In a previous area that I worked, we had a great system that worked really well. The”categories” have changed now (ie, Universal, Universal Plus, etc) but back then we used red, blue, and yellow tags to “categorise” families. – Two red tags were for child protection families. One red tag was for families that were having intensive visiting for some other reason, eg domestic abuse, postnatal depression, substance misuse. A blue tag was for medium intervention, something above core service, behaviour management interventions, eating problems, low level mental health issues, general vulnerability. A yellow tag was assigned if family had a baby under one year old. Then these categories were given points. – I think it was 1 point for no tag; 2 points for yellow tag; 3 points for blue; 4 points for red; 5 points for double red. (If a family had a blue tag plus a yellow tag, or red plus yellow, those points are added together.) The total score for the caseload can then be added up. We had an index card for every family and the little metal tags were attached to these. It was a great way to see at a glance what the caseload was like, and great for anyone new to a caseload, or a team covering a vacant/off-sick caseload. An easy way to quickly assess equity of caseloads within teams. A similar system could be applied to the current categories. Having the index cards was really really helpful. The trouble with the way people count caseloads now is that everyone grades their universal-plus families slightly differently; the system above is much more clear cut.
