Services we offer:
Edorien Family Services provides independent social work assessments, professionally supervised family time and safeguarding training, underpinned by over eight years of frontline statutory children’s social care experience.
Founded by experienced Children’s Social Worker and Senior Practitioner Danielle Pressnell, Edorien brings together safeguarding expertise, analytical assessment and relationship-based practice.
Whether undertaking an independent assessment, supporting a child to spend time safely with their family, or helping professionals strengthen safeguarding practice, the focus remains the same: understanding the individual child and family, identifying risk and strengths, and supporting safe and sustainable progress.
Independent social work assessments
Independent, analytical and child-centred assessment across Kent and the South East.
Edorien Family Services provides independent social work assessment informed by extensive statutory children’s social care and Family Court experience.
Danielle has experience of complex safeguarding, child protection, assessment, pre-proceedings and court proceedings and has undertaken a range of assessments involving children and families where significant decisions are required.
Areas of experience
Parenting assessments
Comprehensive assessment of parenting capacity, strengths, difficulties, risk, support needs and capacity to make and sustain change.Pre-birth assessments
Assessment of parenting capacity, risk, vulnerability, protective factors and support needs during pregnancy, allowing concerns and strengths to be considered before a baby is born.Risk assessments
Focused assessment and analysis where specific concerns require further professional consideration.Special Guardianship assessments
Experience undertaking statutory Special Guardianship assessment work.Court & Private-Law Experience
Danielle has experience preparing Section 7 welfare reports and contributing to Section 37 investigations and reporting within statutory children's social care, alongside wider experience of pre-proceedings, care proceedings, analytical court reporting and oral evidence.
Edorien welcomes enquiries regarding private-law and court-related assessment work where appropriately instructed or commissioned.
Assessment approach
Assessment should be more than a checklist.
Edorien seeks to understand what is happening, why it is happening, what this means for the child and whether meaningful change can be achieved and sustained.
Work is informed by professional curiosity, evidence, direct work, observation and careful analysis of both strengths and concerns.
Danielle is trained in ParentAssess and CUBAS and has experience preparing analytical reports for the Family Court, undertaking Section 7 welfare-report work within statutory practice, contributing to Section 37 investigation/reporting and giving oral evidence.
Court-related work is undertaken where appropriately instructed or commissioned and within the scope of the instruction.
Supervised Family Time & Supervised Contact in Kent
More than simply supervising contact
Edorien Family Services provides professionally supervised family time, delivered by an experienced Children’s Social Worker and Senior Practitioner.
Family time is approached from the perspective of the child. Alongside ensuring appropriate safeguards are maintained, professional observation considers the child’s presentation and emotional cues, parental responsiveness, warmth and attunement, communication, boundaries, routines, practical care, co-regulation and the overall quality of the relationship.
The purpose is not simply to record whether a session was “positive” or “negative”, but to provide a balanced account of what happened, how the child experienced the interaction, what appears to be working well and what may require further consideration.
Family time in everyday settings
Where individually assessed as safe and appropriate, and consistent with any court direction or agreed family-time plan, sessions may take place within:
Community settings • Family homes • Parks and activities • Other agreed environments
Observing families in ordinary settings can provide a richer understanding of relationships and parenting than is sometimes possible within a traditional contact room.
Where arrangements are difficult, restricted or uncertain, purposeful observation may also help professionals understand what is working, where difficulties arise, what support or boundaries may be required and whether there may be safe and proportionate opportunities for arrangements to develop.
Edorien does not predetermine outcomes. The role is to provide child-focused observation, evidence and professional analysis to support those responsible for decision-making.
Professional reporting
A standard session report is included with supervised family time. More detailed analytical reporting can be provided where required.
Reports clearly distinguish between:
Direct observation • Professional interpretation • Reasonable analytical conclusions
Who can enquire?
Enquiries are welcomed from parents and families, family-law solicitors, local authorities and other children’s professionals.
Safeguarding Training & Professional Development
Practical safeguarding training for real-world practice.
Safeguarding training should help professionals make better decisions — not simply demonstrate that they have sat through a presentation.
Edorien is developing interactive safeguarding training informed by frontline children’s social work practice and experience of working directly with children, families and multi-agency professionals.
Sessions are designed around realistic situations, professional discussion and practical decision-making.
Safeguarding in Practice
Training will explore areas such as safeguarding responsibilities, information sharing, professional curiosity, effective referrals, recording and chronologies, escalation and professional challenge, multi-agency working and what happens following a referral to children’s social care.
Realistic case scenarios encourage participants to consider:
What would you do? What would you share? What would concern you? When would you escalate? What might you have noticed earlier?
Initial training will be particularly relevant to early-years settings, nurseries and professionals working with children and families, with further specialist training developed over time.
Safeguarding training launching during 2027.