Conclusion

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The Assessment Framework is more than simply a mechanism for organising the information gathered when working with families. It is also a tool for analysis. It is important to understand the dynamic between the three domains of the triangle. In other words in the inter-relationship between children's development, parenting capacity and family and environmental factors. Only paying attention to one of these in isolation, will not enable a worker to understand the full circumstances and, therefore identify the needs of the children and families with whom they work.

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In Sue Johnson's situation the Assessment Framework helps us understand the impact of poverty on her family's life. Katz et al (2007) reviewed the research in this area and found that there was not a simple causal relationship between poverty and poor outcomes for children.

Whilst recognising the tremendous resilience shown by many, if not most. Families living in poverty they found that poor outcomes were associated with the stress on parenting that arose from living in poverty. Therefore we can and must understand the impact on Sue's parenting capacity of environmental factors (the sudden loss of income and depression) and the possible impact this will have on her children.

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If you would like to learn more about this area, please visit SCIE's other poverty e-learning resources in the e-learning section of the SCIE web site. http://www.scie.org.uk