Following approaches by members of the Social Work profession, we are in the process of developing a range of guides to support social workers in their report writing and court work. These guides are intended for social workers employed by Local Authorities albeit may also be of interest to Independent Social Workers and others involved in proceedings where the welfare of children is at issue.

While some Local Authorities provide in-depth guidance, others provide their staff with little or no support in the area of case analysis, report writing and court attendance. This poses particular difficulties for new social workers with cutbacks further hampering Local Authorities in addressing this problem themselves. A lack of information channels can cause experienced social workers to be unaware of developments in case law and guidance issued by senior judiciary. These were the issues we were asked to address in our guide on section 7 reporting.

We’ll continue to add resources to this section which may assist and inform.

ABE InterviewsMoJ: Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings: Guidance on interviewing victims and witnesses, and guidance on using special measures
Child ProtectionWorking Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
Section 7 ReportingSection 7 Guide For Social WorkersRecommended Report Content by SectionBlank MSWord Section7 Template
ParenthoodThe Law concerning Parenthood and Parental Responsibility
Special Guardian- shipStatutory guidance for local authorities on the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 (as amended by the Special Guardianship (Amendment) Regulations 2016)

If you have proposals to improve upon this work, please use our Contact Us page.