Children's social care (UK)

Genograms in children's social care

For local authority social workers in Children and Families teams: how a genogram fits into assessments, family network meetings, kinship assessments and court evidence, and how to draw one in minutes instead of an evening.

Updated October 2026 · Reviewed by the GenogramAI Clinical Team

Quick answer

In UK children's social care, a genogram is a family diagram covering at least three generations that shows who is in the child's household and wider family network, how they are related, and what matters for safety and support. Local authority social workers use it in Child and Family Assessments, Section 47 enquiries, family group conferences, connected person and special guardianship assessments, and the social work evidence for care proceedings.

Genogram example: Child Protection Genogram: UK Children’s Social Care — A child protection genogram: two children on plans for neglect, the mother’s partner with a domestic abuse history, half-siblings living with their fathers and earlier involvement in a note. Open this example

Why genograms matter in local authority practice

Case notes are written in date order; families are not. By the time a case reaches a strategy discussion or a legal planning meeting, the information about who is who is spread across contact records, referrals and partner agency reports. A genogram puts it in one place: mother and father, new partners, half-siblings living in other households, grandparents on both sides, and the aunt who has been looking after the children at weekends.

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) asks practitioners to work with the whole family network, and recent reforms push family group decision-making earlier, before proceedings. That makes the family network the centre of the work, and the genogram is the simplest way to show it. It also shows the court and partner agencies that every relative has been considered, which matters when the plan is to place a child outside the family.

Practice note

Record strengths as well as risks, note where each fact came from (parent, police check, school, health visitor), and mark disputed information as disputed. A genogram that only shows risk can damage your working relationship with the family, and one that presents reported facts as verified will be challenged in court.

Where the genogram fits in a case

The same diagram follows the child from the first assessment to permanence; update it rather than starting again.

Child and Family Assessment

Start the genogram at the first home visit. Who lives in the household, who visits, who looks after the children, and both sides of the family. It shows at a glance whether a Section 17 child in need plan or a step up is needed.

Section 47 enquiries and conferences

In a strategy discussion or initial child protection conference, the genogram shows every adult with access to the children, half-siblings in other households, and previous involvement, so partner agencies are working from the same picture.

Family network meetings

Use it to identify who to invite to a family group conference or family network meeting, then update it with the family as relatives are named and offers of support are made.

PLO and care proceedings

At pre-proceedings the genogram shows who has been explored as an alternative carer. In proceedings it sits alongside the written evidence so the court can follow the family structure and the plan.

Connected person and SGO assessments

For kinship assessments, map the applicant's own family and household, their relationship with the child and the birth parents, and the support around them.

Life story work

For children in care or placed for adoption, a clear, child-friendly genogram helps explain who their family is and where their brothers and sisters live.

What to record on a children's social care genogram

Record	How to show it	Why it matters
Household	Draw a dashed boundary around everyone who lives with the child	The starting point of any safety assessment
Adults with access	Include partners, ex-partners and regular visitors, even if they live elsewhere	Risk often comes from outside the household
Siblings and half-siblings	Show each child under the right parents, with where they live	Sibling contact and placing siblings together
Both sides of the family	Map paternal relatives even when the father is absent	Fathers’ families are the most often missed kinship carers
Relationship quality	Close, conflictual, cut off, violent or abusive lines	Shows where support is real and where it is not
Previous involvement	Text note: previous plans, proceedings or children removed	Patterns across children and generations
Offers of support	Text note against each relative after a family network meeting	Feeds the family plan and kinship assessments
Source and date	Legend plus a note with the date and who gave the information	Lets the diagram be relied on later

A practical checklist; follow your local authority's own templates and practice standards.

Genogram example: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren — Grandparents caring for their grandchildren: a common kinship arrangement. Open this example

Worked examples for each stage

Four fictional families drawn the way a Children and Families team would draw them. Open any of them as a template and replace the details with your own.

Child protection genogram (above): Section 47 enquiry and child protection plans for neglect, with the mother’s alcohol misuse, her partner’s domestic abuse history drawn as a violence line, half-siblings in their fathers’ households and previous involvement as a note.

Genogram example: Family Network Meeting Genogram: Offers of Support — Family network meeting genogram: both sides of the family, including a paternal family contacted for the first time, with each relative’s offer of support as a note. Open this example

Genogram example: Special Guardianship Genogram: Aunt as Kinship Carer — Special guardianship genogram: a paternal aunt and her husband as special guardians, the father in prison, lived-with years and contact arrangements. Open this example

Genogram example: Social Work Genogram Example: Blended Family with Three Fathers — Blended household: three children by three fathers, the mother’s cohabiting partner and his son, step lines and two households. Open this example

For practice outside the UK, the kinship care genogram for a child welfare assessment shows a grandmother caring for three grandchildren after a period in foster care.

