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Services for Children and Families

Terminology

The term integrated working is often used interchangeably with the terms interagency and multiagency working.

The principal behind integrated working is that many professionals with different expertise ought to work together to meet the holistic needs of children.

Every Child Matters 2003 sets out the aims of integrated working. Serious case reviews into child deaths and tragedies repeatedly identified failures were professionals did not work in a collaborative and integrated manner. The Victoria Climbie case is one such example.

Some Elements of Integrated Working

There are a number of key elements of integrated working these include;

• Early intervention

• Assessment (i.e. Common assessment framework)

• Centralised recording of information

• Sharing information with relevant professionals

• Team Around the Child (TAC)

• Lead Professional

Legislative and policy underpinnings

There is a range of legislation and policy that supports the requirement integrated working. These include;

• The Children Act 1989,

• The Children Act 2004,

• Working Together 2013,

• The Common Assessment Framework 2006,

• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989.

Family Support; what is it?

In 1994 the audit commission produced a report on services for children which use the following definition of family support:

"any activity or facility provided either by

statutory agencies by community groups or

individuals aimed at providing advice and

support to parents to help them bring up their

children.”

The end of the Poor Law?

• Until the welfare state was set up after the Second World War, provision for those who could not support themselves and their children was shaped Poor Laws.

• Generally the purpose of these laws was to dissuade people from seeking support; as there were serious consequences, such as family breakup, and institutionalisation in workhouses.

The Children Act 1948

Following the launch of the welfare state in 1948, the Children Act 1948 did not consider prevention, but was concerned with setting up the circumstances in which the local authority would take over the responsibility of parenting children.

But…

However, in practice, it became apparent that early intervention with families could avoid the possibility of children being received into local authority care.

Types of Family/State Relationship

Fox Harding’s (1991), perspectives in childcare policy identifies a number of typologies regarding state intervention into family life ranging from Laissez-faire at one extreme and authoritarian at the other.

We can see how Fox Harding’s typology relates to the public/private dichotomy. For example, a laissez-faire relationship between the family and state would emphasise the private; whilst an authoritarian regime would emphasise the public element. (See Fox-Harding, Models of the family state relationship in previous reading pack)

With parents: investing in the future

• The Children Act 1989 emerged as an attempt to try and resolve the tension between public and private, with its emphasis on working in partnership with parents in order to meet the needs of their children.

• When New Labour came into power in 1997 there was the concerted effort to address issues of social deprivation and family stress.

• This shifted thinking away from children being parental responsibility, rather to being a social investment, and key in ensuring the future stability of society.

Supporting Families

In 1998 the Home Office produced a document called Supporting Families: consultation document.

Supporting families set out how the state might actively support parents in parenting, whilst also encouraging as many adults is possible to enter the labour force.

More Childcare: More Working Parents

• In order to promote workforce participation, childcare provision had to be increased, be reliable, and affordable.

• This this was supported by the National Childcare Strategy 1997, The Childcare Act 2006 and Every Child Matters 2003.

• The statutory framework requiring services for children to work together to promote the welfare of children is enshrined in The Children Act 2004.

Integrated Services

The Children Act 2004 led to a the introduction of new local authority-based integrated services that merged education and social services into children's trusts and to the identification and allocation of what is called a Lead Professional, described as one practitioner who takes a lead role to ensure that frontline services are coordinated coherent and achieving intended outcomes (DfEs 2006b).

Tarr & Gardener (2011) Multiagency Working

However, although there are many policy initiatives prescribed multiagency working, there continues to be a number of identified challenges:

Drawing upon the work of Barratt and Keeping 2005, Tarr and Gardner, discuss the implications of some of these challenges. They include:

Challenges and Opportunities

• Knowledgeable of other professional roles

• Motivation and participation of different professionals

• Confidence in one's own role and responsibilities

• Open communication

• Trust and mutual respect

• Equality in terms of power

• Reflection on supervision

Rawlings (2008) Working with Others

Rawlings (2008) extends upon the discussion of Tarrand Gardner, deconstructing how conflict may operate be resolved within multiagency contexts. Rawlings also provides a useful summary the main provisions of the Childcare Act 2006, which provides the statutory footing for the aforementioned childcare strategy.

