Multi-agency services: systems and processes

Multi-agency working is dependent on practitioners maintaining a complex series of relationships - with each other, with schools and early years settings, with partner agencies, and with children and families. Such complex work is easier when it is underpinned by formal systems and processes, for example in the areas of:

• Workplace policies
  
  
• Requests for support
  
  
• Monitoring and evaluation
  
  
• Information governance (information processing and information sharing)

Workplace policies

Where a number of services are working together towards common aims, it can be helpful to develop a set of common workplace policies that apply in that particular setting, to ensure that people are working to the same procedures. There are a number of areas where a common policy may be necessary, for example:

• Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including child protection
  
  
• Diversity and equal opportunities
  
  
• Home visits
  
  
• Identity checks
  
  
• Ethical framework
  
  
• Compliments, complaints and grievances
  
  
• Disciplinary procedure

In addition, the practical management of the school or setting of the multi-agency service will need to be reviewed during the planning of new community and family activities and services. For example, it may be necessary to develop new visitor and security procedures and revise health and safety policies.

You may already have common policies in place across your local area, for example in relation to safeguarding children. If not, you should work with partner agencies to develop a new, common policy appropriate to the setting. Methods for doing this include:

• Adopting an existing policy - from the lead agency or other agency
  
  
• Adapting an existing policy
  
  
• Creating a new joint policy

The process of reviewing and comparing existing policies can be a useful exercise in exploring cultural norms, values and practice, and provide the basis for a team development exercise.

Resources

Example behaviour and education support team (BEST) brochure

Example behaviour and education support team (BEST) staff handbook

Safeguarding

All multi-agency services should have written procedures for responding to concerns that a child may be experiencing abuse or neglect. These procedures should reflect local procedures agreed by the local safeguarding children board, which will in turn be in line with relevant government guidance. 

It will be helpful for service members to understand these safeguarding procedures. In a school setting there will be a designated member of staff whose responsibility it is to coordinate action within the institution and liaise with other agencies. You can access more detailed information and links to key guidance documents in the safeguarding children area of the website (outside this toolkit).

Requests for support

During your start-up phase it is helpful to invest time developing an effective system which sets clear criteria for the scope of your work, the type of support you will offer and how practitioners, parents or carers or children themselves can request support from your service. Click for more information on requests for support.

Monitoring and evaluation

An effective monitoring and evaluation system is important for a number of reasons:

• It provides information about the impact of the service on outcomes for children, young people and their families.
  
  
• It provides information about the impact of the service in relation to strategic targets.
  
  
• It highlights areas for improvement.

Click for more information on monitoring and evaluation.

Information governance

Information governance addresses five broad aspects of information processing - how information is held, obtained, recorded, used and shared.

Information processing

Multi-agency services will require facilities and procedures for processing information related to the children and young people using their services. These will include:

• Defining what information on children and young people will be stored by the multi-agency service and how it will be stored
  
  
• Defining who can access this information and how this access will be provided securely
  
  
• Providing or adapting the ICT systems that will be used to support this (if any)
  
  
• Developing any specific arrangements for security, audit, record ownership and data retention
  
  
• Using an information sharing framework to develop protocols for sharing information with other services.
  
  
• Developing any specific arrangements related to service users, eg privacy statements, fair processing notices

Information sharing

Sharing information is vital for early intervention to ensure that children and young people with additional needs get the services they require.  It is also essential to protect children and young people from suffering harm from abuse and neglect, and to prevent them from offending. To provide the most effective service, practitioners in multi-agency services will often need to share information about children and young people within their service and, at times, with practitioners in other services.  

Recognising that most decisions to share information require professional judgment, and that lack of clarity on the legal position was acting as a barrier to information sharing, in April 2006 the government published guidance, endorsed across government, on information sharing practice and the legal framework governing it. This guidance aims to improve practice by giving practitioners across children's services clearer direction on when and how they can share information legally and professionally about a child or young person with whom they are in contact. You can access more detailed information and links to key guidance documents in the information sharing area of the website (outside this toolkit).