The Common Assessment Framework for children and young people (CAF) is a shared assessment tool used across agencies in England. It can help practitioners develop a shared understanding of a child’s needs, so they can be met more effectively. It will avoid children and families having to tell and re-tell their story.

The CAF is an important tool for early intervention. It has been designed specifically to help practitioners assess needs at an earlier stage and then work with families, alongside other practitioners and agencies, to meet them.

It creates a structure for agencies to work together, through a Keyworker and Lead Professional system, where families are involved in identifying their own networks of support and additional services that they might need.

Even if practitioners are not trained to do a Common Assessment themselves, knowing about the CAF will help them recognise when it might help so that they can arrange for someone else to do the assessment.

The CAF is not for when there is concern that a child may have been harmed or may be at risk of harm.  In these circumstances the procedures set out in Part 3 of this Manual must be followed.

The Child Concern Model has been developed to facilitate working within the Common Assessment Framework in Walsall.  The Model includes an agreed framework of need and risk – responses to a child’s identified needs will vary dependent upon the child’s level of vulnerability. 

More information about the Common Assessment Framework in Walsall can be found at the Walsall Council website

See also the Walsall Family Group Conference Service Procedure.

Further detailed information about the Common Assessment Framework is contained in “The Common Assessment Framework for children and young people: Practitioners’ Guide”, 2006, and “The Common Assessment Framework for children and young people: Managers’ Guide”, 2006, which can be found at the Every Child Matters website.

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