Working together - making it work
Research in Practice have conducted some research into multi-professional working. Their article Multi-professional working: distinct professional identities in multi-professional teams looks at multi-professional working largely in the context of Childrens’ services, and their work with particular groups of children and young people.
The article looks at recent and current trends and practices in developing and delivering joined up working, and identifies some of the main characteristics of the ‘new professional practice’ including:
*a focus on young people and children as whole people and not focussing on specific needs, and
*an understanding of what other practitioners are able to offer a responsive package of protection built around the child or young person.
From the point of view of working at NDCS within my team, I can only see these as good characteristics to emerge and be developed over time. Focussing our work on the child and family, to benefit the child, is where we are heading (if you want to read more about NDCS’s mission, vision and values, go to the ndcs website).
However, joint up working is not always straight forward. The Research in Practice article highlights some of the barriers to successful multi-professional working, but also identifies enabling factors, and effective management of multi-agency working. I think this could be a really useful article for many charities, organisations and services to have a look at and see how the suggestions in it sit alongside their current practices. We all know that working together should ultimately benefit our beneficiaries and service users, but it also has to work for us.
If you get the chance to read this article, let me know what you think by leaving a comment here.
