Success factors in multi-agency working

There is no precise formula for multi-agency working. It is complex, challenging and significantly influenced by the local context and personalities involved. That said, experience shows that there are a lot of things that can help to make it successful. None of them should be seen as a prerequisite for success, but they are a useful self-help checklist. We have grouped the success factors in the following four categories:

• Strategic
  
  
• Operational
  
  
• Community and voluntary sector involvement
  
  
• Evaluation

A summary of the key success factors is presented below; more detail can be found in the managers' toolkit.

Strategic

Shared goals and common targets

Multi-agency working is easier where the aims of the various agencies coincide and where their targets are mutually consistent.

Time-frame

Allow adequate lead-in times for your service to be established and for results to be achieved. In some instances, a new service may initially expose a level of hidden need, so the problem may look worse before it starts to get better.

Governance arrangements

These need to be in place to ensure proper accountability arrangements for and oversight of the operation of different partnership arrangements. Streamlined structures, which build on what is already in place, can help to facilitate communication and minimise the number of meetings required. The introduction of children's trusts will hasten the development of locally appropriate strategic partnership working.

Existing partnership working

Build on effective structures already in place. This can mean shorter lead-in times and a more successful implementation.

Administrative boundaries

Multi-agency working tends to be easiest when all of the partners operate within the same administrative boundaries. The problem is not insurmountable, but if an agency covers more than one area, it may be helpful to work with them to identify appropriate structures and target resources.

Baseline and monitoring data

Good local data provides a clear picture of the scale and nature of the particular needs to be met. Combined with appropriate outcome measures, this will indicate whether the initiatives and projects are having an impact and where action is needed to improve performance.

Regular monitoring and review

Strategic partnerships can ensure that integrated working is routinely monitored, to identify whether it is delivering the intended benefits. This process should mirror the processes at individual project level.

Operational

Clarity of vision and purpose

Multi-agency working should not be an end in itself. It should bring about benefits that could not have been achieved by one agency working alone, which are anticipated in a clear vision for the service. This vision needs to be translated into realistic goals, which reflect a grounded understanding of the needs of your target group and the support you have available to meet those needs. The goals should be revised in the light of experience.

Definition of roles

Setting clear role descriptions helps to maximise the respective contribution of each agency, avoid overlap and avoid the risk of some agencies taking more responsibility than is appropriate.

Human resources

Bringing individuals from different professional backgrounds into a single team can pose a significant challenge for managers. Particular considerations here are not only the different professional cultures which team members bring with them, but also questions they may have about their future career development. The following factors can help to meet this challenge:

• Pay and conditions
  It is helpful when pay and conditions of work are comparable with those of people working at the same grade in statutory agencies, and with those working at the same level within the team. In practice, this is not always possible, and there are examples in this resource of ways that services have addressed some of these issues.
  
  
• Joint training
  Practitioners report that this is one of the most important things in making multi-agency working a success. It means that opportunities are built in for staff from different backgrounds to get to know each other, cooperate, discuss and make joint decisions. This is not a homogenising process, but one that helps them appreciate the different contributions each can make to meeting their common goals.
  
  
• Line management
  Integrated working appears to be more straightforward when each member of staff works within a clear line management structure, which provides them with appropriate supervision, training and development, including regular appraisal. Clarity is particularly important where this is a shared responsibility between a line manager within the multi-agency service and a member of the practitioner's own professional body working elsewhere. In multi-agency teams it is helpful if a common line management system applies to all members (including those who are also supervised externally).
  
  
• Recognition of multi-agency skills
  It is helpful if those responsible for career progression recognise multi-agency working as an important professional skill in itself. This should be assisted through the development of the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the Children's Workforce, which includes multi-agency working.

Partnership agreements

Multi-agency working is dependent on relationships between many different agencies, in different contexts. Documenting the ground rules for your partnership with another agency will help ensure the partnership has a firm foundation and can withstand problems and changes of personnel in key positions. It will not, of itself, influence operational practice, but making these agreements available to staff and keeping them regularly reviewed should help to ensure they are 'living' documents.

Appropriate referral systems

Explicit, mutually agreed procedures for referral both in and out of multi-agency services can ensure that integrated working delivers 'added value' rather than simply substituting for gaps in individual agencies. They will also help prevent services becoming overloaded with cases that can be dealt with by individual agencies.

Information exchange

Comprehensive and accurate information helps services work effectively with children with additional needs. This requires agreement on what information should be exchanged about specific cases, and also the development of effective systems for capturing the required information; transferring the information to other agencies and holding shared information.

Exit strategies

Where projects or initiatives are time-limited, it helps to focus on the end-point from early on in planning process. An essential component of any exit strategy must be to ensure service users do not get lost.

Community and voluntary sector involvement

A 2005 HM Treasury report states that there is considerable empirical evidence that "community involvement in public service delivery can lead to better outcomes". The report identified that it is generally most helpful when services require significant tailoring to meet local needs and circumstances. Some of the particular factors that can facilitate multi-agency working are:

Established provision

Multi-agency working appears to be easier to set up in areas with a thriving voluntary sector, particularly where organisations are representative of sections of the population who are most in need. Members of smaller groups may not be willing or able to get involved in multi-agency work unless there is some form of stable financial support.

Mechanisms for consultation and feedback

The process of monitoring and review requires effective consultation and feedback from the voluntary sector, community groups and service users. This will mean using a range of approaches to broaden consultation and maximise feedback.

Removal of 'external' barriers to third sector involvement

These have been identified in the HM Treasury report referred to above as "behaviours by public sector bodies that unwittingly limit the access of voluntary and community organisations to contract opportunities or funding streams and so constrain their ability to tender for services or develop their capacity".

Removal of 'internal' barriers to third sector involvement

These have been identified in the same HM Treasury report as limited access to financial and physical capital, insufficient capacity, inadequate leadership, management and technical skills. 

Click for further information on the role of the voluntary and community sector in the Change for Children programme.

Evaluation

Collaboration

Where an outside organisation is responsible for evaluating a multi-agency project it can be mutually beneficial if this is undertaken in close collaboration with those working in the project, as long as the evaluation team is able to retain its independence and objectivity.

Mixed methods

Evaluations are most illuminating where they combine qualitative with quantitative approaches. A qualitative understanding can be essential for interpreting quantitative data and explaining patterns in the data. Quantitative and qualitative information on the local context can be vital in explaining the relative success or otherwise of the same initiative or project in different areas.

Coordination

If a multi-agency initiative or project is operating in a number of different areas, it is important to be able to compare its impact in each area and to understand the reasons for any variations. This means that a similar methodological approach needs to be taken across all of the areas involved and each evaluation should be of the same quality and depth.

Challenge

Occasionally, evaluation may show that initiatives and projects have not met their original aims; but this does not necessarily mean that they have been a failure. Good evaluations will improve understanding of the local factors at work in these situations and may also call into question the basis on which they were set up. They may also identify other, unanticipated positive outcomes that may constitute more than 'added value'. This can be important in improving the thinking behind future multi-agency initiatives and projects as well as their effective implementation.

Click for more on monitoring and evaluation.