Common Assessment Framework (CAF) guide for parents

Sometimes your child may need extra support. It could be before they are born, when they are very young or when they are at school. One way of providing support to them is to use the Common Assessment Framework or CAF.

The CAF is a way of working out what extra support your child may need. It involves meeting with practitioners to make sure you only have to tell your story once and that help is provided as quickly and effectively as possible. With your agreement, practitioners have a conversation with you to identify your child's needs and strengths.

The CAF assessment record outlines what is going well for your family, what extra support may be needed and which practitioners may be best placed to help.

Working with you

The CAF is voluntary. Other times, someone who knows you and your child may suggest a CAF to ensure you get the right support if it's needed. You also have a say in which worker you want to help coordinate your action plan. This worker is usually called your lead professional.

The CAF action plan, agreed with you and your family, is put in place to make sure you all get the right support.

The plan brings together the practitioners working with you, this could be your health visitor, your child's teacher or the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) at the school, a speech and language therapist or any other practitioners who work with children and families. This way of working together is called a Team Around the Child (TAC) or Team Around the Family. We will work with you to find solutions and meet any needs that are identified.

For some families, there are specific problems or safeguarding concerns which make it necessary for a referral to be made to Children's Social Care. This is so that a social worker can be allocated to undertake an assessment. The assessment, which you will be a critical part of, explores the concerns and identifies whether there is ongoing need for social care help and support.

Unless there are immediate safeguarding concerns the practitioner completing the CAF with you will always discuss the option or necessity of referring to social care.

If you want further information about CAF, a leaflet is available. You can also look at the kinds of records practitioners use when they are working with you through CAF.    

If you have complete a CAF with a practitioner, or have been working with a TAC or Team Around the Family, we want to know how well it worked for you. Telling us about your experiences, good and bad, will help us get it right for all children and families in the borough. You can contact the early help services on 020 7525 2714 or complete a survey - These are available from icss@southwark.gov.uk or you can complete online here (Parent and Carer Survey).

This gives you the chance to tell us whether you have been included in the work that's been happening with your family, whether services have been flexible and responsive and whether it is making a difference. There are also surveys available for your child to complete if they want to tell us how things have been for them, again these can be requested form icss@southwark.gov.uk or completed online here (Children's Survey). The surveys are also available in a number of community languages: Arabic, Bengali, French, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish and Yoruba. If you want a copy of a survey in one of these languages you can e-mail icss@southwark.gov.uk.