Graded Care Profile in Assessing Neglect - Find a freedom of information request

This a Freedom of Information Request in relation to the council's children services department and its use of a tool called the Graded Care Profile to assess neglect.

1. Do you use a) the GCP or b) the NSPCC's adapted version, the GCP 2, to assess neglect in children?

2. If you use the GCP 2 please provide information on how much the council has spent on a) licensing the GCP2 and b) training in relation to the GCP2, to date

3. If you use the GCP2 please provide any assessments of the GCP 2 held or carried out by the council on the effect of use of the GCP2 on outcomes for children ie what are the benefits? Please note I am not looking for information on how many social workers etc have used the GCP2 but an assessment of the impact of the children on cases.

4. Please answer this question only if you do not use the GCP2 but do use the GCP. Please provide any assessments of the GCP held or carried out by the Council within the past 5 years in relation to the impact of use of the GCP tool on outcomes for children.

1. Within the Local Authority Children's Health 0-19 service are currently the only service that use the Graded Care Profile tool. We are licensed and currently use the NSPCC adapted version of the Graded Care Profile 2

2. The Graded Care Profile License/ Train the Trainers programme was purchased in 2018 and cost £4.600. This included training for up to 20 delegates. Training was delivered in house following a train the trainer programme and no additional costs were incurred by the LA.

3. One audit has been completed by the children's Health service in November 2019. This focused on implementation of the GCP2 within the Children's Health 0-19 service. The aim of this audit was to establish if the GCP2 Tool has been embedded into clinical practice and if so, impact and outcomes. It was hoped to identify:

• the number of staff trained to use the GCP2 Tool
• the impact of the training of the GCP2 on usage and practice
• the number and quality of GCP2 Tools which have been completed
• any deficits in recording the need for and use of translation services in care delivery
• any gaps in service.

The audit identified overall assessments of good quality. Many of the families have either progressed to child protection, legal proceedings, or the tool had assisted in evidencing better outcomes for those children already in the child protection arena.

There is evidence to support a positive attitude towards the tool and the training has also been reported to increase awareness around neglect.

The wider professionals within Children's Services are seeking practitioners to complete the assessment on their behalf, which evidences its worth and provides a baseline to further promote and generate future roll out. This has now been agreed by the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership.

4. Not applicable as we use GCP2