Lead professional
1 October 2006 - Responsibility for supporting 'integrated working' implementation moves to Children's Workforce Development Council
November 2006 - Leaflets for Children, Young People, Parents and Carers on CAF and the lead professional now available
The Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme is working to ensure that children and young people who have additional needs achieve better outcomes and have a better experience of services through the provision of integrated support.
The lead professional is a key element of integrated support. They take the lead to coordinate provision and act as a single point of contact for a child and their family when a range of services are involved and an integrated response is required.
Appointing a lead professional is central to the effective frontline delivery of services for children with a range of additional needs. When the role is delivered in the context of multi-agency assessment and planning, underpinned by the Common Assessment Framework or relevant specialist assessments, it ensures that professional involvement is rationalised, coordinated and achieves the intended outcomes.
We have issued two guidance documents for managers and practitioners to help
them implement and carry out lead professional work. These documents update and
replace the guidance issued in July 2005. To download the
guidance and other supporting guidance see the documents box
below.
For summaries information on the key functions of the lead professional and
some of the implications for managers and practitioners, click on the following
sections:
-
What
is a lead professional?
-
Who
will lead professionals work with?
-
Why
are they needed?
-
Who
can be a lead professional?
-
What
do they do?
-
What
skills and knowledge are helpful?
- How is the lead professional identified?
Training materials for the lead professional role are available as part of the integrated working training.
Budget-holding lead professional pilots
16 local authority pilots have been set up to trial the budget-holding lead professional concept. The pilots were established in June 2006 and will run up to April 2008.
Click for information on the budget-holding lead professional pilots.
Recommended reading for lead professionals and non-budget-holding lead professional pilot authorities
The Office for Public Management has produced four reports for the budget-holding lead professional pilots, which are of wider interest. They cover the approaches to implementing lead professional and budget holding; commissioning; implications of various government policies on the budget holding role; and mainstreaming. The reports are available on the budget-holding lead professional pilots page (see above).
Documents
The
Lead Professional: Practioners' and Managers' Guides
(August 2007)
Two sets of guidance, one to help operational managers and senior officers
successfully develop and implement a lead professional role, the other for
practitioners who want to find out more about the lead professional role or are
already carrying out lead professional work.
Implementation
of the Lead Professional Role (August 2006)
Research report on implementation of the lead professional role in 10 local
areas.
Implementation
of the Lead Professional Guidance - report of workshop on 12
January 2007 (February 2007)
Lead
professional: frequently asked questions (September 2007)
This page was last updated on 18 January 2008
