Common Assessment Framework (CAF)

The CAF is a key part of delivering frontline services that are integrated and focused around the needs of children and young people. The aim is to identify, at the earliest opportunity, a child's or young person's additional needs which are not being met by the universal services they are receiving, and provide timely and co-ordinated support to meet those needs.

CAF benefits

The CAF provides an assessment that is common across services. It will help embed a shared language; support better understanding amongst practitioners; reduce the number of different assessments; facilitate early intervention and speed up service delivery. For parents, children and young people, it should reduce the number of times we have to ask you to supply the same basic information about yourselves.

CAF for children, young people and parents

The Common Assessment Framework is there to help you and the information you supply will only be passed on with your consent. If you consent, it means that you should not have to keep supplying the same information to different professionals and helps those professionals work together to help you. For more information, please email our CAF Co-ordinator.

CAF for practitioners

Hillingdon now has a CAF register to help practitioners identify whether an assessment already exists for a child. There are already nearly 2,000 CAFs recorded on it. Hillingdon also now has a CAF Co-ordinator to support you.

For security reasons, the register is not available on-line. You can use the pre-CAF checklist on the right to help you decide whether it is appropriate to start a common assessment for a child. If you decide that a child does need a common assessment, contact the CAF Co-ordinator with the following information:

• Name of child
• Ethnicity
• Date of birth
• Address
• School if known
• Date CAF completed
• Your name and role
• Who you plan to send the CAF to (if known)

The CAF Co-ordinator will check that you are who you say you are, and will then look on the register to find out whether the child already has an open or recently closed CAF. She will also check whether the child has an allocated Social Worker (in which case there may be no need for a CAF).

The Hillingdon CAF forms

New CAF forms are available from 1 October 2009. The new forms can be downloaded on the right together with new guidance. For a common assessment, one or more practitioners should work with a young person or a child's parents to assess the young person or child's strengths and needs, noting these on the form. Together they should identify whether additional services are required. If they are, the practitioner must obtain the parent or young person's consent to share the completed CAF form with the identified services. The pre-CAF checklist may help you decide whether a CAF form is needed and the new review form will help you track the progress of the assessment.

In Hillingdon, we also use the CAF form to provide information for Child Protection referrals. If you have a Child Protection concern, you should contact the Referral and Assessment Team immediately, then follow up within 48 hours by entering the basic details on the first three pages of the form and completing the last page. See the Hillingdon LSCB procedures for further guidance or speak to your designated Child Protection Officer.

CAF training

On 30 September 2009 a new training programme started. Book your place with the online training form.

We can also provide

• On-site training for teams (minimum and maximum numbers apply).
• On-line training, available for individuals who wish to refresh their knowledge of CAF, the Every Child Matters programme and Information Sharing in general.

If you want to take advantage of either, please contact the CAF Co-ordinator. We are currently reviewing training, so please let us know if you have any additional training needs.

ReCAF

A new steering group with representatives from all members of the HCFT was created to research, review and refresh every aspect of CAF in Hillingdon, including training and support. This was launched on 17 March 2009 with the CAF register and CAF Co-ordinator. The new CAF training and new CAF forms were launched on 30 September 2009.

We also want to identify individuals across all partners who can co-ordinate and support CAF locally, working with the CAF Co-ordinator to improve the effectiveness of CAF in Hillingdon. Please let us know if you can help.

How can we improve this web page?

CAF in Hillingdon is under review and this page will be updated regularly, in line with your requirements.

We'd love to hear your feedback in any of the following areas:

• Additional guidance
• Training needs
• General feedback, comments and suggestions

We hope to make this page a useful resource for you. Please let us know what you want to see here and what we can add to help you with CAF.

Contact us

CAF Co-ordinator
Email: CAF@hillingdon.gov.uk
Phone: 01895 55 6144