Assessment and Progress Record: zt-APR3-4

Assessment And Progress Record for looked after children: Three And Four Years (36 months to, and including, 59 months)

The Assessment and Progress Record (APR) provides a framework for thinking about, recording and analysing the needs and progress of children and young people across the seven dimensions of a child’s development used in the Assessment Framework. The dimensions are inter-linked and items or questions dealt with in one dimension may be relevant to making an assessment in another. For example, the child’s appearance is dealt with under social presentation but appearance is likely to be reflected in self-care skills and important in identity and self image. The process of analysis and planning depends on understanding the links across the dimensions and coming to conclusions about the social and psychological processes underlying these links.

The Assessment and Progress Record is a document to aid professional social work practice and its completion is the responsibility of the child’s social worker. Evidence should be given for the conclusions the social worker has reached. Evidence may come from discussions with the child and their carers, information from school, health and other professionals a child’s consultation document and any other material on achievements that the child would like to contribute to the review. It should also include details of any scales or other instruments used to assess a particular dimension and the conclusions drawn from these. Disagreements and differences of opinion should be recorded within the relevant dimension. The term “carers” refers to those responsible for the day to day care of children and young people living in foster care and in residential care including secure accommodation.
It is important to emphasise that the completion and use of the Assessment and Progress Record is not a mechanical matter of ‘going through’ the sections, filling in boxes or making a few comments. The purpose of reviewing needs and progress is to come to an holistic view of what should be done in order to help the child. To assist this process, each section of the assessment contains statements that are relevant to most children.
Each statement is accompanied by a Yes and No box and Notes and Evidence section. Social workers should record his/her professional judgement as to whether a particular statement applies to the child by placing a mark in either the Yes or No box. They should then use the Notes and Evidence section to record relevant information to evidence their judgement. The statements provide good indicators of concerns and inputs relevant to the assessment. Of course, these are not the only relevant areas of importance.
For all children, including those with complex needs, the social worker should use the record which relates to the child’s chronological age. It is important to remember that the Assessment and Progress Record has two key functions: as a tool for planning and conducting the assessment and as the record that brings together the information gathered during the assessment in a way that facilitates analysis. It is recognised that the statements in each dimension and issues covered (on the left-hand side of the page) may not all be appropriate for children with complex needs. Where a specific statement is not appropriate, the social worker will need to consider how to assess the child’s needs appropriately and commensurate with his or her ability. In consultation with parents/main carers and relevant other professionals, the social worker may develop statements appropriate for the child. Where this is not appropriate, the social worker may use the Notes and Evidence to evidence and record information about the child’s progress. However, it is important that the summary assessment of progress is completed at the back of each dimension.
In order to monitor the child’s progress over time it is important that the summary ratings of change are completed even when it is considered that things have not changed very much. If any sections of the Assessment and Progress Record have not been revisited within the appropriate timescales, reviewing officers should query the decision and, if appropriate, ask that this work be done. As a minimum the reasons for not revisiting a Record section should be recorded and the basis for the ratings made clear.

Completing the Assessment and Progress Record for three and four year olds:

Ages three and four are marked by a rapid development of physical skills, language and a sense of past and future, consolidation of a sense of self and the development of peer relationships. Looked after children have often not experienced environments and relationships that are good enough for these developments to take a normal course. It is essential that the child’s environments and development are carefully assessed and decisions made that will maximise the chance of their having predictable, sensitive and loving parenting to assist their social development.
Information from the child should be seen as an essential part of a good assessment. Although it is recognised that information from the child will often be incomplete and s/he may be unable or unwilling to discuss certain aspects of their life or feelings, nevertheless, it should be clear that children have been given the opportunity to have their say in a supportive way. Key sources of information from a 3-4 year old will be from observation of play and behaviour.
Social workers should make a particular attempt to note views and feelings expressed during any contact with the child, not just at the time of assembling the Assessment and Progress Record information for the review. If information is seen as so important that it cannot be kept confidential - for example, information on abuse or maltreatment - the child should be helped to see why this information cannot be kept secret and what will happen next, and, for less serious issues, how it will be presented at the review.