This booklet aims to provide practitioners with a concise and accessible summary of research relevant to the initial stages of assessment in children’s services. It has been written primarily for local authority practitioners undertaking statutory initial assessments and making Section 47 (Part V, S47 of the Children Act 1989 [Protection of Children]) enquiries, but the material has far broader relevance. Given the range of practitioners involved in making early assessments of children’s needs under the Common Assessment Framework, this booklet will appeal to professionals in health, welfare, education and criminal justice services. For all practitioners tasked to make robust, evidence-based judgments in child welfare that pay due regard to needs and risks, Ten pitfalls and how to avoid them offers invaluable advice. It revises and updates the work of Hedy Cleaver, Corinne Wattam, Pat Cawson and Rosemary Gordon. This team of authors produced the original version of Ten pitfalls and how to avoid them as part of Assessing Risk in Child Protection, an NSPCC Policy Practice Research Series report published in 1998. Since the publication of the original booklet, there have been significant changes to processes of referral and response in local authority children’s services that have necessitated this revision.