The Common Assessment Framework: does the reality match the rhetoric?
Gilligan, Philip A. Manby, M.
Gilligan, Philip A.
Manby, M.
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2008-05
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(c) 2008 Wiley. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Gilligan PA and Manby M (2008) The Common Assessment Framework: does the reality match the rhetoric? Child and Family Social Work. 13(2): 177-187, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2007.00530.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley�s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
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Abstract
The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is an important part of the procedures envisaged in the government�s Every Child Matters: Change for Children (ECM: CFC) programme. Implementation of CAF, in particular, raises many important questions, not least those arising from the inconsistencies apparent between government rhetoric around the development of multi?agency services provided to all children with �additional� needs and the actual experiences of children, young people, parents/carers and practitioners in real?world situations. This paper explores the extent to which the actions of practitioners and the experiences of service users with regard to CAF mirror or differ from those that would be expected in view of the content of government guidance and policy documents.
The data used is taken from an evaluation of CAF processes in two locations in northern England over a period of six months. It concludes that very small numbers of children and young people actually received the service; that, despite genuine enthusiasm from practitioners for them to be so, the processes observed could not yet be described as fully �child?centred�; that fathers were insufficiently involved; and that CAF was, in reality, another service rationed according to available resources and according to agencies� priorities.
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Gilligan PA and Manby M (2008) The Common Assessment Framework: does the reality match the rhetoric? Child and Family Social Work. 13(2): 177-187.
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