Basic Assessment Guide for social workers working with children on the move

This basic assessment guide has been developed to assist and guide child protection workers on the best practices regarding procedures and approach when dealing with unaccompanied and separated foreign children.

Early identification and thorough initial assessment of unaccompanied and separated children is fundamental as this informs proper pathway planning regarding the child’s future, promotes and strengthens the child’s rights realisation and ensures that the best interest of the child is upheld, both from a care and a protection perspective, which includes documentation.

The guide will assist social workers and other service providers within the child protection system to understand the particular challenges faced by foreign children in need of care and protection, and how to initiate a holistic care and protection intervention.

The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town has been rendering care and protection services to children on the move in partnership with the Department of Social Development since 2006 through Lawrence House, a registered Child and youth care centre and, in addition, since 2018 through its Children’s Rights Project housed at the Scalabrini Centre.