Live running memo 24: Update to the Initial Assessment Questionnaire and corresponding guidance
Updated 12 November 2021
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Dear provider and local authority,
Recently, a question was raised about whether it was necessary for parents to name their children on the Initial Assessment Questionnaire (IAQ), as it was suggested that this made some parents reluctant to complete the questionnaire at all.
As discussed at the last Provider Forum, we need as many parents as possible to complete the Initial Assessment and Post Assessment Questionnaires, so it is important to remove potential barriers to completion wherever possible. The success of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme relies on delivering a robust evaluation of the interventions, so we need evaluation data on all participating parents and their children.
Summary and action
If some parents express concern, please advise them that it is not necessary to name their child on the IAQ; names are only used for administrative purposes. But where parents do provide children’s names, reassure them that names are not transferred to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as part of the evaluation data because the evaluation is always conducted anonymously.
Please ensure that parents continue to provide their child’s date of birth. This is important because it allows our researchers to check whether:
- a) the correct section of the questionnaire has been completed
- b) both parents completing separate IAQs are referring to the same child
- c) parents responding to the follow-up survey (conducted six months after completion) are referring to the same child as they did on the IAQ
The IAQ has therefore been updated to make it clear that if parents do not wish to name the child that the questionnaire relates to, they should write ‘prefer not to say’ in the Forename and Surname boxes. The new questionnaire also provides assurance that the child’s date of birth is only used for evaluation purposes. Note that the questionnaire includes validation at those sections so something must be written in those boxes.
The provider guidance will be updated in due course.
Further information and contact details
If you have any queries about this live running memo please contact your Performance Manager in the first instance.