Rawlings also encourages us to think about the application multiagency working by providing a number of case study, hypothetical scenarios.

Sure Start

Sure Start was launched in 2000. Sure start programmes and centres provide support for all family with children aged under five years.

Initially the centres were targeted in economically deprived areas but eventually were rolled out into all the communities.

‘Mainstreaming’ Sure Start

Following the evaluation of Sure Start, it was deemed that the Sure Start centres provided a model on which children centres could be based.

The aim was to have 3500 Children’s Centres up and running by 2010. The rationale was that each community should have a Sure Start/Children’s centre within ‘pram pushing distance’. Each Children’s Centre had to provide a ‘core offer’ of family support.

The Core Offer

• Early education Integrated with daycare

• Family support and parental outreach

• Child and family health services

• Links with schools and Children’s Information Services (CIS)

• Links with Jobcentre Plus

Extended Schools

The needs of older children were to be met through the Extended School Programme, with the goal that by 2010 every school was to offer high-quality wraparound care for children from 8 AM to 6 PM.

National Occupational Standards (NOS)

The National Occupational Standards (NOS) are statements of the standards of performance individuals must achieve when carrying out functions in the workplace, together with specifications of the underpinning knowledge and understanding.

National Occupational Standards

The National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents includes a number of skills that practitioners must possess. These include;

Knowledge of assessment,

equality and diversity,

integrated working,

multiagency teams,

and family relationships amongst other things.

The Common Core (2010)

• The common core describes the skills and knowledge that everyone who works with children and young people (including volunteers) is expected to have.

• The six areas of expertise offer a single framework to underpin, multi-agency and integrated working, professional standards, training and qualifications across the childrensworkforce.

The common core skills and knowledge have the following six main

areas:

1. Communication2. Development3. Protecting and promoting the welfare of the

child4. Supporting transitions by helping children to

move from one setting to another or from one phase of development to another

5. Working with many different agencies6. Sharing information.

The Common Assessment Framework

• The Common Assessment framework emerged in 2006. It was a key component of the Every Child Matters change children agenda.

• The Common Assessment Framework, often known as CAF is used by different types of practitioners in order to make an initial assessment of children's needs

CAF Domains

The CAF consists of three interrelated domains; 1. Development of child;2. Parents and carers;3. Family and environmental. The Common Assessment Framework is consistent with an integrated and graduated approach accessing different services depending on levels of need. Needs should be identified and dealt with early, preventatively, and before they escalate.

Hardiker (1991) model

A similar graduated approach may be summarised by the Hardiker (1991) model of need. This model outlines for levels of intervention:

• level I: refers to universal mainstream services that are available to all children.

• Level II: represents services for children not have some additional needs which would be identified to an assessment such as CAF.

• level III: represent support to families where children have serious problems. At this level of multiagency response is often required.

• level IV: represents services for children were family has broken down either temporarily or permanently for example children looked after or in custody.

Hardiker (1991)

Thresholds

Windscreen threshold model, is similar to the Hardiker(1991) model in that it tries to classify different levels of need. Ranging from universal services at Level 1 through to acute levels of need at level 4.

The Common Assessment Framework and the windscreen wiper model emerged as a response to the perception that thresholds for intervention applied under The Children Act section 17 were too high in terms of gatekeeping services for children in need. (see The Children Act report 2002, also Ryden, 2008:37-9; Algateand Tunstill, 1995)

Referral to Social Care

The traditional threshold, used by social services departments, under section 17 are located at the boundary between levels three and four on the windscreen wiper model.

The effect of this, is that social workers tend to become involved in families at the level 3/4 boundary.

In many cases intervention will have taken place at levels two and three prior to referral being made to social care.

References