Hello and welcome to social work. sorted the podcast. My name's vicki. I'm a social worker, practice educator, trainer, and consultant. And I host this podcast for new social workers. With a mixture of guest interviews and shorter educational episodes. To support you through your newly qualified year and over the last three episodes I've been talking you through your first month as a newly qualified social worker. I know that so many of you have either just started. Your ASAE is if you're in the UK or just started. In your first post or role as a social worker. And I wanted to be able to guide you through the first four weeks with some advice and pointers and recommendations of things that you could focus on. So if you've not listened to the other episodes and go and have a listen of them. I taught you through your first week in the job. Things that you might need to remember reflective activities that you can do, including writing a letter to your future self. Then week two is a focus on chronologies. How completed a chronology. It can be an incredibly helpful reflective task and learning activity. Week three, looking at the importance of using your induction time wisely and shadowing other colleagues. And now we're at week four. You're coming up to be in one month in your new role. And I want to focus in this episode. On the value of assessment skills. Assessment skills are something that you will use throughout your social work career. I specialize Children's services in the UK working in child protection. So when I talk about assessment, I talk very specifically about children and family assessment in the UK. However, assessment skills are transferable across any area of social work. And that is why they are so, so valuable. As a new social worker, one of the first tasks that you may have to complete. Is an assessment. Now the term assessment is very broad assessment in social work is always ongoing. That's what working together 2018 tells us. But when we're talking about children and family assessment in the UK, We're talking about an assessment document. It is a written document. It's a form and you have to carry out certain tasks in order to complete this assessment. Those tasks will be. First and foremost, talking to a child or children in the family. Speaking to parent carers members of the wider Talking to other professionals, making sure it's a multi-agency input into the assessment. And gathering information from various sources. Being able to put that information into written form and providing an analysis. The reason we do assessment is so we can formulate plans and interventions essentially. What do we need to do to help somebody or support somebody get from where they are to where they need And that will take lots of different forms. When we're talking about child protection, we're also looking at risk. We're looking at, is there a risk to a child or a young person or a family? Is that risk, a dangerous risk, because risk can be positive as well. We have to remember that risk can be positive. Risk is about taking chances and those things can be positive. But in child protection. And when we're looking at risk, we are looking at. The potential or the likelihood of harm occurring. And so that needs to come out in our assessments as well. There's so many things to remember that it can be completely overwhelming. And I know when I was a new social worker, When my first assessment landed in my tray, when it popped up in my email inbox. It felt like a hugely daunting task that I needed to undertake. So, what I wanted to do in this episode is to just bring you back a little bit. If you're in that situation. Work is starting to pile up whether you are coworking or whether you were working some cases by yourself. There are things that you can do to reduce the overwhelm, try and break down what seems like a really daunting task into a number of steps. Um, really make sure that you were working as smartly as possible. I do think the phrase working smart can be a bit problematic in social work, because what it can do is assume that the responsibility. for Getting things done on time. When their due within statutory timescales. All falls on the responsibility of the social worker And that absolutely ignores the wider systemic issues that are happening. That being said that are going to be things you can do that will help you be as organized as possible. In the working climate that you are in. What are you always say when you are starting an assessment? So starting a child and family assessment, but any assessment really is that you have to be able to explain what an assessment is. You have to be able to explain that to a child. You have to be able to explain that to parents. And to wider family members. And if you can't explain that to other people, it demonstrates that you don't really understand what you're doing or why you're doing So take a minute to think about what an assessment means. Just like I've explained to you. It's a written document. Families need to know that they are going to receive something written at the end of the process. That's important because you need to check in with families about how they communicate. Where their literacy is up to. Are they able to read a written document? Do they need that in another form? Do they need the document to be produced in a different language? Do they need the tax to be a certain size or a certain fund so they can better read it? All these things matter when we're looking at assessments and it's about breaking down those really small steps. So, first of all, families need to know that the assessment is a written document. Families also need to know. What an assessment will entail. So that will include you contacting them. It will include you seeing their child, possibly seeing their child alone, if you have consent to do Or seeing their child alone. If the statutory guidance allows you to do that, for example, if it's a section 47 families also need to know that you will be talking to other people involved in their life. Again, you will need consent to do that if you're doing it under section 17, but they need to know who are the people that you want to contact? Is it school? Is it health visitor? Do you need to be in contact with their GP with any other people that are working to support them? Don't assume that families understand all the different people that you are going to want to speak to and gather information from. You also need to be really clear about the outcome of assessment. So what is the purpose of you? Talking to families. What was the purpose of you talking to children, talking to other professionals, asking all these questions. Gathering all the information it has to be for a particular outcome. And it's really important that you explain all the possible outcomes. At the beginning of the process, if you don't do this properly, What will happen is you might get to the end of the process to the end of the assessment. And there might not necessarily be a positive outcome for that family. Perhaps the outcome is that you are escalating to section 47 to child protection. Perhaps the outcome is that you are seeking legal advice. If a family becomes aware that that is a possible outcome of an assessment. Um, the point is happening. That news is going to be much harder to process at the end, then it will be. At the beginning, you must be open and transparent with families about possible outcomes. It's not about scare-mongering, it's not about being coercive. It's about being really clear about what the possible outcomes of an assessment are. I find it really helpful. And I always advise new social workers to print off an assessment