About integrated services
The key feature of an integrated service is that it acts as a service hub for the community by bringing together a range of services, usually under one roof, whose practitioners then work in a multi-agency way to deliver integrated support to children and families.
- It is made up of a range of services who share a common location and a
common philosophy, vision and agreed principles for working with children and
families.
- It is a visible 'service hub' for the community, with a perception
by users of cohesive and comprehensive services.
- It has a management structure which facilitates integrated working.
- There is a commitment by partner providers to fund and facilitate
integrated services.
- It is usually delivered from a school or early years setting.
- Staff work in a coordinated way to address the needs of children, young
people and families using the service. This is likely to include some degree of
joint training and joint working, perhaps in smaller multi-agency teams.
- Service level agreements will set out the precise relationship between the
home agency and the multi-agency service, including the basis on which staff
are employed.
- The manager may be a member of the school or early years setting (for
example a headteacher) or they may be recruited externally.
- Services may include:
- access to high-quality, all-year-round, inclusive education, care and personal development opportunities for children and young people
- multi-agency teams to provide specialist advice and guidance to children, young people and families on aspects of health, social welfare and employment
- outreach services to support local families with additional needs
- a family support programme to involve and engage parents and carers in their children's learning and in the day to day life of the service
- a framework of training for adults providing a range of informal and accredited courses
- a framework of training strategies for practitioners.
| Benefits and opportunities | Challenges |
|
Opportunity to address full range of issues around children's health and well-being in a non-stigmatising universal setting. Knock-on benefits for educational standards. Greater co-working and cross-fertilisation of skills between agencies. Opportunities for joint training. Shared base enhances communication between different services. Members are still linked in to what is going on in their home agency. Members likely to have access to training and personal development in their home agency. |
Requires fresh thinking around the concept of the school or early years setting and their purpose in the community. How to bring a range of partners and the whole school community on board through 'collaborative leadership'. Developing a sense of joint purpose so that practitioners identify more with the new service than their role in their home agency. Managing any issues around pay and conditions for staff doing joint work at different levels of pay. |
Opportunities for delivering integrated services are arising from two key developments:
Click on the links above for more on these services, or click to go to the practitioners' toolkit or the managers' toolkit.
This page was last updated on 29 June 2005
