What is the HOME Inventory?

The HOME Inventory enables the practitioner to assess the quality of parenting and the home environment provided for a child. The HOME (Home Observation and Measurement of the Environment) is user-friendly and is well received by families. It involves an hour long semi-structured interview in the home with the main caregiver and child to collect information about the nature and variety of the child’s day-to-day experiences and the parenting capacity of the caregivers and to explore a range of other aspects of the child’s world and the life of the family. The HOME has been shown to be a good predictor of outcomes for children.

Information on training course: Assessing parenting and the family life of children (including disabled children) using the HOME Inventory and Family Pack of Questionnaires and Scales.

Aim of the training
The aim of this three-day training is to teach practitioners to use an evidence based approach to assessing children and families, to familiarise with the HOME Inventory and the Family Pack of Questionnaires and Scales to provide them with an opportunity, through using the assessment tools in their practice, for practitioners to reflect on and develop their interviewing and assessment skills and techniques. Course members are also taught a model of analysis and planning interventions and outcomes using the Assessment Framework triangle.

Who is the training for?
This training is suitable for any professional who is involved undertaking assessments of children and families within the family home.

The HOME Inventory
The HOME Inventory (Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment) and Family Pack of Questionnaires and Scales are two of a series of practice tools published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (along with the Family Assessment) to support practitioners using the Assessment Framework.

The Home Inventory is proving very useful in a range of different situations including at the initial stages of assessment, during core assessments, for assessing the level of change following interventions with children and their families, for obtaining a detailed picture of the care needed by children in foster and adoptive placements and for making an assessment the quality of parenting and the child’s home environment when planning for permanence needs to take place.

The HOME Inventory was developed in the 1960’s and has been used with large numbers of children in a variety of different contexts around the world. It is therefore, a well-established and tested tool for undertaking a standardised assessment of a child’s home environment.

There are four HOME inventories for children aged 0-3, 3-6, 6-10 and 10-14 years. There are additional disability adapted inventories for a range of disabled children and for chid care contexts. Each inventory contains a group of scales to assess different aspects of the child’s environment. Each scale contains a number of items that are scored according to a glossary. The HOME therefore provides a framework for practitioners to assess all aspects of the home environment, including parenting, that directly impact on the child. A further set of HOME inventories for adolescents, disabled children and children in foster care are about to be launched in the UK.

The HOME inventories are grounded in the day-to-day experiences of the main care-giver and the child and a well conducted HOME will give you a picture of the child’s world from a perspective that is as close as possible to the child’s own.

The HOME Inventory is a tool and one approach to assessment. The training will explore how the HOME can contribute to different assessments, including core assessments and how it can be used to support interventions with children and families.

What is the Family Pack of Questionnaires and Scales?
The Questionnaires and Scales provide an economical and effective way of gathering information about key personal and parenting issues. They are invaluable for screening at an early stage for individual emotional and behavioural difficulties and parenting and other problems in a way which can engage parents and family members, or when assessing the role or in providing evidence for ‘best interest’ planning for children.

Who are the trainers?
The Department for Children, Schools and Families sponsored the preparation of a group of accredited trainers who were trained by Professor Tony Cox and Steve Walker, co-authors of the Home Inventory. Each training is led by two trainers from this group.

What sort of training course is it?
The training for the Home Inventory and the Questionnaires and Scales uses an action-learning approach, combining theoretical and experiential learning. Three separate formal training days are followed by an opportunity for participants to try out what they have learnt in practice. The training has been structured so that each training session is followed by a break of several weeks to allow participants to use the HOME. It is therefore important that staff are given time in between the training days to try out the assessment materials and to develop their skills in using them.

The training therefore requires a commitment from participants to attend all the training sessions, to use the materials and to report back on their experiences.

What are the learning objectives for the course?
The training course aims to:

• Provide an opportunity for practitioners to become familiar with the HOME Inventory and the Questionnaires and Scales and their use
• Consider assessment techniques which facilitate an HOME Inventory assessment and the use of the Questionnaires and Scales
• Enable practitioners to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct a HOME Inventory assessment and to use of the Questionnaires and Scales
• Provide an opportunity for practitioners to practice conducting and scoring a HOME Inventory assessment
• Consider the contribution that a HOME Inventory assessment and the use of Questionnaires and Scales could make to a Core Assessment in accordance with the Assessment Framework
• To introduce and use a model for analysis and planning based on the Assessment Framework triangle to make effective use of the information collected using evidence-based assessment tools such as the HOME Inventory and the Questionnaires and Scales.

• Be able to explain the structure and purpose of a HOME Inventory assessment and the range of Questionnaires and Scales
• Identify the strengths and limitations of the HOME inventory and Questionnaires and Scales
• Conduct and score a HOME Inventory assessment
• Use the Questionnaires and Scales appropriately as part of an assessment
• Describe the relationship between the HOME Inventory, the Questionnaires and Scales and the Assessment Framework
• Apply the general and specific interview techniques applicable to a HOME Inventory assessment and the Questionnaires and Scales
• Apply the model of analysis and planning to the information they have collected using the assessment tools to inform interventions and outcomes in their work with children and families.