1.2.1 Thresholds for Children’s Social Care Safeguarding Services (agreed by Southwark Safeguarding Children Board)

Referrals to services regarding concerns about a child typically fall into three categories:

• Early intervention and prevention - integrated working;
• Child in need - Section 17 referrals;
• Child protection - Section 47 referrals.

Any telephone referrals should be made to a member of the Referral and Assessment Screening Team. The Team's numbers are set out in Appendix 2 - Contact Numbers for SSCB Agency Child Protection Leads and Children's Services. All referrals should be made using the CAF form (Click here for CAF form).

CAF is a shared assessment and planning framework for use across all children's services and all local areas in England. It is a tool that will help in the early identification and assessment of children and young people's additional needs and promote co-ordinated service provision to meet them. It provides a framework for reaching a shared understanding with families and other practitioners about a child or young person's needs and how these can be met. CAF in the context of this document is the four-step process outlined in national guidance for managers and practitioners -

When practitioners discuss CAF, they sometimes mean the assessment or the form or both. The CAF has 4 components:

1. A pre-assessment checklist to help decide who would benefit from a common assessment;
2. A process to enable practitioners to undertake a common assessment and then act on the result;
3. A standard form to record the assessment;
4. A delivery plan and review form.

The assessment itself covers three domains: development of the child or young person; parents and carers; and family and environment.

The CAF is aimed at children and young people with additional needs who have needs that are not being met by their current service provision. We have provided some examples of the kinds of needs that may be targeted by practitioners working with children and young people, although this is not exhaustive.  Southwark Children's Services recommends that a CAF is carried out straight away for children who experience issues falling within the following categories:

• Involvement in, or risk of, offending;
• Permanent exclusions;
• Disabilities with a substantial impact on learning and development;
• Substance misuse;
• Children and young people with diagnoses of anxiety or depression;
• School-age pregnancy and parenthood (including the risk of pregnancy and early parenthood, as well as pregnancies and parenthood among school-aged young people).

There are other targeted groups where universal service practitioners may find themselves recording the assessment, intervention and progress children and young people have made on a CAF form. This may not need to be shared with anyone else unless further support is requested because interventions are not having the desired effect:

• Disruptive or anti-social behaviour;
• Poor attendance or exclusion from school;
• Experiencing bullying;
• Special educational needs;
• Disengagement from education, training or employment post-16;
• Experiencing domestic abuse;
• Children of parents / carers with mental health difficulties and / or learning difficulties;
• Housing issues;
• Children with ill health (including nutrition etc.);
• Young carers who exhibit additional needs which are as a direct result of their caring responsibilities, e.g., truancy / lateness, ill health, housing issues.

The Children Act 1989 states that a child shall be considered "in need" if:

• S/he is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision of services by a local authority;
• Their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision of such services; and/or
• S/he is disabled.

All professionals in agencies with contact with children and members of their families must make a referral to children's social care if there are signs that a child or an unborn baby:

• Is suffering Significant Harm through abuse or neglect;
• Is likely to suffer significant harm in the future.

In urgent situations, out of office hours, the referral could be made to Children's Social Care Emergency Out of Hours Service (EOOHS).

Professionals in all agencies have a responsibility to refer a child to Children's Social Care when it is believed or suspected that the child:

• Has suffered Significant Harm;
• Is likely to suffer Significant Harm.

All referrals to Children's Social care should be made using a CAF form. The form should wherever possible be fully completed, containing the following information:

• Basic information about child's name and date of birth;
• Family details including dates of birth and family household composition;
• Ethnicity of children and parents;
• Identification of adults with Parental Responsibility and surnames if they are not the same as the parents;
• Address and telephone number of the family and carers and any other significant adults and GP details;
• Schools or early year settings attended;
• Name of key professionals, such as Health Visitors, GP and any health professionals;
• Nature of the concerns including any family history known or available to refer an agency.

The CAF form must also contain information about:

Child(ren)'s Development

Developmental needs of the current referred child and concerns about developments such as health, intellectual or cognitive development, emotional well being and development, social development and whether these are age appropriate.

Any concerns about detrimental impact of current situation on child's development.

Parenting Capacity

Current parenting being received by children and any concerns arising from parenting or behaviour of the caring adults of the child. These will include matters such as mental health difficulties, substance misuse and domestic abuse as well as learning difficulties or disabilities. It is important that these difficulties are not simply descriptive. This would include matters such as parenting capacity, impact of parent's difficulties on their own ability to provide care for the child. 

Environmental Factors

Any matters relating to the child's current environment which are contributing towards difficulties the family and child are experiencing. These may include anti social behaviour, poverty, poor housing, gang activities surrounding the property etc.