The Building Brighter Futures Team uses a comprehensive psychological assessment tool to gain a thorough understanding of the current needs of a young person at point of placement. The assessment tool focuses on five key domains; Behaviour, Emotional Wellbeing, Relationships, Risk, and Indicators, giving adults and professionals supporting our young people a detailed insight into their current needs.
At WhiteTree’s, it’s integral that our assessment supports our belief to Build Brighter Futures for all of our young people. The five domains of our assessment tool provide a different lens through which to understand a young person’s inner world:
Behaviour – often the most visible expression of a child’s internal world and unmet needs. Young people in residential care frequently display behaviours linked to trauma, attachment disruption, or emotional dysregulation. Consistent behavioural monitoring enables teams to evaluate the effectiveness of care strategies and adapt support plans accordingly.
Emotional Wellbeing – the core of psychological health, influencing every aspect of a child’s development and relationships. Many young people in care experience complex trauma, grief, or instability, which can manifest as emotional volatility or withdrawal.
Measuring emotional wellbeing allows for early identification of distress, helping our Specialist Team intervene before problems escalate. It supports the creation of a nurturing environment where emotional expression is understood and validated.
Relationships – Healthy relationships are central to recovery from trauma and the foundation of resilience. Care experienced young people often have disrupted attachment histories; assessing relational capacity helps caregivers understand how trust is built or tested.
Understanding relationship patterns allows staff to model and reinforce healthy connections, promoting social and emotional development. Strong, stable relationships within the care setting can significantly improve placement stability and long-term outcomes.
Risk – Risk assessment is critical for safeguarding both the child and others within the home. Many children in residential settings face elevated risks due to past trauma, impulsivity, or external influences. Measuring and reviewing risk regularly helps staff proactively manage safety concerns rather than react to crises.
It ensures accountability and compliance with statutory safeguarding requirements while supporting the child in developing safer coping strategies.
Indicators – Observable and reported signs that may indicate a neurodevelopmental condition or delay, such as differences in attention and executive function, social communication and interaction, sensory processing, learning and processing speed, language development, and developmental milestones.
Identifying likely ADHD, ASD, or learning needs guides targeted interventions (structured teaching, visual supports, scaffolded tasks, sensory strategies) and educational placements or specialist input.
Each of the five assessment domains creates a ‘full picture’ of the current young person coming into WhiteTree’s care;
Together, these domains form a comprehensive, trauma-informed picture that allows our residential teams to deliver personalised, consistent, and therapeutic care—supporting both immediate wellbeing and long-term development.
Our assessment tool focuses on the whole child and the context of which they are currently living in, capturing their recent lived experiences and life events, to ensure that our teams can form an understanding of what may be impacting them. Our assessment tool is first utilised when a young person’s placement has been agreed, and is most commonly completed by their social worker. The tool can also be completed by another professional or by a family member who has a good understanding and relationship with the young person and is therefore able to provide an accurate representation of them.
The assessment tool creates a full report, often between 15-20 pages, detailing the areas where a young person may have the highest needs. Within the report staff are;
Our assessment tool provides structured, evidence-based reports that support our staff teams in understanding each of our young people as unique individuals, accounting for their lived experiences. It reinforces our fundamental belief that we will always seek to understand each of our young people, and will look to the future in our ways of supporting and promoting their growth and development.
After the initial assessment report is provided to our homes, the Building Brighter Futures Team generates a summary report – a smaller, more accessible overview. This ensures that all staff are confident in understanding our young people’s needs and areas they may need our additional support.
Following these reports, the Homes Teams are presented with a three month key working plan. The Key Working plan guides our teams through the areas identified by our assessment tool, offering topics, strategies, and resources to ensure their support is tailored directly to our young person’s needs. This means that each of our young people has an individualised, psychologically informed, key work plan of which has been designed by their assessment outcomes.
Our assessment tool guides our Building Brighter Future Team and our Specailist Team to ensure the support provided to each young person is embracing their needs, shaping their care planning, and implementing interventions at the earliest possible opportunity. Our assessments provide recommendations for professional support, such as mental health intervention or neurodiversity assessments, of which are shared with our Specialist Teams.
As a guide, our assessments are completed on a three monthly basis. This provides regular and standardised opportunities for our teams to understand our young people’s progression, development, and areas that require dedicated support. By repeating the assessment periodically, staff can measure changes in behaviour, emotional regulation, and wellbeing, supporting our data-driven care planning and demonstrating therapeutic progress. If we have noticed a change in a young person’s behaviours or wellbeing, the team may suggest an earlier assessment date.