Carol Benbow. October 2022.

Since opening Amber Family in 2014, the staff team have collectively been responsible for publishing over 250 parenting assessments; some of these have concluded that the family can return home together, whilst some have recommended – for a variety of reasons – that the child would be safer and better safeguarded by living away from his or her parents. One thing I am sure of is that every final assessment recommends the right outcome for the child; they remain our focus throughout the entire 13-week process.

Many Local Authorities and other professionals involved in Children’s Services, consider a Residential Parenting Assessment to be an “expensive” option to decide future plans for a child. However, the assessment produced at the end of the placement provides all professionals involved with a more robust, evidence-based, and fair assessment than any undertaken in the community could provide. We live and breathe alongside our families for 13 weeks and during this time, observe them day and night caring for their child. If it’s safe to place parent and child together, then a residential parenting assessment is far more effective and conclusive than a community-based assessment.

When a family arrives at Amber, there has already been so much work undertaken to ensure that we can offer them a service to meet their needs, both from a parenting and personal perspective. We look at how introducing them to a certain setting may impact on the other families already living there and whether they already know them if they are from the same Local Authority. Our Referrals Team consider past history, and what the parent(s) are struggling with; for example, is the care of their child a concern, or are they already skilled at caring for their child and it’s their own social and environmental issues, e.g., drugs, alcohol or domestic violence that’s a concern for professionals working with them.

Our team of trained staff support the families whilst in placement and makes detailed observations about how parents undertake the “basic tasks” for their child; bathing, feeding, making and sterilising bottles and nappy changes. But parenting is about so much more than this. We consider the emotional warmth towards a child; whether a parent can provide essentials for their child by demonstrating good budgeting skills; can the parent recognise when their child is ill and seek the correct medical advice and can they administer medication correctly; is the parent able to address their own physical and mental health by seeking advice, eating well, showering regularly and keeping themselves as well as their child clean? The list of observations is endless.

All evidence gathered in the day-to-day lives of parents and their children is supplemented by a number of training courses in baby safe, attachment theory, weaning and a balanced diet, childhood illnesses, healthy relationships, the importance of play and internet safety. We also offer a domestic abuse course – the Gateway Programme and three members of our staff have been trained to work with those who have / who are experiencing domestic abuse. Additionally, each parent will have their own bespoke assessment plan, divided into weeks 1 – 6 and weeks 6 – 12. This explains in detail what work will be undertaken by whom and on what week. Direct work undertaken with the family will look at support networks, their understanding of risk, their responsibility to safeguard, historic experiences, “old me v new me”…..the list is endless and the staff team are very creative in ensuring as much information and understanding is drawn out of the parent as possible.

Each family is also allocated a Key Worker who will work with them day to day to provide feedback – both good and that which needs further support, and an Assessor who will ultimately be responsible for compiling the final assessment which will be submitted to the Local Authority for consideration when deciding on a future care plan for the child.

The final assessment and recommendations are not just a week’s worth of work. They are based on the outcome of 12 weeks of direct work, observations, and analysis and the final recommendations are discussed at length between the Key Worker, Registered Manager for the setting in which the family have lived, the Assessor and the Amber Family Care Director. I know from working closely with all our Assessors that the recommendations are not made lightly; many have complained of sleepless nights in the days leading up to writing the report. They are aware and conscious that the report published under their name could mean a family being separated and this decision is not an easy one to make, particularly when you’ve lived alongside a family for a three-month period.

I asked a couple of Amber Family Assessors what their role means to them;

GW – I feel privileged to have the opportunity to work closely with families throughout their parenting assessment. For me, it’s not just about assessing and making decisions but developing a relationship that will leave an imprint on people’s lives. I never underestimate the importance of the assessments I create; they make life-changing recommendations. I feel that the time I invest in developing relationships with families, investigating issues, completing person-centred direct work, considering history, reading other expert opinions, and importantly recognising change and progress, makes my assessments fair. I always feel my practice is safe and adheres to everything I signed up to do when I became a Social Worker.

AM – Writing an assessment is so much more than just writing a report. You need to know the family, their family, their support and the professionals that work with them, inside and out. Ensuring the children are at the centre of the assessment is so important however, can at times be difficult when you have spent so much time building a relationship with the parents who for most have already been through trauma and hardship. Ensuring the right recommendations are made is crucial for everyone involved and takes a team of people and a lot of information sharing! If love was the only thing a child needed many of our families would surpass all expectations of the assessment process however, sadly they need a lot more and we need to evidence that they will get this now and in the future.

To conclude, the Team at Amber work tirelessly to ensure that our service’s mission statement is fulfilled for each family;

We believe that every parent should be provided with the opportunity to live together with their babies in a safe, supportive and caring environment and for their assessment to be fair, robust and honest.