What is an impact assessment?

As the name indicates, this is a way of assessing the impact something has on someone, or more likely agroup of people- they are a way of demonstrating that you understand how people will be affected by the actions you take, and can be used in many different situations. In this instance however we are considering what the impact would be on families if a service were to close. They can be used as a way to try and show that a service, in this instance, may require additional funding or resources in order to continue as the negative impact on families if it were to close would be great and severely detrimental, ie the negative impact would be significant on a number of families in an area. If this is the case you could argue that if the service were not to exist then the knock-on effect would be severe and potentially cost more (financially and with wellbeing) in the longer term. However if most people were only lightly affected, and even if a small number of people were highly affected, overall the impact would be considered low-medium, and therefore not so important to support.

Tool for impact assessment

A sample impact assessment form is available here:

https://soscn.org/downloads/forms/impact-assessment-sample-form.docx (WORD DOC)

This can be adapted, and added to, according to your setting but these are basic questions that should be asked. Families registered with the service should be asked to compete one of these forms. Once all forms completed you need to collate the overall information and provide a clear analysis of the impact on, and knock-on affects to, your families which use your service.