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PAMS Assessment

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Social Services have a statutory obligation to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children.

If Social Services have approached you with concerns about your children it may be because someone has made a referral to them with a worry about your children, or because you or your partner have been involved with Social Services in the past. As part of their involvement you may be asked to engage with a PAMS assessment. PAMS stands for ‘Parent Assessment Manual’.

PAMS is a guide used by social services and independent experts to work with and assess parents when there are child protection concerns. The PAMS assessment takes into account parents who have a learning difficulties or disabilities and gives the assessor techniques to be used when they are working with parents and families with a learning difficulty or disability.

A PAMS assessment will look at key areas of your parenting and your level of engagement with the assessment. The assessment could take up to 12 weeks to complete and it will be carried out in a children’s centre or in the community.

Throughout the assessment you will be asked about your knowledge and understanding in each key area of parenting, some examples are; behaviour and hygiene. You will then be observed to see how you put your parenting skills into practice and whether you take on board advice given to you. Any advice given to you is important and you should take the advice on board and implement it into your parenting.

If you are not sure about something or have any questions it is important that you ask the person who it assessing you. You will then have an opportunity to implement the changes that you have discussed. It may be that this conversation is the different between a positive and negative assessment.

How Johnson Astills can help you

Here at Johnson Astills we can assist you with this and can liaise with the Local Authority conducting the assessment.  We will assess you for free legal advice through Legal Aid as in many cases, free legal aid can be obtained. Johnson Astills have a specialist care department comprising of experts in child care law who can advise, assist and represent you throughout your involvement with Social Services.

Get in touch with our care department experts

If you have Social Services involved with your family and you would like to speak to one of our specialist solicitors within the care department at Johnson Astills, please do not hesitate to call us on 0116 255 4855.