ensure that the assessments and the support offered are tailored to the individual needs of each family.

Our Support Workers will help to support and guide each family to ensure that they understand the process, develop their parenting skills and have the best opportunity to demonstrate their parenting ability.

While parents are given appropriate advice and support, each assessment is child focussed. The wellbeing of the children and ensuring that their welfare is promoted and safeguarded is the primary focus of all of our assessments.

Our Residential Family Assessment Centres

Independent Residential Assessments are undertaken at our registered Family Assessment Centres, located in Barnsley, South Yorkshire or Birmingham. Despite being called a “centre”, the accommodation is modern, comfortable and homely, offering a pleasant, supportive and safe residential environment.

We are registered with Ofsted and our assessment centre in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and Kings Heath, Birmingham have achieved the rating of ‘good’ in their last inspections.

What happens during the assessment?

We’re not here to trip parents up. We recognise that everyone is different, with different styles and we are here to support people to achieve positive change.

We work by looking for parents’ strengths and helping them to build on them. At the same time, we’ll observe them to help to identify where we can help them to find new skills and how we can support them to achieve them.

Some parents find this observation difficult. It is important to remember that our experienced team is here to do everything that we can to provide parents with the help that they need to care for their family, whatever their circumstances.

As the assessment is taking place, particularly during the early days, parents will be expected to spend most of their time at the Family Centre so that staff can observe care of their baby or child.

What do families need to do?

Each family has a weekly planner with details of group sessions, meetings and appointments which parents will be expected to attend. These sessions are designed to help us to identify current skills and support parents to develop your knowledge where they need help.

It is important that parents spend time with their baby or child, develop their bond, play and interact with them.

How does the Twenty Four-Seven team help?

We believe that we give parents the best opportunity to succeed in their assessment.

Play sessions, parenting sessions and assessment sessions allow staff to make observations of parents with their baby or child. Our staff are there to nurture and support and to provide honest feedback about any concerns. Our goal is to give parents the information and support that they need to make a positive change.

In addition, we offer a range of fun and engaging activities for families to get involved with – from developmental play, sensory time and baby massage, to music and reading groups, and a Dad’s club.

We also offer educational workshops on Domestic Abuse, Protection Awareness and Attachment, Bonding, Internet safety, communication skills, managing emotions. We also offer the Freedom Program, from our inhouse facilitator, to all women who require this support.

For parents with learning disabilities, we use ParentAssess and PAMs to aid parents to understand and engage in the assessment process, using a variety of tools and techniques. Read more about how we carry out assessments for parents with learning disabilities.

What are the Family Centres Like?

The Family Centres offer a comfortable, clean and modern environment which is intended to be a home from home. They offer high quality accommodation situated on residential streets close to town centres and near to transport links and a range of other services.

Our friendly team will do our best to get to know you and your family; your likes and dislikes, things that you are interested in, things that you are good at or need help with, what you want for the future. Our goal is to make sure that every family is as happy as they can be and that they enjoy their stay as much as possible.

On arrival at the Family Assessment Centres, parents will be allocated a separate key worker for themselves and another one for their baby or child. The baby/child key worker is responsible for overseeing the baby or child’s health and development, while the parent’s key worker is there to support them, listen to their concerns, and provide practical advice.

Everyone has the right to feel safe at our Family Assessment Centres. We carefully ensure that parents are suitable to live at the centres prior to agreeing to the placement and we never knowingly place any family at risk from another parent.

Key aims of our residential assessments

The overall aim of our Family Centres is to closely observe parents’ abilities to provide adequate and appropriate care for their baby or child.

Assessments are undertaken by an experienced Social Worker and tailored according to the needs and risks involved. Social Workers, Key-workers and Support Teams identify areas of change by making informed, evidence based recommendations to safeguard the baby/child.

Parents are given opportunities to learn and develop their skills, to reflect and learn from previous mistakes and focus on changes that may be needed in order to ensure that they can appropriately care for their baby or child in the future.

Assessments focus on:
We use the Assessment Triangle as a framework for all our family assessments. This ensures that we cover three key domains:

• The child’s developmental needs
• The parents’ or caregivers’ capacities to respond appropriately
• The wider family and environmental factors