Multi Agency Working Essay

To listen to children/young people and offer support, information and advice in response to their needs.

Every Child Matters Framework which is currently in the process to be changed is part of the Children Act 2004; it is a piece of legislation which has and influences planning and provisions of learning opportunities. The Every Child Matters ensures that settings provide quality of children’s and young people’s play and learning.This supports children from birth to 19 years. When practitioners plan, they should relate their work to the five outcomes for children; be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve though learning, make a positive contribution to society and achieve economic

I will be evaluating the role of multi-agency working, its strengths and weaknesses and how it is used to reduce the risk of abuse imposed on adults; I will also be referring to legal frameworks, regulations, working strategies and procedures.

There are many social, economical and cultural factors that impact on the lives of children and young people. In my role as a Young Carer’s Support Worker, I work with a number of families living with the consequences of these factors. Every Child Matters (ECM) aims to improve the outcomes and life chances of every child and young person, therefore, it is important we understand and do all we can to help them achieve the 5 outcomes of the ECM, stay safe, be healthy, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and, achieve economic well-being.

This helps practitioner’s work together for the welfare of children. It promotes the Every Child Matters outcomes to reinforcing how important it is for all child careers to work together.

The Children and Young Peoples Board in Birmingham comprises of different partner agencies and organisations that each have a duty to cooperate under the Children’s Act 2004 in strategic planning, service developments and consideration of emerging issues around children and young people. Partner agencies include:

It has been debated that children and families have received poor service because of the failure of professionals in understanding each other’s roles or working together in a multi-disciplinary

Throughout my years as a childcare practitioner, I have accumulated a wide range of experience working with children aged 3 – 11. However, the majority of my experience is with children aged 3-5. Through

Multi agency teams such as a teacher, speech and language therapist and SENCO work together to support children that have speech, language and communication needs. If a parent is worried about their child’s speech, language or communication, they may visit their GP or a health visitor. The health visitor would identify problems when a child is taken for check ups. For some children if their communication difficulties are linked to other learning difficulties then it can resort to them being assessed by an educational psychologist. Once a delay in the child's development has been recognized the child would then be referred an appropriate specialist service e.g. to a speech and language therapist. It is vital that every educational provision

Children also need to communicate and socialise with their peers, children from other age groups and other adults. They need to feel safe and secure in their environment so that they feel able to speak to adults about any concerns they may have, or to ask questions and seek help without fear of embarrassment. They need good role models who can help them extend their decision making skills and develop independence appropriate to their age and development level. Practitioners have a further responsibility to provide additional support to children who may have special educational needs. This may be through individual sessions within the school, liaison with external services such as educational psychologists or through the CAF (Common Assessment Framework) process. The CAF process was developed to gather and assess information in relation to a child’s needs in development, parenting and the family environment. It is a service that should be offered to children (and their families) whose additional needs are not being met through universal services within the school. Practitioners also need to protect any children who may be at risk of significant harm because of their home life

Working within this approach can also avoid confusion between practitioners or provision being duplicated or missed out and parents being asked the same questions over and over which could get irritating for the parents. Sharing information gives an overall better service provided. The SEN code of practice 2001 stresses the importance of working within a multi-agency team ‘All agencies should recognize the need for effective collaboration of services involved with the child and with parents. Consultative responsibilities and effective communication systems and management and practitioner levels should be clearly identified.’ (Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2001 pg. 70)

The multi-agency team work together to support the child and their family sharing information in meetings, identifying problems and trying to solve the problems as soon as possible. The practitioner should have regular contact with the other professionals to provide the child and their family with a better service. (The Department for Eduation ,2012 www.education.gov.uk, 2012) The practitioner and other professionals will share ideas and comments, the diversity of the different professionals that the practitioner will be working with will benefit the child and their family. The other professionals will have different experiences and will be likely to offer more information and solutions to help the child and their family. (Tassoni.P et al, 2007).For example a practitioner is working with other professionals to meet the needs of a child that has special needs and this child will be starting primary school soon and the practitioner is working with someone who is a SENCO worker (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator). They have got to work out a solution on how best to meet this child’s needs by involving the child in as many activities as possible and encouraging the child to be as independent as possible by making the

‘Inter-professional working in education’ is a term given to a group of professionals from different agencies with a variety of specialist backgrounds working together, for educational purposes, to give children with different difficulties and levels of learning the opportunity to reach their full potential in education. The term “refers to interaction between the professionals involved, albeit from different backgrounds, but who have the same joint goals in working together” (Leathard, 2003, p.5). Inter-professional working is used in the primary school environment when a child has been noticed to struggle either with their academic work, social aspects of school

What specific involvement would external agencies and professionals have in the strategies outlined in your response to the case study? In Gemma’s case, she may need additional support from physical or occupational therapists and mental health professionals. However, the first support should always be from her family. However, one of the concerns is whether the parents are willing to disclose personal information to an educator about Gemma’s behaviour when she’s with them or anywhere she goes (Mac Naughton & Hughes,2011).

Since the introduction of the multi-disciplinary approach there have been many successful outcomes for children within mainstream schools. When all services are working together the benefits and potential for the child in your school will increase. Professionals will liaise and work together with children and their families where necessary. Each member on the team must be aware of each other’s work and will share information, opinions and skills. Benefits of a multidisciplinary team: • Reduces any duplication of work, More effective and accurate collection of information • Communication is increased • Parents and students feel more respected and heard • More efficient identification of needs • Potential of tapping into more resources through