Attachment and Bonding Checklist outlines what behaviours in children and parent/carer an observer should look for when assessing a child’s attachment style. Click here to view/download
Category: Assessment
30+ tools for 1:1 work with children (assessment, planning & intervention)
The Kids Central Toolkit aims to provide workers and services with information, resources and tools to use child-centred approaches in their work with children, young people and families. The Toolkit is based around six key principles that support child-centred practice, and each principle includes a…
Feelings/’All About Me’ Jenga game
Many of us have a set of a Jenga game and with a bit of creativity, you can turn this game into a very useful and fun social work tool. (If you do not have a Jenga set, you may want to look for a…
Children’s Participation Toolkit for Social Workers (activities & worksheets)
The booklet contains various activities, worksheets and templates assisting social workers and early help workers to involve children in the process of assessments, intervention planning as well as conducting reviews in a positive, supportive and enabling way. Click here to view/download Chapter 1 – Contents, acknowledgements…
‘Say it your own way’: 40+ worksheets facilitating children’s participation in assessment
A great compilation of 40+ engaging worksheets facilitating children’s participation in an assessment of them. The worksheets help workers to ascertain children’s daily routine, likes, dislikes, feelings, wishes as well as their views on their family, friends, helpers, home, neighbourhood, school etc. The booklet also…
Pre-Birth Assessment Tool
This Pre-Birth Assessment Tool is designed to help professionals to carefully consider a range of issues in relation to the mother’s pregnancy and the family’s circumstances and to tease out issues that have potential for having a significant negative impact on the child. The tool draws…
‘Animal talk’ activity: Using animal pictures to get to know children and discuss their views and feelings
The tool contains 24 pictures of various animals and suggestions how they can be used to get to know children and discuss their views and feelings in an interactive and fun way. Click here to view/download the tool as a pdf file Click here to view/download…
Child Protection: Consultation with children toolkit
This beautifully illustrated guide describes various interactive techniques which social workers can use to engage children in a child protection process. The booklet not only provides various tips on activities which can be used but also contains a range of tools which professionals can print out. Contents: 1….
Getting to know a child’s routine activity tool
This tool supports social workers to gain an understanding of a child’s or young person’s daily routine in an engaging way. The document contains 40+ individual slips with various activities/feelings which a child is asked to sort out into three piles – every day, sometimes…
Young carers – assessment tools
The Manual below contains two instruments for the assessment of caring: The Multidimensional Assessment of Caring Activities (MACA-YC18) is a questionnaire (an 18-item self-report measure) that can be used to provide an index of the total amount of caring activity undertaken by the young person,…
Ecomap Activity
Creating an ecomap is a graphic and useful way of identifying all of the systems at play in the family’s life. The ecomaps give workers a detailed picture of: the family dynamics ; each individual family members’ connections to their community; each individual family members’ connections…
Sexual behaviours traffic light tool
Using the resource, professionals can learn to identify, assess and respond to sexual behaviour in children and young people in a confident and appropriate manner. It can be also used when explaining to parents/carers what constitutes healthy sexual behaviour and how to identify when their…
Establishing a day in the life of a school age child (sheet)
This tool supports workers to gain a good understanding of a child or young person daily routine. It should help to identify positives or strengths in the child/young person’s daily routine, as well highlighting areas where there may be concerns. Click here to view/download
Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional Development Screening Tool (ASQ:SE-2)
ASQ:SE-2 is a set of questionnaires about children’s social-emotional development from 6 to 60 months which can be self-administered by parents/caregivers. Doing this screening provides a quick look at how children are doing in important areas, such as self-regulation, communication, autonomy, compliance, adaptive functioning, affect,…
How it looks to me (Assessing wishes & feelings worksheets)
‘How it looks to me’ is an interactive and colourful booklet developed by CAFCASS to help social workers assess a child’s wishes and feelings. It invites the child to talk/draw/write about the following topics: About me (who lives with me & who doesn’t but means a…
Explore your emotions – coloring & activity book
This coloring book was designed to encourage children to share their feelings with an adult. The children are encouraged to talk/write about what makes them happy, upset and worried; about things they like to do by themselves or with their family and who they like…
Solution-focused practice – A toolkit for children & young people (44 tools, games, activities, exercises)
The toolkit presents ideas for worksheets and activities developed by NSPCC practitioners to be used with children and young people aged 5-19 years old during solution-focused work. Solution-focused practice concentrates on helping people move towards the future that they want and to learn what can…
Parenting worksheets (assessment tool)
A useful tool for assessing a parent’s understanding of basic child’s care needs. The worksheets cover the following seven areas: Emotional Development Worksheet Boundaries and Guidance Worksheet Communication Worksheet Play and Stimulation Worksheet Behaviour Worksheet Effects on my child and me Worksheet Stability and Support…
All about me booklet (21 pages)
This 21-page colourful booklet with various worksheets is great for direct work with children. It enables social workers to assess and discuss the following areas of a child’s life: How I Grow and Develop • Being healthy • Learning to be responsible • Learning and achieving…
SCODA: Risk assessment of parental drug use and its impact on children Tool
Below are two tools used by social workers when assessing the impact of substance misuse on a parent’s ability to meet their child’s needs. Both tools guides social workers to consider the following domains: The Pattern of Parental Drug Use Accommodation and Home Environment Provision of…
Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)
Postpartum depression is the most common complication of childbearing. This 10-question self-rating scale has been demonstrated to be an efficient and effective way of identifying patients at risk for “perinatal” depression. While this test was specifically designed for women who are pregnant or have just had…
Ages & Stages Questionnaires ASQ-3 (Child development screening tool)
ASQ-3 is a set of questionnaires about children’s development from 2 to 60 months which can be self-administered by parents/caregivers. Doing this screening provides a quick look at how children are doing in important areas, such as communication, physical ability, social skills, and problem-solving skills. ASQ-3 can…
About Me Sentence Completion
The questions on this worksheet are intended to enable a social worker to gain an insight into whether a child can identify their own positive traits and accomplishments. If a child has difficulty to think of answers to some questions, a practitioner or parent can take the opportunity…
Children’s Wishes and Feelings Shield: To help children participate in social care and protection assessments
This worksheet assists social workers to gain a child’s views in regards to what is working well in their life and family, what is not working well, what their wishes are and what their suggestions to make things better for themselves are.
The Three Houses template
The three houses template enables social workers to discuss a child’s likes/hobbies/strengths/protective factors, dislikes/worries & risks related to the child and dreams/hopes/wishes. A social worker can either ask a child to draw/write things to each house or assist them in doing so.
Impact of Parental Conflict Tool
The tool (developed by Cafcass) contains 10 indicators which can be used in identifying and analysing the emotionally harmful impact of parental conflict on the child.
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
This is a 10-item scale, widely used in social-science research, which measures self-esteem by asking service users to reflect on both their current positive and current negative feelings.
15-point Checklist for Resilience
This is a simple checklist of 15 items that have been reported by Grotberg (1997) to indicate resilience in children.
The Alcohol Scale
The primary concern of this questionnaire is not the amount of alcohol consumed, but how it impacts on the individual and, more particularly, on their role as a parent. This questionnaire has been found to be effective in detecting individuals with alcohol disorders and those…
The Family Activity Scale
These scales give practitioners an opportunity to explore with carers the environment provided for their children through joint activities and support for independent activities. This includes information about the cultural and ideological environment in which children live, as well as how their carers respond to…