Twenty Four-Seven provides independent Community and Day Assessment services to families around West and South Yorkshire and Birmingham.

Independent Social Workers/Family Assessments in the community

Twenty Four-Seven provides independent Community and Day Assessment services to families around West and South Yorkshire and Birmingham.

These non-residential assessments are appropriate for situations where families have been identified as needing support to meet all of the needs of their child, but a residential assessment is not considered necessary.

Observations are carried out by our skilled team of Family Support Workers, and led by a qualified/experienced Independent Social Worker. The assessment team works together to provide support, information and guidance to parents and carers while assessing parental skills, interaction, and capacity to learn/change.

The assessment observations are the same as within a residential setting, but carried out in the comfort of the family’s own home. The assessment includes basic care of a baby or child, ensuring safety, emotional warmth, stimulation, guidance and boundaries and stability.

What are the benefits of conducting the assessment in the community?

As well as offering cost benefits and allowing teams to support more families, carrying out assessments in the community enables social workers to assess complex needs while the family remains living in a familiar environment. This means that parents are often more relaxed and better able to learn, and the extended family, and support network, can also be observed.

Independent social worker packages

As a leading provider of social care services for children and families in the West Midlands and Yorkshire, our Social Work Assessments Team are able to deliver robust, evidence based and independent social work assessments that help to support families to identify concerns, learn skills, and stay together. We offer a range of services:

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.

By identifying parents’ strengths and building on them, we help them succeed. At the same time, our observations will help to identify any gaps or concerns. We then work with parents to support them to learn new skills.

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.

How does the Twenty Four-Seven team help?

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

Although these assessments will take place in the community, parents can also take place in a range of fun and engaging activities at our assessment centres – from developmental play, sensory time and baby massage, to music and reading groups, and a Dad’s club.

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.

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.

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.

Key aims of our assessments

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