Children Services Assessment:
Common Assessment Framework

The Government’s Green Paper, Every Child Matters, proposed the introduction of a national Common Assessment Framework (CAF) to help practitioners to assess children’s needs for services earlier and more effectively.

The Common Assessment Framework will -

• support earlier intervention by helping practitioners in universal services, who are likely to spot issues earlier, assess needs;
• improve the quality of assessments and referrals by encouraging all practitioners to operate according to the common standards provided by CAF;
• improve information sharing by having a common approach to assessing needs;
• reduce the number and scale of assessments that individual children undergo by enabling information to follow the child.

The DfES has just completed a public consultation on the CAF to gather the views of practitioners, professional organisations as well as children, young people and families.

Common Assessment Framework materials:

• Draft Common Assessment Framework
• CAF Implementation Plan
• DfES Consultation Unit's CAF report - (including one page 'overview')
• DfES Response to the Consultation
• The National Children's Bureau (NCB) report on the CAF consultation (held with children, young people and parents)

Some elements of the Common Assessment Framework may change considerably in the coming months. Agencies should continue to use their existing assessment tools and frameworks until further notice.

The DfES intend to refine this document and reissue it at the end of March for limited implementation in a selection of local areas from April 2005. Following a period of further refinement, taking account of lessons in those areas, the DfES will issue it in final form in time for all areas to begin implementation from April 2006.

For more information call 020 8820 7057

Back to top

Page updated: 12 Feb 2008