If a child has any special education needs (SED), then sometimes that child might struggle to participate in certain activities this is where we work together as a team with the other professionals and support the child and parent/s or carer to help the child’s development and to help them become a confident learner and self assured.
How effective multi agency working operates and how it benefits children and carers by delivering better outcomes? Multi agency working is different agencies, services, professionals and practitioners that will work together to provide help for children and parents. As well as working together with carers and parents practitioners need to recognise that this should be taking place with multi agency working together also. Settings will point parents in the right direction of other agencies which will benefit them, these services are sometimes integrated together to offer a more effective care for the children. Children that are in a setting may have a wide range of needs and working together with these other professionals can have a strong positive impact on the child’s health, learning and development.
The professionals that work together with the families and practitioners can share a lot of information, they can agree on what way they can assess and plan for a particular child, to help the child reach their full potential the parents and child can be involved in the planning, by sharing information like this it is important that confidentiality is maintained at all times.
Describe the functions of the external agencies that work with your etting Ofstead: Inspect provision of care in the setting. Ofstead make sure that all staff is up to date on any training and that we are providing a safe and healthy environment for the children and that we are following the eyfs. Ofstead will provide any information, support and advice for all staff as well as the setting itself. Police: Incase of an emergency the police are there for support and help.
They will be contacted if such emergencies arise such as missing child, breaking and entry, suspicious persons, they also may be point of contact if there is a suspected case of abuse or violence. Health care professionals: if a child has a development need, we often work together with a range of health professionals such as speech and language therapists. They provide advice and information using different methods on ways to help a child to overcome or improve a difficulty.
Recently the speech therapist has worked together with the designated SENCO worker our setting, they take a few children with different needs into a quite stimulating room and do different songs and stories with them, encouraging the children to join in, also doing sign language for the songs for example one child has glue ear so they struggle with hearing, this group time will help the children become more confident and help with their development and needs.
Social services: If we are worried a child is in any danger of abuse or violence then the social services will work with the setting to help support the child and anyone who is involved such as any key workers or parents, the social services will work to end any suffering or cruelty to a child with the help of any staff that have witnessed anything, whilst confidentiality is maintained at all times.
The common barriers to integrated and multi agency working and how these can be overcome. Not everyone will agree on things, sometimes different professions will work in alternative ways and may even word things ifferently. People may have been trained in a different role to which they may find it difficult to be managed by a person with other skills; some people may not be use to sharing their knowledge with others. It’s important that each profession respect each other and that they value their knowledge, understanding and expertise by doing this it will make multi agencies work better together and give the children the best support and help that is needed. Multi agencies need to make sure they have clear aims, roles and responsibilities and time tables have been agreed between the different agencies, also good communication and information sharing is carried out.
How and why referrals are made between agencies? Referrals are made in order for the child to get the best possible support and outcomes and by practitioners doing observations and recording evidence then the child can be referred to the correct professional.
It’s important to identify any additional support as early as possible, without it then the children might not get the help they need at the right time and this could affect the child’s wellbeing. Before referring a child to any agency or professional then permission is gained from the parents first, and they are kept updated and informed. In my setting if a referral is made from the SENCO worker then she will get in contact with the correct agency, then someone from that agency will come out and do a initial assessment or observation on the child then the correct help and support will be put into practise for that child.
If a child is being suspected of being abused or not looked after, and the child is in no immediate danger then the child will be observed and spoken to without any leading questions, anything that is said during this time is strictly confidential and should be stored away in the Childs individual file, after this it’s up to the designated safeguarding officer to pass on any concerns and evidence to social services. The meaning of partnership working for safeguarding Working in partnership means being able to deal with difficult situations to help achieve the best for children and young people by working together, looking for the right solutions and where we may get things right or wrong.
The importance of partnership working to safeguard is that other rofessionals and agencies will work together, it starts with government legislation all the way through to local working. Each agency and professional have their own role of expertise so vulnerable children will need help from education, health, children social care and sometimes the justice services so it’s very important that there is good communication between all the different services available.
All agencies and professionals involved in protecting a child’s welfare have a duty to safeguard them, police, health visitor, GP, hospital, child minder, school, nursery, after school club, leisure groups such as swimming, social worker, family, friends, and the local community are all responsible to safeguarding children and young people and its highly important we all communicate and work together in partnership, information is shared with other professionals and organisations on a need to know basis only, this way we are all working together to help safeguard children and young people and to promote their welfare.
The roles and responsibilities of the different organisations that may be involved when a child has been abused or harmed. Social services Social services will provide help and support to families and children. They will work co-operatively with the parents/carers to support the child/young person and help get the best outcome for the child. They are the ones who will make the decisions and are responsible for protecting children and provide well being and welfare for the child or venerable adult NSPCC.
The NSPCC are a charitable organisation who work to protect children from harm, they give advice and support for families and children, they provide a child line number for children that are in need or in fear that they can ring in confidence. The NSPCC also are there to raise awareness of abuse and will advise other professionals. Health visitor A health visitor is linked between home and social services if they notice a child might be suffering significant harm or they have noticed the child’s behaviour is not normal then they will work closely with social services and other professionals.
They are also involved with families that are in need, and will also support new parents. GP A GP can examine a child and if they suspect any unusual markings that are not accidental then they have a duty to contact the children’s social care. Also if a child is being suspected of child abuse then a full examination can be taken place by a doctor, if it’s a child protection case then a parents’ consent is not needed.
Police play one of the biggest roles in child protection cases, as it’s a criminal offence and prosecution may be involved, they will work closely with social care to protect children from harm, all police have a child abuse investigation unit (CAIU) who are responsible for deciding if a crime has been committed and if so then investigation is to take place, they will gather any evidence from a child’s social care and any other persons and agencies involved, they can take emergency action if children are in any immediate danger, they can also attend court to provide any evidence needed.
Schools will monitor all children and flag up any kind of abuse, for example a child’s poor attendance; the school will work closely with other professionals and will provide any evidence when needed, this also applies to school nurses who may examine a child for example head lice they might notice patches of hair missing from a child’s scalp or burns to the scalp, the nurse will then share the information with the school’s designated safeguarding officer.
