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Integrated Children's System
Chronology
 A
chronology lists in date order all the major changes and
events in a child or young person's life. In a recent
High Court judgement Justice Bracewell included a chronology
among the records the court would expect to find in a
social work file.
Using a Chronology
A chronology can be a useful way of gaining an overview
of events in a child or a young person's life.
The chronology should be used by practitioners as an
analytical tool to help them to understand the impact,
both immediate and cumulative, of events and changes on
the child or young person's developmental progress.
The type of changes and events that should be included
in a chronology would include changes in the family composition,
address, educational establishment, in the child or young
person's legal status and any injuries, periods of hospitalisation
or other significant medical treatment.
View Integrated Children's
System Chronology (PDF format)
The Chronology records all significant
events and changes in the life of a child or young person.
The Chronology is an analytical tool
designed to help social workers understand the impact,
both immediate and cumulative, of events and changes on
the child/ young person. The Chronology
will replace the Essential Information Record Part Two
from the Looking After Children system.
This exemplar has been formatted to enable information
about individual children and young people to be aggregated
for strategic planning purposes and for completion of
statistical returns required by the Department of Health,
and other government departments.
Information about children and young people is recorded
under the following headings:
-
previous social services activity;
-
the child’s health history;
-
education, training and employment history;
-
changes in the child(s) or young person’s
legal status;
-
placement history of a looked after
child;
-
history of any offences; and
-
significant events and changes in the
circumstances of the child and family.
Completing the Chronology
A Chronology should be started as part
of the process of completing a Core Assessment,
and be updated during the period of social services involvement
with the child or young person. In some cases, social
workers may wish to start a Chronology
earlier and will need to use their professional judgement
as to when this would be helpful. For example, during
an initial assessment it may become clear that a child
or young person has experienced considerable change either
of main carer, in family composition or address. A Chronology
can help structure information to inform analysis and
decision making.
Although a Chronology should draw on
various sources of information such as previous social
work files and information from other agencies, the child
or young person and his or her family should be involved
in the process of completing the Chronology.
The involvement of family members provides an opportunity
to check the accuracy of information, and it can assist
the social worker in obtaining family members’ perspectives
on particular events and to develop an understanding of
their impact on individuals in the family. Consent should
be obtained from family members before contacting other
agencies for information.
The primary function of a Chronology is
to record factual information. It is also used to record
the social worker’s assessment of the impact of
events on the child or young person. For some children
the impact of events will be evident at the time of the
event or change, but for others the impact may not be
known and should be recorded later when it becomes apparent.
Key Features
The Chronology starts with the child
or young person’s essential details, the date
the chronology was started and the date it was last
shared with key family members. A copy of the Chronology
should be given to the chair of a child or young person’s
review. The review chair should sign and date the
chronology to indicate that it has been presented
to the review and is up to date.
The Chronology should include a
genogram of the child or young person’s family.
A genogram is a diagrammatic representation of a child
or young person’s family tree and relationships
within his or her family.
The dates at the top of the table identify
when the case was referred and, where appropriate, closed.
The dates in the table record the date services were
provided.
| Example: Christine Cumming, age
2, was referred to social services on the 7th of July
2002 by her Health Visitor who was concerned about
possible neglect. An initial assessment was carried
out which showed Christine was not being neglected,
but that she and her mother, who had recently moved
into the area, were isolated. Christine and her mother
were supported to attend a local mother and toddler
group, after which the case was closed on the 2nd
of August 2002. |
The following was recorded in the Record of Social
Services Activity section of Christine’s Chronology:
Date of referral to social services:
07. 07. 2002
Date Closed: 02 08. 2002
Reason for involvement: Family Support
| Date |
Type of Service |
Person/Agency responsible |
Length of time & frequency |
Actual Outcome |
Began
08 07 2002
Ended
12 07 2002
|
Initial Assessment |
Jo Willis
South Team
|
Five days |
No indications of neglect.
Assessment completed. Identified that Christine and
her mother isolated since moving to the area.
|
Began
15 07 2002
Ended
02 08 2002
|
Transport for Christine and her mother
to attend South Dale mother and toddler group |
Regency Cars |
Five days twice a day |
Ms Cumming and Christine attended group
daily. |
Began
02 08 2002
Ended
02 08 2002
|
Meeting with Ms Cumming and Karen Small,
South Dale. |
Jo Willis
South Team
|
One hour |
Christine settled well. Ms Cumming feels
confident about making her way to group. No longer
needs transport. Will contact SSD if any problems.
