ICS, CAF and ContactPoint – an overview

Every Child Matters aims to integrate services for children from 0 to 19 with agencies working across professional boundaries to co-ordinate support around the needs of children and young people, using common processes and language to meet those needs in the best possible way, focusing on prevention and early intervention and providing better support to parents and families.

Click below for an article which provides an overview of some of the key tools that support these integrated services and enable more effective use of information to improve well-being and to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. It describes how the Integrated Children's System (ICS), the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and ContactPoint are separate systems which exist for different, specific purposes, but which are all intended to promote better outcomes for children, young people and their families. Although this article provides a brief description of these tools, it assumes a basic understanding of them and focuses on how they relate to each other.