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Information sharing and assessment

Every Child Matters|   Change for Children is a new approach to the well-being of children and young people from birth to age 19.

The Government's aim is for every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, to have the support they need to:

This means that the organisations involved with providing services to children - from hospitals and schools, to police and voluntary groups - will be teaming up in new ways, sharing information and working together, to protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve what they want in life. Children and young people will have far more say about issues that affect them as individuals and collectively.

Calderdale's Multi-Agency and Assessment Service

Calderdale's Multi-Agency and Assessment Service (CMAS) is a multi-agency team that will offer practitioners in Calderdale:

• Information on practitioners involved with a child or young person
• Information and support on completing a Common Assessment Framework (CAF) with a child or young person
• Information and support on delivering and managing the plan to support the child or young person and their family
• Referrals to appropriate services
• Support to the data management requirements of ContactPoint| the name for the National Child Index
• Data to support the commissioning function across all agencies in Calderdale.

The vision for the service is to offer an integrated multi-agency service that will support children, young people and their families meeting their aspirations.

CMAS will offer practitioners a single point of contact to support them in identifying the right services at the right time from the right agencies, through multi-agency assessing, planning and review.

CMAS will not be carrying out assessments but supporting practitioners across agencies carrying out assessments.

Practitioners who identify children and young people who may have additional needs will be supported through the Common Assessment Framework, lead professional and the team around the child meetings. These processes are to ensure the most appropriate packages of support are agreed, delivered and reviewed to support children, young people and their families at the earliest opportunity.

The CMAS service builds on the work of the North Halifax Information Sharing and Assessment Pilot.

Information sharing and common assessment: Audit report North Halifax pilot [PDF file 524KB]|

Contact the CMAS Team

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