Case closed. |
There is a sub-section within Social Services Activity,
Record of Social Services Activity: Involvement in Child
Protection, which records details of when the child
or young person’s name has been placed on the
child protection register.
This section systematically records the child or young
person’s health history. Specific details of immunisations,
ongoing health conditions and impairments are recorded
alongside particulars of significant health events,
such as childhood illnesses, contact with accident and
emergency and periods of hospitalisation.
This section starts with a record of a child or young
person’s educational achievements, including qualifications.
This is followed by particulars of significant educational
events in each school or educational establishment the
child or young person has attended. These include non-academic
achievements, for example membership of the school netball
team; periods of exclusion; and changes of school/educational
establishment.
Details of changes in a child or young person’s
legal status are recorded in this section of the chronology.
This includes orders made under s.8 of the Children
Act 1989, such as Residence Orders, and a child or young
person’s legal status whilst looked after. For
example, whether they are subject of a Care Order or
accommodated.
Changes in the legal status of children and young people
are closely linked to changes of placement. This section
of the chronology provides an overview of all the changes
in placement experienced by a child or young person
during the period(s) they are looked after. To enable
the information recorded on individual children to be
aggregated and used for planning and statistical returns
to the Department of Health codes are used to record
some of the information in this section. The codes used
are recorded in the margin of the Chronology.
| Example: The police contacted Social
Services to assist them with Darren Hunt, aged 13.
Darren and two friends had been picked up by the police
whilst truanting from school. The parents of the other
boys had collected them from the police station, but
Darren’s parents had refused to attend. Mr and
Mrs Hunt told the social worker who called out to
speak with them that they had had enough of Darren
and his behaviour and would not have him back home
under any circumstances. As no family or friends were
available it was agreed that Darren would be accommodated.
A foster placement was not available and Darren was
placed in a local children’s home over the weekend.
Darren and his family had no contact over the weekend
and his parents continued to refuse to have him home.
A local foster placement was identified and after
an introductory visit Darren moved in the two days
later. Over the next three weeks contact was re-established
between Darren and his parents and it was agreed that
he would return home with a package of family support.
|
The Record of Changes to Child/young person’s
Legal Status for Darren was as follows:
| Date(s) |
Legal Status |
Act |
Reason for change in legal status |
Began
07 06 2002 Ended
27 06 2002
|
Accommodated
(Code: V2)
|
Children Act 1989 |
Breakdown in relationship between Darren and his
parents. Darren’s parents willing to have
him home.
|
The Placement History recorded the following:
| Date(s) |
Type of care event |
Reason for
care event
|
Type of Placement |
Name and address |
Unauthorised absence |
Impact on child/young person |
Began:
07 06 2002
|
Start of looked after period
(Code: S)
|
Darren’s parents refused to have him home.
(No code)
|
Children’s home in authority
(Code: H3)
|
The Lodge
South Street
Nearborough
NB3 2ES
|
|
Darren very upset and angry at parent’s refusal
to have him home. |
Began/
Ended:
11 06 2002
|
Change of placement
(Code: P)
|
Move to foster placement.
(No code)
|
Foster placement in authority
(Code: F2)
|
Mr and Mrs Lund
West Road
Nearborough
NB1 4JS
|
|
Darren pleased at move to foster carers. |
Began/
Ended:
27 06 2002
|
Change of placement
(Code: P)
|
Return home
(Code: E4)
|
|
|
|
Darren very pleased and relieved to be returning
home. |
Details of offences for which the child or young person
has received a caution or court sentence are recorded
here.
-
Significant Events and Changes in the
Child or Young Person’s Birth Family
This records significant events and changes within
the child or young person’s birth family. For
some children and young people this section of the Chronology
may commence before their birth; for example where an
older sibling died before their birth.
Links to other records in the Integrated
Children’s System
The Chronology has been designed to
facilitate the updating of information electronically
within a computerised information system. However, at
the point of referral or re-referral it may be necessary
to commence or update the Chronology
using information from the family and other sources, such
as education. The practitioner should always consider
and record the impact of events on the child or young
person.
-
Chronology and the Review Record
A child or young person’s Chronology
should be kept up to date. The Review Record has been
designed to be the primary source of information to
update the Chronology, and within a
computerised system this may take place electronically.
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