Guidance

Simulated practice preparation materials – practice supervisors

Published 19 June 2019

This guidance was withdrawn on 6 February 2023

The NAAS programme closed in March 2022. Children’s social care: Stable Homes, Built on Love was published on 2 February 2023 and sets out details of a new early career framework and integrated assessment for social workers post-qualification.

Applies to England

Overview

The simulated practice assessment will be based on 2 different scenarios.

We’ve reproduced one example scenario here to help you prepare. The steps below explain how you’ll be expected to use the scenario in the assessment.

1. Read the 2 scenarios.

2. Complete 2 different simulated practice scenarios with an actor.

3. Complete a written assessment based on one of the scenarios you’ve read.

You’ll also complete a reflective assessment as part of the simulated practice assessment. You do not have to read any scenarios for the reflective assessment.

Scenario

Children’s social care received a referral 3 weeks ago from a care co-ordinator in the community mental health team, P.Rogers.

They are concerned that ‘all is not right’ with the parental care of the children in the Hameed family. The referral was about their daughter Anjali (aged 14), although she has three older siblings: Nadir (aged 15), Muhammed (aged 19) and Rakesh (aged 20) - none of whom are known to children’s social care.

Mr Hameed (father) suffers from bipolar disorder and has been known to the community mental health team for the past 5 years. Over this time, the family have had periods of disengagement from the community mental health team as well as periods of full engagement. There is a history of allegations of domestic violence between Mr Hameed and his wife and Mr Hameed has had suicidal thoughts in the past.

Just before the referral, Mr Hameed arrived at the community mental health clinic in a highly agitated state, stating that Anjali was ‘pushing him over the edge’. This is included in the referral form section below. In the past, Mr Hameed has experienced recurrences of his mental illness, which he believes are due to the pressure he feels because of the behaviour of his 14-year-old daughter Anjali.

The care co-ordinator has complained to your service manager about the delay in responding to their referral, and the service manager has asked you to meet the care co-ordinator to respond to the complaint and deal with the outstanding assessment of any possible risks, particularly in relation to Anjali. The family are not aware that this referral has been made.

In this simulated practice assessment, you will meet the care co-ordinator, P. Rogers, to discuss their complaint to your service manager, to gather information to enable you to establish any indicators of risk, and to make a recommendation on next steps.

Candidate preparation

In preparation for the simulated practice assessment with P. Rogers, you have a copy of the referral that includes a comment from the contact centre.

Referral form

Things don’t really seem right with this family and I would like an assessment of the parental care of the children, particularly of their daughter Anjali.

Mr Hameed, who we have known for 5 years, presented at the clinic as being highly agitated, but his wife, Mrs Hameed, reported everything was ok at home. In the past, Mr Hameed has experienced recurrences of his mental illness (he suffers from bipolar disorder), largely linked to the pressure he says he feels due to the behaviour of his 14-year-old daughter Anjali. He says she is ‘pushing him close to the edge’. Mr Hameed refused to go into detail about Anjali’s behaviour, saying ‘she is always misbehaving and a constant nuisance’.

Mrs Hameed (mother) just seemed overly positive and yet somehow not quite open. I have not had the opportunity to see Anjali as we met Mr and Mrs Hameed in the office, due to their refusal to allow us to visit them at the family home over the last 6 months. Given the history of recurrent illness and allegations of domestic violence between the parents, I feel it is only right I refer this to social services so you can complete a proper assessment.

We would like to advise on how best to proceed with this family.

Outcome

This is a note from Angela West, from the council contact centre.

Referral received three weeks ago. Accepted. I tried ringing the referrer back twice following referral because it wasn’t clear what they wanted and we need more information. Needs following up.

Written practice assessment

You are now asked to write up a summary of the meeting, your analysis of the referral and make recommendations on the next steps.

This should be based upon your analysis of the written material provided and the discussion with the care co-ordinator.

You may want to include:

• a summary
• an analysis
• the next steps
• any future learning for your team

Knowledge and skills statement (KSS) areas

The areas covered by the KSS are:

• KSS 1
• KSS 4
• KSS 5
• KSS 6
• KSS 8