What's the secret of successful inter-agency working for early years professionals? Mary Evans hears views on best practice
The phrase 'joined-up thinking' was introduced by New Labour in its first term of office to challenge those delivering Government policy to be radical and innovative. But how does a nursery manager set about creating a culture of 'joined-up working', where staff can collaborate with professionals from other agencies?
The Sure Start programme is the epitome of the joined-up approach to service planning and delivery, and the formation of the new Sure Start unit within the Department for Education and Skills sets a challenging example for the childcare sector to follow.
According to Pauline Hatherill, nursery manager at the First Steps Nursery in Bath, effective inter-agency work can be greatly encouraged by local early years partnerships. She says, 'We have a particularly strong, pro-active partnership, which is one of the reasons our inter-agency work is so effective. Our partnership meetings involve working together.'
Centres that work successfully with other professionals say it is vital to adopt a team approach. Staff at the Redcliffe Early Years Centre in Bristol routinely work with social services, health staff and the local community group. For example, one of the nursery staff attends the baby clinic at the local health centre to network with the parents.
The head of the Redcliffe Centre, Mary Blight, says, 'We work as colleagues. There is a recognition that each person has particular skills to offer that make the team stronger. We respect each other's expertise and believe that together we can support families in a more effective way than if we all work disjointedly.'
Julian Grenier, head of the Woodlands Park Nursery Centre, an early excellence centre in Haringey, London, agrees that it is important to recognise that in a team, 'different people have different perspectives and strengths', while upholding the centre's core principles.
He cites an example where an external professional wanted to use a token reward system as part of a child's behaviour management programme. The centre refused. Julian explains, 'We said that we would not be able to implement this because it would undermine our overall behaviour policy in the centre. Then we worked together on agreeing an alternative way forward. Straight talking is important - but so is listening!'
From the day First Steps opened, says Pauline Hatherill, 'We decided that the holistic approach of family support would be incorporated into all that we do. Inter-agency work is not a competition. It is about collaboration and communication.'
She and other managers involved in multi-disciplinary working believe it is important to equip nursery staff with good communications skills, so she sends staff for training in counselling skills, being a good listener and coping with difficult people. One staff member has had training in domestic violence counselling and is now on secondment as a parent support worker.
Jargon can be a barrier to joined-up working, as words and phrases carry different nuances across the professions. 'Assessment' for a nursery nurse means observing a child's cognitive development, while for a social worker it involves looking at the whole family and its social needs.
Courses like the early childhood studies degree overcome such problems by adopting a holistic approach and giving students a complete grounding in all aspects of a child's development.
Julia Manning-Morton, senior lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at the University of North London, says, 'Practitioners on the degree course study not just children's learning, but they look too at the social context in which they are growing up, their health needs and their welfare needs in terms of their well being and child protection. What we are doing is producing practitioners who have a well-rounded understanding of children's needs and not just their cognitive development and learning.'
Mary Blight says, 'Two years ago we felt we were looking at the whole child, but the more we enter into dialogue with other professionals, the more we are aware of the whole child and their needs. It is a much more healthy approach that raises our awareness.
'I wasn't so aware of the impact of poor housing on a child's well being - for example, the impact of living in a noisy flat and how aggressive noise can be. I feel now that you can't just work with children only from the aspect of health or education.'
At a local level, nursery managers can enable their staff to adopt a holistic approach by arranging joint training. Julian Grenier says, 'In the Haringey Network we are discussing a multi-professional induction for all staff. It would involve new Sure Start, nursery centre and other staff working with children and young families.'
Inter-agency work was the theme of a recent in-service training day at the First Steps Nursery when a local health visitor and a worker from the neighbourhood family project talked about their work and brainstormed with nursery staff on ways of extending inter-agency work. Team members attend multi-disciplinary child protection courses alongside local magistrates, social workers and health staff.
Julian Grenier sounds one note of caution. 'When working with a child and family where there are lots of agencies involved, we work hard to make sure that the parent is not overwhelmed by huge amounts of advice.
'The same is also true for the staff in our centre. One child might have a programme from speech and language therapy, another from occupational therapy, as well as strategies suggested by educational psychology. But nobody can work with all these different targets and programmes at the same time. So in drawing up Individual Education Plans we have two principles.
'The first target is always suggested by the parent. It is something that is really important in the family. Then we have a maximum of another two targets. Three targets are the most we can work with at the same time.
'Second, as far as possible, targets start with something the child is actually doing or interested in, and then they build towards, say, the speech and language target. So if a child is really into trains, we would base the speech and language target around interaction at the train tracks.'
Getting it right from the start
- Maintain the highest standards of confidentiality and never compromise the trusting relationship you have built up with the parents.
- Always ask parents' express consent before sharing information with another professional.
- Ensure data used for evaluation is always made anonymous.
- Hold joint workshops so you can all understand each of your approaches and professional disciplines. A starting point could be a multi-disciplinary session on child protection to see how you recognise and address the same issue.
- Break down barriers and encourage people from outside agencies to see you in a positive light by actively helping them, for example, by offering them space for meetings or clinics.
- Follow basic courtesies. Ensure that a visiting professional has adequate and appropriate space to leave their belongings and complete any paperwork.
