Paperwork is an assessment tool suitable for use by health, education, social care, youth justice and police professionals working with children in need.

It assembles information about risks and strengths in the life of the child and family, and encourages practitioners to use the data to work out the optimal way of reducing impairment and increasing the child's quality of life. When combined with other tools in the Common Language series it provides management information and planning data for an agency and contributes towards the design and implementation of new services.