Whose needs are they anyway? Impediments to the implementation of a consistent and structured approach to the identification and assessment of need within children and family services

In the decade that followed the Children Act 1989, many local authorities developed local frameworks and methodologies to help their staff make sense of the duty to assess 'children in need'. This thesis evaluates the introduction of one of these frameworks and more specifically the impediments to its implementation. It also explores whether these were limited to the model concerned, or whether they would be likely to affect the introduction of similar policies elsewhere. This is particularly relevant with the advent of the Department of Health et al.’s Assessment Framework in 2000 and subsequent proposals to extend the Framework’s principles to all children receiving services from local authorities, through the Integrated Children's System. The study, which the thesis describes, built on earlier research in this area by using a triangulated approach to collect data from the observation of social work practice; the reported comments of social work practitioners; and evidence from social work casefiles. [Continues.]