Global phychological assessment? And another parenting assessment

[MamaHen]

Hey all,

My children are currently under an ico. During pre-proceedings I had don’t a psychological assessment. Which was mainly positive. However, now we are in court the guardian has asked for another due to the one before being remote. But it’s called a “global physiological assessment” what is this? How does it differ to the one I’ve already done?

Also I was near the end of my parenting assessment when I was bought to court, this then got completed during the first contested hearing and submitted to the courts. Again very positive. She actually said that the children should be returned to mother with the promised support she did not receive during pre-proceedings. This was completed by a ISW

But the guardian has now asked for an “addendum” parenting assessment, again what does all this mean?

I have a solicitor but because I am currently pregnant (due January) she says we are not to focus on the assessments for now as they won’t be done until 6 weeks after the birth and right now we are focusing on contesting the ico. But I really want to know what they entail and what’s different to the ones I’ve already done.

Kind regards

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear MamaHen,

Welcome to the parents’ forum and thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear about the stressful situation that you are in and I hope that the following is of some help to you.

You say that the guardian has asked for an ‘addendum’ to the parenting assessment and want to know what this means. An addendum means that a social worker will be asked to provide a short update to the original parenting assessment. This will be added to the end of the original assessment document. Addendums are usually requested when there has been a change in circumstances or when the original assessment was done quite some time ago.

You also say that a psychological assessment was completed but the guardian has asked for another one to be completed as the original one was done remotely. You say that it is called a ‘global physiological assessment’ and would like to know how it differs from the original psychological assessment. I am unable to comment on this as I don’t have all the relevant information but we do have some general information on our website HERE about psychological assessments. Your solicitor would be best placed to advise you about the specific request that has been made by the guardian in the proceedings. Hopefully some other forum users are also able to offer you some advice from their own experiences.

Please post again if you have any further questions or you can call our free, confidential helpline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) to speak with an adviser.

Best wishes,
Suzie