ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out a general framework for practice in social assessment based on critical auto/biography (CA/B) principles. It demonstrates that the practical issues can best be managed if they are understood as consisting of interconnected concepts which relate to CA/B theory. It is becoming widely accepted that central concepts in assessing risk and need are socially constructed, and thus a general framework for coping with the reflexive, sociological and istorical nature of assessment is required. The implications of CA/B theory include the importance of placing general predictive risk factors within a theoretical framework, and the necessity of making value-based ‘clinical’ judgements of specific cases. Methods for assessment have to be consistent with a methodology that is sensitive to the range of various kinds of needs strengths and risks, and their interconnection, and encompasses their reflexive, evaluative dimensions.
