Improving parenting assessments

Dr Tracee Green completed her PhD with me a few years ago. She reported the findings of her research in chapter 32 of the Routledge Handbook of Social Work Practice Research which has just been published. Here, she talks about what initiated her research and what she found.

Parenting Assessments

Before doing my PhD I was in practice as a social worker with children and families for 14 years and undertook parenting assessments for court.

Parenting assessments utilised and stretched all of my assessment skills in order to make key recommendations to the courts to aide in their decision making. These decisions related to suspicions of child abuse, visitation arrangements, alterations to parental rights and the formation of support plans. These are heavy and life-changing decisions and the courts require robust evidence – from a variety of different sources – to aid them. Therefore, when a parenting assessment is requested, the information and analysis it offers must be of high quality according to criminal defense lawyer Daniel Murphy.

There are a variety of tools, in addition to individual assessment skills, to assist the development of high quality parenting assessments. One tool in particular received much anecdotal attention – Parenting Assessment Manual Software (PAMS).

PAMS is a standardised assessment tool which can be incorporated into parenting assessments and contains many different resources to aide assessors.

In practice, I was familiar and comfortable with undertaking both PAMS and non-PAMS parenting assessments. However, my work was leaning more heavily towards PAMS parenting assessments due to a growing number of requests from courts. Various parent’s solicitors, children’s guardians and local authorities were all increasingly requesting PAMS parenting assessments.

Over time, I noticed some variation in my team’s use and perception of this package of assessment tools and started to ask more questions about how others outside my team used and perceived this tool within parenting assessments for court.

This interest eventually led to my discovery that there was limited research on the tool and fuelled my desire to make a start filling this knowledge gap. As such, I decided to undertake PhD studies to answer questions about the value and use of PAMS in informing parenting assessments for court.

Researching PAMS

The aim of my research was to undertake a predominantly descriptive study to improve practice-based knowledge around how PAMS was used and valued by practitioners working within the courts, and to provide a basis for future research in PAMS parenting assessments.

My study combined a survey and subsequent interviews with practitioners who were trained to undertake PAMS parenting assessments. Although there were limitations to my study – such as lower than preferable response rates – it provided a foundation from which to understand the use of PAMS within parenting assessments.

It identified the broad range of populations PAMS parenting assessments were being undertaken with and diverse opinions on its value by practitioners (with the majority preferring to use PAMS in parenting assessments).

The study found three general methods of PAMS usage, which ranged from a highly flexible application of PAMS resources to a highly standardised use of resources with a strong pre and post testing process.

Interestingly, my study also highlighted practitioners’ perspectives that the use of PAMS within parenting assessments was growing in popularity; thus, emphasising the value of the study and the need for more research in this important area of child protection.

Practice implications

The findings of my PhD are of use to professionals such as lawyers, judges, magistrates and social workers, who may find themselves reading or writing PAMS parenting assessments to inform high-stakes decisions and recommendations.

In addition to informing much-needed future research on this tool, my study has made recommendations that impact directly on practice; such as the importance of specifically indicating how PAMS was used to inform the parenting assessment in order to provide clarity of process.

Having an understanding of the tool, the value practitioners place on it and an understanding of how it can be used is essential for decision makers relying on that information. Ultimately, this will lead to better-informed decisions for children and families.

It is important to note that my study focused on PAMS 3.0. Following the start of my study, a new version of PAMS was released (PAMS 4.0). Changes within PAMS 4.0 offered a stronger description of process, offered suggested timeframes for work and made training for PAMS a requirement.

About Tracee

Tracee is now a Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent where she teaches child protection to a multi-professional cohort of practitioners. She is also the Director of Studies for the Social Worker Degree Apprenticeship programme.

Tracee has research interests in care proceedings, parenting and assessments as well as interests in learning and teaching – predominantly around the use of technology to enhance student learning and retention.

Dr Tracee Green’s thesis can be downloaded here or you can contact her at T.J.Green@kent.ac.uk. More information about chapter 32 of the Routledge Handbook of Social Work Practice Research can be found here.