You write something in order that it can be read, not in order that it can be written – write reports that achieve and illuminate.

You write something in order that it can be read, not in order that it can be written – write reports that achieve and illuminate.

The best-selling Writing Analytical Assessments in Social Work guides you through the principles of good writing and methodically shows you:

• how to analyse
• how to structure the process of writing an assessment (researching, chronologising, informed data-gathering, putting it all together), and
• how to get this done under time constraints.

The new edition goes further than just teaching writing skills by exploring the practical and psychological barriers to good practice. It also looks at how you turn good analysis into useful recommendations – making it something useful for the family - by applying the same analytical, critical thinking.

Written in an accessible way and packed with examples and case studies, this book is both practically-minded and constantly returning to first principles: reminding you what it is you are trying to achieve and teaching you how to write reports that can be read by families and judges alike. You will learn how to write high quality, useful and timely assessments without becoming mechanistic or managerial.  This book kills the myth of a trade-off between efficiency and quality of work.

Introduction
1)    Chronologies: The start and heart of a good assessment
2)    Genograms and ecomaps:Knowing the networks
3)    How to get it done: Planning your report in the real world
4)    Writing
5)    Analysis
6)   What Next?
7)   Summary 
Appendix 1: Writing for child care proceedings
Appendix 2: Deprivation of Liberty assessments