Universal application & targeted assessment
The CAF can be used for any unborn baby, new baby,
child or young person who has additional, unmet needs. It is not
necessary to do a Common Assessment on every child. Those who are
progressing satisfactorily, or already having their needs met, do
not need one. A Common Assessment is also unlikely to be needed if
the child’s needs are clear and can be met by the child or
their parent/carer or by the assessing agency (although we would
encourage practitioners to look beyond the presenting problem).
Since resources for services are finite, doing
a Common Assessment cannot guarantee that services (especially
those involving another agency) will be delivered. Gaps between
needs and responses should be identified through monitoring and
feed into local commissioning and strategy discussions.
