Neglect of children and young people continues to be a key challenge across County Durham and we want all practitioners working with children, young people and families to be able to identify, assess and intervene to tackle neglect at the earliest opportunity.
The Graded Care Profile 2 (GCP2) is a practical tool, licenced by NSPCC, which supports practitioners in objectively measuring the quality of care provided by a parent/carer in meeting their child’s needs. GCP2 gives an indication of the quality of care for a child on a graded descriptive scale. Practitioners are asked to score based on what they are observing in order to show ‘what life is like’ through the eyes of the child. GCP2 not only captures areas of concern but also identifies strengths in parenting, supporting parental engagement.
The GPC2 measures the quality of care delivered to an individual child over a short window of time (representative of the current level of care) and scales it between 1 (best) and 5 (worst). It can be used right across the continuum of need.
The GCP2 doesn’t explore reasons for a particular level of care, but does encourage further interpretation of the reasons at the analysis stage, which can be captured in the report or accompanying recording sheets. It is important to record the dates during which the GCP2 is completed. It is widely recognised that care can fluctuate over time, so being able to set the results of the current level of care within a short window means that when the scoring is repeated, it can reflect the improvement or not in the level of care for that particular child.
Training to use GCP2
GCP2 is a licenced tool and can only be used by practitioners trained to use it.
Training is available across a range of services in County Durham.
This course is directed at practitioners and managers who work directly with children and families that experience neglect. By the end of the course participants will:
- Become licensed to use the GCP2
- Consolidate knowledge of neglect
- Be able to understand the challenges of identifying neglect in practice settings with children and young people and considering their ‘lived lives’.
- Being able to identify children and young people at risk of Neglect
- Understand the use of and practical application of the Graded Care Profile 2 Tool when working alongside families to assess and effect change when neglect is an issue.
All participants who have attended one of the training sessions for using the GCP2 Tool (one day training course) will be able to access the following resources (these resources are password protected).
Information
IMPORTANT INFORMATION – these resources are for delegates who have attended one of the training sessions and MUST NOT be shared with staff who have not been trained.
Service Agreements
Each service has a GCP2 service agreement which outlines their service’s expectations in using the tool with children and families where neglect is a concern. Please refer to your own organisation’s service agreement:-