1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 This Summary Guidance provides a brief overview of the use of the Graded Care Profile. The Graded Care Profile is a standard assessment tool developed by Dr Srivastava, a consultant community paediatrician for Luton Teaching Primary Care Trust and Dr Leon Polnay. 1.2 This Guidance and the Graded Care Profile Scale have been slightly modified for use as a multi agency assessment. The tool is considered to be straightforward to use and requires little clarification. 2 WHAT IS THE GRADED CARE PROFILE 2.1 Assessment involves the gathering of information about a child’s circumstances, analysing the information and reaching a judgement about the needs the child may have. The challenge for workers is to retain the ability to undertake a holistic assessment of the child, whilst having the ability to focus on particular aspects. The area of neglect is difficult to assess, in particular due to the differing thresholds of assessors or agencies. The Graded Care Profile is a practice based tool that gives an objective measure of the care of children across a range of areas of need. Research into the use of the tool suggests that it achieved a high level of consistency in scoring, when different assessors used the GCP to assess the same case. 2.2 The Graded Care Profile is focussed on identifying strengths as well as areas of difficulty. The trigger for undertaking a Graded Care Profile is a concern about neglect and is consequently focussed on negative aspects. This is balanced out by identifying areas of strength where a family is doing well, achieving and meeting the child’s needs. Identifying areas of strength and achievement are critical when deciding on intervention to meet needs. The potential of families can be better understood by referring to other aspects of their care where they have been successful, rather than limiting the focus to areas where they are experiencing difficulties. 3 USING THE GRADED CARE PROFILE The Graded Care Profile is a single assessment document, structured into 5 components: 3.1 Assessment Record Scoring grid Summary scores Areas identified for improvement Decisions and further actions The tool is also supported by the Guidance document
1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 This Summary Guidance provides a brief overview of the use of the Graded Care Profile. The Graded Care Profile is a standard assessment tool developed by Dr Srivastava, a consultant community paediatrician for Luton Teaching Primary Care Trust and Dr Leon Polnay. 1.2 This Guidance and the Graded Care Profile Scale have been slightly modified for use as a multi agency assessment. The tool is considered to be straightforward to use and requires little clarification. 2 WHAT IS THE GRADED CARE PROFILE 2.1 Assessment involves the gathering of information about a child’s circumstances, analysing the information and reaching a judgement about the needs the child may have. The challenge for workers is to retain the ability to undertake a holistic assessment of the child, whilst having the ability to focus on particular aspects. The area of neglect is difficult to assess, in particular due to the differing thresholds of assessors or agencies. The Graded Care Profile is a practice based tool that gives an objective measure of the care of children across a range of areas of need. Research into the use of the tool suggests that it achieved a high level of consistency in scoring, when different assessors used the GCP to assess the same case. 2.2 The Graded Care Profile is focussed on identifying strengths as well as areas of difficulty. The trigger for undertaking a Graded Care Profile is a concern about neglect and is consequently focussed on negative aspects. This is balanced out by identifying areas of strength where a family is doing well, achieving and meeting the child’s needs. Identifying areas of strength and achievement are critical when deciding on intervention to meet needs. The potential of families can be better understood by referring to other aspects of their care where they have been successful, rather than limiting the focus to areas where they are experiencing difficulties. 3 USING THE GRADED CARE PROFILE 3.1 The Graded Care Profile is a single assessment document, structured into 5 components: Assessment Record Scoring grid Summary scores Areas identified for improvement Decisions and further actions The tool is also supported by the Guidance document
graded_care_profile_guidance%20final%209.9.17.docx