Genograms in court evidence

When a genogram goes into the social work evidence for care proceedings, or into a special guardianship or connected person report, it will be read by the judge, the children's guardian and every party's solicitor. Keep it readable and consistent with the written evidence:

1
Match the written evidence
Names, ages and dates of birth on the genogram must match the statement and chronology exactly. A mismatch invites challenge.
2
Show only what is relevant
Include the people the court needs to understand the plan. Leave distant relatives off unless they were assessed or put themselves forward.
3
Mark disputed facts
If paternity or a relationship is disputed, say so on the diagram rather than drawing it as settled.
4
Add a legend and a date
A judge should not need to know genogram notation to read it. Add a key and a note with the date it was prepared.

Drawing a genogram quickly

Most social workers draw genograms in Word shapes, on paper, or in the case management system's basic diagram tool. All of them are slow to change when a new relative is named at the family network meeting. GenogramAI is built for that:

Type it the way you write notes

Describe the family in plain English and the genogram is drawn for you with standard symbols. Add the next relative in one sentence instead of redrawing.

Exports for the case file

Export PNG on any plan, or PDF and SVG on paid plans, to attach to the assessment, the conference report or the court bundle.

Clinical Mode for case data

On the Clinical plan, Clinical Mode saves only on your device with zero-knowledge encryption. Check your information governance rules before entering identifiable details.

Pair it with an eco-map

Show the school, health visitor, GP, early help and other services around the family on an eco-map built from the same people.

Case example: a family network meeting changes the plan

Fictional composite case for educational purposes

Situation: Two brothers, aged 4 and 7, were subject to child protection plans under the category of neglect. Their mother, Kelly, was misusing alcohol, and her partner Dean had previous convictions for domestic abuse. The children's father, Ryan, had not seen them for three years. The local authority entered pre-proceedings under the Public Law Outline.

The first genogram: Drawn at the Child and Family Assessment, it showed Kelly, Dean, the two boys and Kelly's mother, Sue, who was in poor health. Kelly said there was no one else.

What changed: Before the family group conference, the social worker went through the genogram with Ryan on the phone. He named his sister, Leanne, who lived twenty minutes away, had two children at the same primary school, and had looked after the older boy as a baby. Ryan's side of the family had never been contacted.

Outcome: Leanne attended the conference and offered to care for the boys if needed. A connected person assessment was started straight away. The genogram, updated with each offer of support, went into the evidence and showed the court that the paternal family had been fully explored.

See a family network meeting genogram drawn this way, with each offer of support recorded as a note.

For teams, services and training academies

Children and Families services, social work academies and Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programmes use GenogramAI to give every practitioner the same tool and the same notation. Newly qualified social workers learn standard symbols faster when the tool draws them correctly, and practice supervisors can review genograms against the same conventions.

Volume licensing and invoicing

Seats for a team or a whole service, paid by invoice. No individual card payments or expense claims.

Onboarding and shared templates

Staff onboarding and shared templates so assessments look consistent across teams.

See GenogramAI for organisations to request a proposal for your team.

Frequently asked questions

Do local authority social workers have to include a genogram in a Child and Family Assessment?

There is no single national rule that every assessment must contain a genogram, but most local authorities expect one, and many assessment templates have a family composition or genogram section. Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) asks practitioners to understand the child within their wider family network, and a genogram is the quickest way to show that you have. Follow your own authority's practice standards.

How is a genogram used at a family group conference or family network meeting?

Before the meeting, the genogram identifies who belongs in the family network: both sides of the family, older siblings, godparents and close family friends. During the meeting it is a shared picture the family can correct and add to. Afterwards it records who offered what support, which feeds the family plan and any later connected person assessments.

Should a genogram go into the social work evidence for care proceedings?

Many local authorities include a genogram with the Social Work Evidence Template (SWET) or attach it to the parallel plan, because it lets the court, the guardian and the parties see the family at a glance. Date it, add a legend, mark which relationships are disputed, and make sure it matches the names and dates in the written evidence.

Can I use a genogram for a connected person or special guardianship assessment?

Yes. In a connected person (kinship foster carer) assessment, often written on CoramBAAF Form C, or a special guardianship report, the genogram shows the applicant's own family, their relationship to the child, and the other adults in their household and network. It also helps you check contact arrangements and whether the applicant can keep the child safe from anyone who poses a risk.

Is it safe to put case information into an online genogram tool?

Check your authority's information governance rules and, where needed, a data protection impact assessment before entering identifiable details. GenogramAI's Clinical plan adds Clinical Mode, which saves only on your device with zero-knowledge AES-256 encryption, so GenogramAI cannot read the chart. Many practitioners also draft with initials or first names only and add full details to the case record.

Is there a free genogram tool for social workers?

GenogramAI has a free plan with 2 genograms of up to 50 people each, every standard symbol and relationship line, and PNG export, with no credit card. For a team or a whole service, volume licensing with invoicing is arranged through the enterprise page rather than individual card payments.

Does this apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

The practice is the same; the legal framework and terminology differ. Wales works under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, Scotland uses the Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) approach and the Children's Hearings System, and Northern Ireland has its own Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. A genogram is useful in all of them.