Two articles in the publication Children Now caught my attention. Both are written by Daniel Martin and both focus on children’s services. In the first article (31 August 2004) a survey by the journal “…revealed overwhelming concern among councils that some schools were hampering the partnership agenda”.

The survey goes onto highlight concerns expressed “…that the Government won't impose a duty on GPs to promote the interests of looked-after children.” The report found that a third of councils surveyed did not plan to set up children’s trusts until 2008, though the Government wants them in place by 2006. The survey also revealed that “…14 per cent do not plan to integrate education and children's services at all and will only do the minimum and appoint a children's services director”. The Government’s response to these issues is to distribute “tough new guidance to ensure schools work with social services”.

This week (19 October 2004) the same journal highlighted research undertaken by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) which “…reveals that one in four councils do not expect to have appointed a director of children's services by the Bill's main deadline of 2006”. In this case many councils appear to be “… hanging back from implementing the Children Bill until the results of pilots have been analysed...”.

Perhaps none of this will be of surprise to any person working in children’s services, more particularly the idea that councils are still waiting for yet more pilot schemes to be analysed before they change. This appears to leave staff in a professional state of flux and confusion with limited direction and leadership. Leadership is about vision and direction. In this position staff concentrate on the here and now, remaining in their narrow arenas, avoiding looking outwards and thereby avoiding the big picture. The Laming report highlighted the importance of managers seeing the wider picture to ensure a connectedness in response.

Working in partnership is one of the essential mantras of child protection since the Children Act came into being. None of us would disagree with the intent : where the difficulty comes is in the delivery. The tough new guidance needs to take the issue back to basics and recognise that working in partnership is not something that happens overnight.

It is not something that requires us merely to work alongside another professional, nor is it just about attending a one-off training event. It is something that grows, develops and needs to be continuously revisited. Particularly relevant in this part is the need to recognize that communication between agencies is not merely about verbal interaction between two parties. It must ensure that the person who receives the message understand our meaning. So often people assume that there is a consensus about issues such as risk – what does this mean when the focuses of professionals are different? Teachers are paid to teach, nurses to nurse and social workers to protect children. Each professional may have a different measure and level of understanding of an issue that can lead either to confusion or to a change of direction.

Putting in place new structures and teams is one thing, working together in multi-disciplinary teams is quite another matter.

Christopher Durkin is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at
University College Northampton