J is for Joint Working – the antidote to benevolent chaos

There is much talk about the need for joint working in support of children who are vulnerable or who have disabilities and special needs. In the babies, children and young people who are the primary concern of Interconnections Quarterly Journal, any lack of appropriate joint working has direct consequences for the children themselves and for their families – many of whom have had to put up with uncoordinated services characterised by fragmentation and, what Penny Lacey has termed, benevolent chaos.

Such unsatisfactory service provision is benevolent because individual practitioners around the child and family are well-motivated and professional. But the overall result can be chaotic from the family's point of view when each practitioner and each service act independently of the others. 

While the call goes out repeatedly for more joint working, UK practitioners in this field only rarely cover joint working in their professional training and, when in work, might not be given guidance in what joint working is and how to do it. This alphabet piece is intended as a straightforward account of joint working in support of babies, children and young people who have disabilities and special needs. 

See the full article by Peter Limbrick here: http://www.teamaroundthechild.com/images/stories/journal-pdfs/jforjoint10.pdf