Effective Multi‐agency Partnerships: Putting Every Child Matters into Practice

Citation

Henderson, K. (2010), "Effective Multi‐agency Partnerships: Putting Every Child Matters into Practice", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 261-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231011027888

In 2003, Every Child Matters was developed in England after the plea for adequate and complete services for students' birth to age 19 became of some concern. After careful review, the Children Act 2004 became law. Later, the official legislation was named Every Child Matters, which is the Government's approach to the wellbeing of students. The outcomes of the Every Child Matters program are to give all children the support they need to: be healthy, stay safe, enjoy, make a positive contribution and achieve economic wellbeing.

Rita Cheminais is a leading expert in special education services and mainstreaming students across the age span in a variety of educational settings. With a background in teaching, service coordination, and advisement, Cheminais has been in the field of education for over 30 years. She has facilitated workshops and seminars on Every Child Matters. Cheminais has written several books on Every Child Matters to help guide the coordination for direct service providers, agencies working with students and inclusion. Cheminais' practical guidebooks for using Every Child Matters have been very instrumental to service providers, and Effective Multi‐agency Partnerships: Putting Every Child Matters into Practice is not any different (Cheminais, 2009). Cheminais provides multiple agency services with various suggestions of how to form partnerships. Prior to the re‐construction of special education services, many services just co‐existed, providing services to students without collaboration from the service providers.

After Cheminais presents the definitions and examples of partnerships between multiple agencies, it is easy to recognize the type of relationship an agency currently has with other agencies and the type of relationship that agency should be having. Once the existing relationship is identified, it is simple to find the resources to help cultivate that relationship. The key players working with the student are identified and a framework for executing the services is established through an in‐service with the multiple agencies working with the student. Service providers can consist of small groups to larger groups depending on the needs of the student. In chapter 1 Cheminais outlines a functional framework for multiple agencies to follow. Multiple agencies will agree to a common purpose, identify the roles of the support providers and write suitable goals as a team. Agencies will develop the essentials for proper protocol, procedures, and assessment for students.

Cheminais further outlines the benefits and challenges to using Every Child Matters in Chapter 2. Through the use of research from many surveys the author discusses the challenges and benefits to using Every Child Matters. I appreciate that she does not paint a rosy picture of multiple agency collaborating together. Agencies working together face challenges, but the process can be streamlined, if everyone openly discusses procedures and brainstorms ways to provide better service together. There is a printable grid (see page 29) to help address needs that should be met for the program to be a success including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. According to Cheminais when an organization has discussed forces that contribute to the success of the agency, it is time to outline the roles that every individual brings to the process. A Personal Profile for Multi‐agency Practitioners is included (see page 35) that can be extremely useful. The reproducible worksheet helps practitioners outline their individual strengths and challenges for working with children and young people. It is important to understand the expertise of each key player in the students' progress toward outcomes and where other professionals can assist with one another.

Chapter 3 provides clear objective suggestions for agencies to follow while entering into joint agreements with other organizations. Cheminais includes numerous printable and downloadable surveys and checklists to help facilitate the collaboration process for organizations. This chapter dives into how to best manage and resolve conflicts between service providers and agencies. In Table 3.1 (p. 48), Cheminais looks at barriers to achieving cohesion with other organizations which she refers to as Conflict management strategies. These include: Forcing, Accommodating, Avoiding, Compromising, and Collaborating. In this section she describes the possible conflict strategy, the features of the strategy and the application of alleviating the conflict. This section is particularly useful for service providers and administrators working with multiple agencies whom are new to the process of working together as a team. She discusses various models of change, presents research for conflict management through Fullan's model, Kotter's model and NRT model (see p. 49). This chapter also provides additional downloadable and printable materials to survey staff about their readiness for the ongoing process of collaboration.

Chapter 4 focuses on the Team around the Child. Not only the support providers are included in the team but the parents, caregivers and the student are also included. The author examines the importance of everyone's role toward the outcomes and the maintenance of a healthy program for the student. Everyone has an opportunity to evaluate their role as a team player and the roles of other's on team. Based on Cheminais' assertion (p. 82), it is important to “understand the way that other agencies operate” and that “team players should have a clear focus on the impact of support and interventions on improving Every Child Matters' outcomes”. There are many support materials provided in this chapter for team players.

Features of good practice are a consistent theme throughout this book. In Chapter 5, Cheminais explores more about successful multi‐agency partnerships working together. She combines research from many sources to identify the essential key factors to successful multiple agencies working together. There are many key factors to success, including (pp. 88‐9) good leadership, joint funding, which ideally leads to equal resource distribution and supportive and committed management of staff. Strategies for building better practices are examined as well as numerous activities and services for organizations. The worksheet provided can be beneficial to other members of the team to have a better understanding of orchestrated services.

According to Cheminais, every program should have an evaluation process to assess the impact and outcomes of multiple agency partnerships working together. Agencies working together have to meet the five outcomes. Cheminais equips the reader with a diagram that clearly outlines the outcome, the aims of the outcome, The Office for Standards in Education expectations and the Government Every Child Matters targets. Additionally, the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services that outlines standard goals, standard descriptors and main themes in the standard are examined (see Table 6.2, p. 112). Countless assessments for evaluating multiple agency programs are provided throughout, from simple surveys that require checking boxes to more detailed short answer assessments.

As an integral component to this well‐organized book, each chapter includes a review section to help further ones knowledge of Every Child Matters. Each review includes: Points to remember from the chapter, as well as Further activities that can be completed during staff in‐services and Further information. The Further information section is packed with web sites for additional information and downloadable resources on chapter topics. Cheminais also provides additional downloadable materials for this book at the publication web site.

In summary, I believe that Effective Multi‐agency Partnerships: Putting Every Child Matters into Practice is a useful resource for any service provider or school and/or district administrator working with children and young people. Not only has Cheminais written a realistic guide to supporting students in any educational setting but she also provides useful materials for service providers. This is a practical guide with realistic expectations and outcomes for multiple agencies working together. Every Child Matters is held in the utmost importance through every chapter of this book.