ABSTRACT
In their review of approaches to assessment, Crisp et al. (2005) assert that there is no single understanding and theory about assessment in social work. This is hardly surprising, given that assessment takes place in so many different ways and for so many different reasons. Increasingly, assessment in social work is equated with assessment of risk (Cree and Wallace 2009). The nature of an assessment will be determined by whether it is being conducted by a sole practitioner or by one who is part of a multi-disciplinary or inter-agency team (see Barrett et al. 2005; Morris 2008). And assessments may be either ‘needs’ or ‘resources’ led. Although the language of current policy statements is always couched in terms which suggest that service users should have choices about the services which support them (referred to as ‘personalisation’ or a ‘person-centred approach’), the reality is that agencies have to take resources into account when assessing what packages of care might be made available to an individual (Petch 2008). The selected extract by Brian Sheldon and Geraldine Macdonald, social work academics in England and Northern Ireland, provides a good overview of things to be considered in making an assessment and evaluating practice of any kind.
From A Textbook of Social Work, London: Routledge (2009): 95–111.
