Guidance
Conducting an assessment
Assessment is an ongoing process of gathering information to build and deepen understanding, requiring critical thinking and analysis. We articulate our understanding in the assessment report.Updates made to this guidance
Changes have been made to a number of pages on the Practice Centre to align with the practice approach. Specific changes include:
- Tiaki Oranga replaces the safety and risk screen, and is now being used throughout the life of a case, across service lines whenever we need to understand current safety.
- All references to the Tuituia domains and subdomains have been removed and we now promote the use of Te Puna Oranga and our models, tools and resources to build and deepen our understanding.
- The Tuituia report has been replaced with the assessment report.
What is assessment
We use the assessment process to:
- assess the safety of te tamaiti and rangatahi
- identify strengths in te tamaiti or rangatahi, their parents, whānau or family and environment
- identify needs that aren't being met
- identify services that could address these needs.
When an assessment is required
Assessment is an ongoing process of building our understanding based on analysis of information throughout our work with te tamaiti or rangatahi and their whānau or family.
There are certain points along our practice continuum where we are required to articulate our understanding within the assessment report.
Specific types of assessment
All assessments must follow the process on this page – but some assessments have additional requirements.
Building understanding
Below is the general process.
1 Plan our mahi
We use Organising my Practice to plan our mahi. This could occur at any point as we build and deepen our understanding. This includes:
- considering the purpose of our mahi
- considering who we need to engage with to build our understanding
- understanding any whānau or family history we may hold – their whakapapa (significant people, places and cultural values) and their history with Oranga Tamariki.
2 Gather information
We must gather information from a wide range of sources – te tamaiti or rangatahi, whānau, wider family, teachers, hospital staff, and others, and CYRAS records.
We must:
- work directly with tamariki or rangatahi, their parents/caregivers, significant whānau or family members and other professionals working with them and their whānau or family
- ensure tamariki and rangatahi are able to freely express their views and be supported if they have difficulty in doing so.
3 Analyse the information
As we gather our information, we use our professional judgement to analyse the picture that has formed.
Consider:
Definitions of abuse, neglect and harm
Tool: Child/young person and family consult
The consult can be used during the assessment to inform the analysis and next steps.
4 Write the assessment report
Once we've gathered and analysed all our information, we articulate our understanding using the assessment report.
The assessment report must:
- articulate the needs of each tamaiti or rangatahi in a holistic way with a focus on long-term outcomes
- clearly articulate the risks and strengths of te tamaiti or rangatahi, their whānau or family and caregivers
- clearly identify what needs to change for te tamaiti or rangatahi or show what's working for them
- record our understanding of the static and dynamic risk factors related to offending behaviour and consider reducing further offending.
We should share our assessment report with te tamaiti or rangatahi and the whānau or family. They have a right to know what we think and how we came to our understanding and decisions. We include their responses in our report.
The completed assessment report must be approved by our supervisor.