Integrated Working

Every Child Matters: Change for Children is about delivering better outcomes for children and young people.   In order to do this, a vast range of organisations - hospitals, schools, police, education, social care, voluntary groups and so on - are teaming up in new ways, sharing information and working together, to protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve their maximum potential.

What this means is that every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, should have the support they need to:

• be healthy  - enjoy good physical and mental health and live a healthy lifestyle
• stay safe - be protected from harm and neglect
• enjoy and achieve - get the most out of life and develop the skills for adulthood
• make a positive contribution - be involved with their community and society and not engage in anti-social or offending behaviour
• achieve economic wellbeing - be able to reach their full potential in life.

The changes to the way these services are delivered came about as a result of the findings of the Victoria Climbié enquiry.  Eight year old Victoria died in 2000, following abuse and neglect by those entrusted with her care.  To prevent this kind of tragedy happening again, local authorities must now take a more 'joined up' approach when delivering services for children and young people. Working together and sharing information with partner agencies will make it easier for professionals to identify families' needs and provide the support they require at a much earlier stage to prevent more serious issues from developing.

This multi-agency approach to meeting the needs of children and young people and their families has to be supported by common processes, tools and language to meet those needs in the best possible way.  We've created the Integrated Working Toolkit to give practitioners access to many of the tools that support integrated working.

Making It Happen (revised Spring 2007 version) is a DfES booklet that aims to support the development and implementation of more effective frontline integrated working practice across the children's workforce. It is helping to raise awareness of the tools and guidance available and shows how the separate initiatives work together to support effective practice for everyone who works with children and young people. 

The integrated working area of the website contains information about how these processes, shown in the diagram, link together.  Through these pages, we will keep you abreast of progress and future developments around integrated working and information sharing.

If you have a query about the information on these pages, please call the Integrated Working Project Manager  or Integrated Working Project Officer on 01226 775691 or 775692.

Useful documents

• Safeguarding and Integrated Working Factsheet

Useful links

• ECM - Integrated Working
• ECM - Common Assessment Framework
• ECM - Information Sharing