Can anyone tell me anything about a "Common Assessment"?

[mm22bys]

Hi,

I asked locally about support in my area, and someone told me we need to get a "common assessment".

I have never heard of these (surprise surprise) - can anyone tell me anything about these?

Thx

I have heard of these and even seen one. Theroeticly... its a single document that can be shared by multiple agencys who may be involved in suporting a family / child. So, rather than having to fill in a big form for each agency ( SALT, play therapy, Surestart, physio, counselling etc) you do it once. The documnet has details about your family situation, needs, strengths, desires, exsiting suport, needed suport etc.
Are you in area with a surestart centre? if so phone or pop in and ask to talk to a family project worker about it they "should" be able to explain fully.
I'm a parent on a surestart parent forum, and we had a look at common assement form just teh other week. didn;t make much sence on its own, but after reading the booklet on how to use them that is given to professionals using them , it all seemed quite sensible.

UniS is right. Instead of having to fill in loads of different forms to access help from different services, you put all the relevant information on one form. This is then looked at and passed along to whichever group(s) are most relevant to your needs.

Great, thanks. DS2 had his development assessment by the Child Development Team two months ago, and in that he was assessed for physio, OT, SALT, portage. They are slowly, very slowly, starting to kick in - he's seeing a physio in 2 or 3 weeks, the OTs been twice, have been offered one group session of SALT, and the Portage service will be coming in two and half weeks to explain what they do.

Not completely happy with that (he won't actually be starting Portage till January, so it will be nearly 4 months since his initial assessment), but at least things are slowing moving.

Thx