Assessment Tools

When undertaking an assessment, practitioners engage the parent(s) in numerous exercises to explore the functioning of the parent's relationship(s) with their child/ren. To achieve this, exercises are undertaken to explore the Disruptive Risks to the parent-child relationship(s); the parent's understanding of their child/ren's basic care needs; the parent's understanding of emotional attunement; the parent's support network; and the parent's understanding of how they manage their own self-care needs.

Disruptive Risks

With the use of pictorial cards and short animated videos, practitioners help parents to think about the different types of 'Disruptive Risks' that might be impacting on the functioning of their relationship(s) with their child/ren.

A Disruptive Risk refers to anything which disrupts the functioning of a parent-child relationship. In children's safeguarding, Disruptive Risks are very common and include things such as domestic abuse, substance misuse, and/or parental mental health difficulties.

Disruptive Risks disrupt the functioning of parent-child relationships as they have a negative impact on a parent's ability to respond to their child/ren's needs. For example, if a parent was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, they would not be able to appropriately respond to their child/ren's basic care needs. Also, when a child is exposed to parental alcohol or drug misuse, the child may not feel able to effectively communicate their needs to their parent(s). This may be due to the child feeling frightened about their parent's emotional and behavioural presentation.

External Disruptive Risks

Practitioners engage parents in a visual exercise to identify and reflect on external Disruptive Risks. External Disruptive Risks refer to factors outside the immediate family that can disrupt the functioning of parent-child relationships. This might include poverty, poor housing, community anti-social behaviour, social isolation, or other environmental stress factors that impact a parent's ability to provide consistent, responsive care.

The influence of poverty and other socioeconomic stressors is highlighted by Foster et al (2025), who explain that such stressors can lead to a decrease in positive feelings, and an increase in feelings of helplessness and fear. Furthermore, such stressors are associated with less sensitive caregiving, a greater frequency of alarming caregiving behaviours, and a reduced capacity for mentalising.

Basic care needs

An important part of any parenting assessment is to evidence a parent's understanding of how they meet their child/ren's basic care needs. To do this, practitioners use pictorial cards to explore the parents' understanding of their child/ren's basic care needs. For example, the cards help parents to reflect on how they implement routines for mealtimes, play, and bathing.

Emotional Attunement

My Family considers emotional attunement to be a parent's ability to perceive, understand, and respond appropriately to their child's emotional states. It's about being in a synchronised dance with the child, whereby the parent responds to their child in a way that makes them feel seen, heard, and understood. This sensitive and responsive interaction can be seen as crucial for a child's emotional, social, and cognitive development.

With the use of short animated videos, practitioners help parents to reflect on the functioning of parent-child relationships. By doing this, it creates opportunities for parents to reflect on the functioning of their relationship(s) with their child/ren, including how they respond to their child/ren's cues for emotional warmth and connection.

The Family System

As highlighted by Foster et al (2025), Attachment Theory and research suggests that having multiple relationships that severe as Safe Havens and Secure Bases can benefit children (this is due to it increasing the likelihood of a child having someone to turn to when needing someone to satisfy their needs). With this in mind, My Family places an emphasis on exploring beyond the primary family system - including the functioning of the parental relationship and the impact the relationship has on the parents' caregiving - and exploring the support parents can access from the wider family system(s).

By using visual aids, practitioners help parents to identify individuals who can offer them and their child/ren support, and clarity is gained around the nature of the support and how the support may help increase the safety in the parent-child relationship(s). When exploring a parent's support network, they might identify support they can access for childcare from their parent(s), they might identify family members who can offer them practical support for their daily routines, or they might identify family members or friends who can offer them emotional support.

It takes a village to raise a child

African Proverb