Gathering good quality information about the type and level of impairment to a child's development is an increasingly necessary aspect of assessing children's needs. It represents a significant challenge and, as yet, reliable, validated instruments exist only in embryo.
In their absence, Threshold helps practitioners to collect information about a child's health and development and to analyse it in a logical sequence in order to make a global judgement regarding impairment. Weighed alongside other criteria, the results should help to determine when and how to intervene in that child's life.
The tool seeks to foster greater consistency in such decision-making, both in relation to an individual practitioner's caseload, and across children's services. To that end, it encourages regular consultation about judgements with colleagues, supervisiors and experts, and it can also be used for training and in the evaluation of services.