CHRONOLOGY GUIDANCE
A chronology is a record of all significant events, referrals and observations concerning the child,
their family, or the service they are receiving. It is designed to provide a primary source of key
events and to both signpost the reader to the full record for more detail, and to inform a periodic
summary of activity.
The purpose of a chronology is to promote good quality decision making on the most up to
date and comprehensive information, in an easily accessible format. It is intended to enable risk
assessment by making sure that key information is readily available.
The chronology should be used as an analytical tool to enable practitioners to understand the
impact of changes in the life of a young person.
The Court Chronology is a requirement during family court proceedings and is defined as set
out in the Public Law Outline 2008 (section 34). This states that:
(34) “Social Work Chronology” means a schedule containing (a) a succinct summary of the significant dates and events in the child’s life in
chronological order - a running record to be updated during the proceedings;
(b) information under the following headings (i) serial number;
(ii) date;
(iii) event-detail;
(iv) witness or document reference (where applicable)
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Sir Winston Churchill
How to Compile a Chronology and what to Include
The purpose of a chronology is to provide workers, supervisors / managers, children and their
families, and the court with a chronological list of significant events in a child’s or their family’s
life. This enables the reader to quickly gain a picture of events and patterns of behaviour, and to
analyse the implications of the overall history to improve decision making.
A chronology is not expected to be a repetition of the narrative contained in process or case
recordings, but bullet points indicating incidents, events or issues within a family or which
significantly affect a child’s life. It therefore requires familiarity with the case information, and
analysis to identify the critical moments in a child / family’s life experience. It must be relevant
and succinct so that important events are not lost in insignificant and irrelevant details.
A chronology should draw on various sources of information such as previous social work files and
information from other agencies. The child or young person and his or her family should also
be involved in the process of completing the chronology. The involvement of the child and family
members provides an opportunity to check the accuracy of information and it can assist the social
worker in obtaining family member’s perspectives on particular events.
RK/July 2015 v3
1
The prompts below indicate the types of events which might feature in any chronology:
The Child
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Allocation of social workers and transfer / closure of the case.
Child’s change of address / school, school attendance and exclusions.
Change of carer.
Changes in GP.
Child Protection Conference, child becoming subject of a child protection plan with
dates.
Relevant medical examinations and attendance and admission to hospital for the
child and siblings.
Critical incidents giving rise to concern including injury and neglect events for child and
siblings.
Case open / closed, with dates.
Accommodations, including requests for and consideration of accommodation.
Referrals about the child / family and concerning information from agencies or
individuals, substantiated or otherwise.
Positive information about the child.
Parents and family
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Family history, including marriages, births, deaths, serious illness and changes in the
make up of the household including new partners and separations. The chronology may
start with events that occurred prior to the child’s birth, where significant.
Serious stress factors, unemployment, bereavement, accidents, prison and deaths.
Parental history and diagnoses especially care history, mental health, crime, substance
misuse, domestic violence and history of relapse.
Police logs detailing relevant incidents at the family home or in relation to family
members, such as reported incidents of domestic violence, drunken behaviour of carers.
House moves with dates and addresses in full.
Emigration details as appropriate.
Criminal and civil proceedings and outcomes.
Take up / non take up of services and support offered to family.
Recorded positive events or strengths showing family capacity to work in partnership
and engage with professionals.
Specialist assessments and their outcomes.
Completing a Chronology
A chronology should be recorded in a Word document, using the agreed chronology template, and
uploaded into the Chronology episode in Frameworki. This episode can be created at any point in
the workflow. The episode should remain open on a child’s record, to allow for regular updates –
this shows up in RED as INCOMPLETE on the child’s episode screen and also open with the green
edit pencil on the front Frameworki personal details screen. At a glance it will look like the
chronology is not updated, if it has been our reporting will show it has. Each time the chronology
RK/July 2015 v3
2
requires updating the word document should be downloaded, amended and uploaded to the
Frameworki episode with the document’s name stating the date of update. This will mean that
the most recently uploaded word document should be the most up to date chronology containing
all of the information.
At appropriate points not less than 6 monthly, a summary of the chronology, intervention, child
and family’s circumstances, should be added. This may also include using a summary at the start
of a chronology, because for the purposes of our understanding of the child’s journey a summary
may suffice.
Updating a Chronology
Cases with no existing chronology at the point of referral should have a chronology started
at referral.
Existing chronologies on newly opened cases must be updated at the point of referral.
Existing chronologies on allocated cases should be regularly updated, at a minimum:
• Prior to any review, planning, child protection or strategy meetings in respect of children
looked after children, children subject of a child protection plan and children in need
• During assessments and subsequent assessments.
At the point of transferring a case or closing a case the chronology should be updated.
Reviewing a chronology
A chronology is a key requirement for risk assessment and management oversight. A chronology
is a valuable tool for planning and supervision. A chronology should be used to understand the
history and the child’s journey, and should be seen as an integral part of assessments, planning
and decision making.
Quality Assurance
An up to date chronology on a child’s file is an indication of good practice. It provides a summary
of the ‘journey of the child’.
Ofsted’s expectations are that; ‘Chronologies are consistently being seen on children’s records,
are fit for purpose and are actively being used by managers in supervision’.
Practice managers and group managers are responsible for ensuring that chronologies are
maintained and up to date.
Independent Reviewing Officers and Child Protection Conference Chairs should be routinely
ensuring that there is an up to date chronology and that it is of good quality; containing relevant
information, is up to date and provides a good understanding with analysis.
The incidence and quality of chronologies will be monitored as part of case file audit and quality
assurance review. Persistent failure to achieve this standard will be addressed as a performance
issue.
RK/July 2015 v3
3
How to write a chronology in Frameworki
For children’s cases that do not have an open chronology episode:
A chronology episode can be started at any time by selecting ‘New episode’:
And, then selecting ‘CYP Chronology’:
To upload the chronology word document in to the episode select ‘Upload’:
RK/July 2015 v3
4
Please name the chronology word document as follows:
•
FWi number Chronology – Date of update (e.g. 111 Chronology – 31.7.15)
To update an existing chronology word document (including a chronology word document within a
closed chronology episode):
•
•
•
•
•
The document should be downloaded from the episode
‘Enable Editing’ to be selected at the top of the page
Updates made to the document
Document saved using the naming conversion described above (e.g. 111 Chronology –
31.7.15)
The updated document should then be uploaded in to the chronology episode
The chronology episode should be kept open up until the point that the child’s case is
closed, to allow regular updates of the chronology word document.
RK/July 2015 v3
5