Joined-up thinking around children in Birmingham UK. What went so badly wrong?

'Multi-agency groups have not worked because individual professional groups see them as groups of other individuals – all trained differently, who do not understand each other's point of view because they are all, individually, right. 

'And everyone else is therefore wrong. This is both a political and organisational dilemma because individuals will have to give up their own power to enable the services that provide for children to succeed. There is an established hierarchy across any group of professionals and this is more true in Birmingham than anywhere else I have worked. 

'And in my view, the best example of the failure of joined-up thinking was the creation of the children's services division – the original amalgamation of educational and social services in a city so large that each area, division and pocket of professionals felt they could act autonomously from the centre in whatever direction they were pointed. 

It was an attractive ideal – it just hasn't worked.' 

This is an extract from a piece by a highly experienced child psychologist, Charlie Mead writing for Special Needs Jungle. 

Read the full article here