Parenting Assessments in Child Welfare Cases: A Practical Guide

Henry G. MacLeod teaches sociology at both Trent University and the
University of Waterloo.

Child protection workers have the difficult tasks of determining whether
a child is at risk of neglect and abuse, and of recommending that an
at-risk child be removed from the care of his or her parents. Given the
trauma to parent–child relationships when a child is apprehended from
the home, practitioners need to be highly skilled in evaluating the
parents’ abilities to care adequately for their children. This book
for child welfare professionals, social-work teachers and students, and
lawyers and judges who deal with child protection cases in the courts
provides important guidelines for conducting parenting assessments.

Most parenting assessments are done in the context of separation and
divorce conflict (i.e., assessing various custody and access
arrangements for children). The assessment is then used as a basis for
developing a parenting plan. The focus is on determining what would be
in the best interest of the child, each parent’s ability to meet the
child’s needs, and the type of access each parent will have. In child
welfare cases, the emphasis is on assessing risk to the child, which is
significantly different from a custody and access evaluation.

According to the authors, the fundamental question in any parenting
assessment is whether the parent can meets the needs of his or her
child, so in this book, they provide a model to facilitate comprehensive
systematic assessments and appropriate recommendations. They also walk
assessors through the steps of conducting parenting assessments, and
identify potential errors in them. Text boxes titled “Practice
Alerts” highlight key points for ensuring accurate assessments.
Guidelines for report writing and sample reports are also included.
Parenting Assessments in Child Welfare Cases is an excellent resource.