form a blank assessment form. And bring that out with families when you are starting the process, which might begin on a home visit when you're going out to see somebody introduce yourself and explain your role bringing up blank assessment document is a really helpful tool. To be able to bring to a family and explain all the different things that you're going to talk about. Um, the reasons why. Your local authority may do this already, but if they don't, I would advise that you make up a little assessment pack for yourself. So that might include a blank assessment It might include your details. It will include the complaints information for the local authority. Details of any contact numbers and consent forms. If you need them to be signed as well. That's one tiny example. Like I said, at the beginning. Of being organized enough. So doing that now at this stage, when you don't have as many cases, Will mean that when you are much busier, You will have some in there. You can go to straight away. And be able to bring it out on a home there were so many things to consider when it comes to assessment, they wouldn't all fit in one podcast. But it's really important where you are at now to think about where you start. So, how are you going to explain what an assessment is? Can you explain it to lots of people, different ages and abilities. So that it makes sense to them. So they truly understand. The tasks that you were going to have to carry out to complete the assessment. Can you explain the outcomes or the possible outcomes of an assessment so that when you are first meeting a family, or when you were doing your first home visit, you can be very clear. On what the purpose of that assessment is. And how can you start to do things now? That will help you in a few weeks or a few months when you are much busier. So putting together a little assessment pack is one way that you can do that. Thinking through the way you explain things is one way that will help you in the future. Coming back to a moment of reflection. It's really important to remember that. How you feel about all these assessments that are suddenly coming your way, that overwhelm the fear, those nerves. The thoughts and the feelings that you might not be able to do this or feeling really unsure about what to do next. They will reflect on a very small scale, the same feelings that a parent or a family or child will have when they hear that there was a social worker who was going to be completing an assessment. They will feel overwhelmed. They will feel fear they will feel nerves. So just take a minute to try and balance that reflection. However you feel about this assessment, think about how that family are feeling. This is your job But this is their life. And coming back to that time and time Through the assessment process. Is going to help you humanize things is going to help you focus on connection and building relationships, because it's very easy to be weighed down with process and procedure, particularly when you're at the start of this journey. Remember that you are working with. People always prioritize those relationships on maintaining clear communication. I'm being honest and open. And that includes saying when you don't know the answer being really clear. I'm really sorry. I don't know the answer to that question, or I can't answer that question right now. Probably we'll find out the answer and let you It's those little things that are going to help you in social work, build up your skills gradually because the assessment skills will come. You will learn. You will grow. You will develop. You'll listen to podcasts like this, or you'll find advice and recommendations. You'll learn from shadowing. You will learn from other people you'll learn from your own experience. But start grounding those relationship, building skills out the very beginning. You are only four weeks into your ASYE. You aren't expected to know it or take a moment to reflect on your very first day where you are at now compared to where you are. Only four weeks away is probably a huge, huge shift. Think about when you started as a student or when you started on your qualification journey. Think about how much more, you know, now than you knew, then they were going to be huge shifts and changes in your knowledge and your practice wisdom. Over the next And I will be here. through social work sorted to to support you through that always with free guidance, advice and recommendations on@socialworksorted instagram page I'm really excited. Only I've very recently released an introduction to assessment, which is a written guide for new social workers. The purpose of the guide is to take you through. Step-by-step the points of a child and family assessment. So how you explain an assessment, how you can get organized for an assessment. The tasks that you will be expected to complete. How you explain an assessment to people. How you can sit at identity, how you consider the child's voice, the guide will then through page by page each domain of the assessment framework, the child's developmental needs, parenting capacity and family and environmental factors were things that you need to consider along with example questions that you can ask either when you're on home All questions that you can ask yourself to prompt your writing in assessments. I'm so proud of this guide. I'm so happy that it's finally out and accessible for new social workers, because I know that I would have massively valued this when I was a new social worker. If you're just starting out on your assessment journey and you want that support by your side, it's a downloadable ebook. You can have it on your phone or on your desktop. I wanted it to be something that you can turn to, again and again, throughout your working day or before a home visit or before a write up and you can just have some prompts and some reminders of things that you can consider or questions that you can ask that are going to support you in gathering information. To get a sound analysis, to be able to really plan for an effective intervention. All the details for that are in the show notes below. I also have my September masterclass coming up with very limited spaces. The details for that. In the show notes. If there were ever any topics that you want me to cover, either on this podcast or over on Instagram, through lives, on the blog, then please let me know. You can send me an email. You can contact me through the website or you can message me on Instagram. Please do that. Please reach out because that's why I'm able to help you so much because social workers do contact me and say, Vicki, can you help me with this? Or I'm not sure about this. I will always look to address the questions that you have in a way that is supportive. For you and, or the new social workers. Thank you so much for listening. I hope that this mini series was supportive for you. As you start your journey into social work. It is an amazing career that will always be ups and downs, but I genuinely couldn't imagine working in any other sector doing any other type of work Like I said, I am here to support you along the way, as much as I can. Before we end, I would invite you as I always do to close your eyes wherever you are. Or just take a moment to be still. Slow down your breathing. I'm focused. And taking a big, deep breath. There were so many. Physical and emotional benefits. To slowing down. Pausing. I'm breathing, even if it's just for 10 seconds. And my something. That you can take with you. for a habit that you can build at the start of this journey. It's definitely going to help you. as you carry on through your ASYE Thank you so much for listening and take care