Our Systemic Family Assessment (SFA) is a new and innovative service designed to address Private Law disputes and provide the court with the expert analysis it needs to proceed with a final hearing and make final decisions for children without the delay of protracted proceedings.

Two experts, a Psychologist and Independent Social Worker, work together to provide a full assessment, analysis and recommendations. The Psychologist provides a psychological profile of each parent while the social work analysis considers the relationship each child has with their parent/s and siblings (if relevant). Both professionals then provide an expert view about the impact of the family system on the child/ren and clear recommendations about how to minimise any negative effect on the child.

The SFA was introduced to address the backlog of Private Law cases and resolve issues including parental alienation and contact disputes.

Undertaken by an Independent Social Worker and Psychologist jointly, the SFA has been used as an alternative to global psychological assessments, completed in 6 weeks.

Parents benefit from expert professionals working in tandem which prevents the parents and child or children having to repeat their views, feelings and wishes to numerous professionals.

Based on the success of WillisPalmer’s existing multi-disciplinary models and our in-depth understanding of private law, we have designed the Systemic Family Assessment model to assist the court by providing expert reports to address complex issues that are often beyond the expertise of the parties already involved in the case.

Fundamentally, this means that permanency for the child can be achieved sooner and Court time commitment is reduced.

Why Systemic Family Assessment?

The Systemic Family Assessment is an assessment that incorporates psychological profiling of the parents and a social work analysis of the needs of the child, taking into consideration the Welfare Checklist.

The two experts – a psychologist and independent social worker – work together, in consultation with one another, to provide a full assessment and final report in six weeks from instruction.

The social work analysis considers the relationship each child has with their parent/s and siblings (if relevant) before providing an expert view about the impact of the family system on the child/ren and clear recommendations about how to minimise any negative effect on the child.

The Systemic Family Assessment allows the two experts to work collaboratively in their assessment of the family and via consultation throughout the assessment will ensure that the court is not faced with any disagreement from reporting experts which could result in the delay of decisions being made for the child.

Contact details

For more information about our new innovative SFA model, please contact our Operations Director Dave Wareham who can answer any questions you may have relating to the service.