Specialist assessments

Specialised assessments for children and young people who have experience neglect and abuse.

Family Assessments

These assessments are for children and young people (aged 3 years–16 years), who may be currently living with their families where there are concerns around abuse and neglect. The assessment aims to explore the current parenting practices and how this impacts on the ability of the parents to care for their children. The assessment will also aim to outline recommendations around what interventions may be helpful for this family in order to learn adaptive and sensitive parenting practices. This assessment will not recommend whether a child should be removed from the care of their parents but aims to think about options of how to help and enable families to work together to meet the emotional, physical and [psychological needs of their children.

Placement Assessments

These assessments are for children and young people who have been removed from the care of their birth family and placed with caregivers. Each assessment is individualised to the child or young person.

The assessments will aim to look at specific concerns presented by Oranga Tamariki.  Each assessment will take a systemic view of the child’s world (caregivers, birth family, school and support networks) and look at how the past and present is impacting on the child/ young person’s behaviour. This may include assessments on parenting, the quality of relationships, and attachments within the family, and the mental health or diagnosis of children.

The purpose of the assessment is to assist services to think about what parenting styles will best meet the needs of the child, contact agreements, and what interventions maybe best placed to enable the child to develop adaptive and pro-social skills. Should the assessment highlight specific areas of concern, recommendations for specialised provision or services may be suggested.

It is likely that the assessment will highlight specific interventions and supports for both caregivers and the birth family. Research indicates that the majority of change occurs for the child/ young person when all of the system is working together to develop the same pro-social skills and a consistent and predictable environment

High and Complex Needs (treatment plan and clinical advice)

Over the last few years Fostering Futures has been working within HCN teams to design specific treatment plans for children aged 11-16 years old. The treatment is an individualised plan which evolves out of a systemic assessment taking into account the child’s emotional, educational, behavioural and social needs. It is based on social learning principles and attachment theory, utilising strategies and techniques from various evidenced based programmes. We work as part of an HCN team and our aim is to support the goals designed and agreed upon by the family, young person and service providers.

We have a specific template and set of assessment tools we use, please ask for more information.