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BJSW Advance Access published online on April 16, 2008
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn053
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved

The Descriptive Tyranny of the Common Assessment Framework: Technologies of Categorization and Professional Practice in Child Welfare

Sue White, Chris Hall and Sue Peckover

Sue White, Professor of Social Work, University of Lancaster. Chris Hall, Reader, Centre Applied Childhood Studies, University of Huddersfield. Sue Peckover, Senior Research Fellow, Centre Applied Childhood Studies, University of Huddersfield

Correspondence to Sue White, Professor of Social Work, Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University, Room C154, Bowland North, Bowland College, Lancaster LA1 4YD, UK. Email: s.j.white{at}lancaster.ac.uk


  Abstract

The Common Assessment Framework is a standard assessment tool to be used by all professionals working with children for assessment and referral. The CAF is hailed as a needs-led, evidence-based tool which will promote uniformity, ensure appropriate ‘early intervention’, reduce referral rates to local authority children's services and lead to the evolution of ‘a common language’ amongst child welfare professionals. This paper presents findings from a study, funded under the Economic and Social Research Council's e-Society Programme. Our purpose in is not primarily evaluative, rather we illustrate the impacts of CAF as a technology on the everyday professional practices in child welfare. We analyse the descriptive, stylistic and interpretive demands it places on practitioners in child welfare and argue that practitioners make strategic and moral decisions about whether and when to complete a CAF and how to do so. These are based on assessments of their accountabilities, their level of child welfare competence and their domain-specific knowledge, moral judgements and the institutional contexts in which these are played out.

Keywords: assessment, ethnography, common language, every child matters


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