University of Toronto

When a child's safety and well-being are called into question, it is crucial to obtain an accurate assessment of the parent's ability to provide the level of care and support that all children need.

Comprehensive assessments regarding a parent’s ability to change and improve his or her parenting are a necessary aspect to determining a child’s safety and improving service to infants and children who are neglected, deprived or abused in their own families. Such families are often complex and hard to engage, making it difficult to assess their strengths and weaknesses.

This 3-part workshop will equip you with a technique developed by the multidisciplinary, multi-agency Toronto Parenting Capacity Assessment Project initiated and chaired by the late Dr. Paul Steinhauer to create accurate and objective assessments of parenting capacity. You will then learn how to prepare reports for court and/or case-planning, and how to incorporate these assessments into your own practice.

[APC1]  Assessing Parenting Capacity I: Introduction to the Steinhauer Guidelines

Students will be introduced to a series of guidelines for the accurate and objective assessment of parenting capacity developed by the Toronto Parenting Capacity Assessment Project. The guidelines can be used to guide decision-making and case planning, predict which parents are capable of significant change, recognize when help is not helping, and to present material effectively in court.

 
[APC2]  Assessing Parenting Capacity II: Producing the Report

This module is designed for professionals interested in learning how to write a Parenting Capacity Assessment Report for the court and/or case-planning. The day will consist of the presentation of an actual case of moderate complexity. Participants will then be divided into small groups and guided through the process of organizing the material according to the broad-based set of Guidelines, which focus on the parenting of the children. Each group’s ideas will be reformulated into a set of recommendations, which presents the participants’ views of how the best interests of the child/children can be served. By the end of the day participants will be able to organize clinical data, information received from community professionals, and other court-related materials according to the Parenting Capacity Assessment Guidelines. Students will also be able to place all available information into a coherent formulation from which a productive set of recommendations can be drawn.

[APC3]  Assessing Parenting Capacity III: Practical Applications

This third module is geared toward those who are currently using the Steinhauer Parenting Capacity Assessment Guidelines, or intending to incorporate them into their practice. The forum will be informal, inviting participants to come prepared with a case summary from their own experience. In groups, students will select a case and work together to map the information in a systematic fashion, create summary statements for each of the nine guidelines, identify gaps or areas of confusion, formulate conclusions, and make recommendations about parenting capacity.

Donna Novosel, ECE, BA, BSW.

Donna was a Master Trainer (now retired) with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies. She has an extensive background in child welfare and children’s mental health, and has provided training in Assessing Parenting Capacity to child welfare workers across Ontario. Donna worked closely with Dr. Steinhauer and was supervised by him in the preparation of this training.