Dissertation: The Impact of Multi-Agency Working on Safeguarding Children

The Impact of Multi-Agency Working on Safeguarding Children

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The Impact of Multi-Agency Working on Safeguarding Children

Introduction

Multi-agency working was developed in the mid-nineteenth century by the health and social services with an aim to work together in reducing poverty. However, in the later years, through the Children Act, 1989 establishment of statutory requirements focused on ensuring inter-agency collaboration and joint working. This required the professionals to work better in relation to children and young people. Despite the new act, information sharing across agencies, identification of needs and subsequent provision, poor integration of activities, and unclear accountability still existed (O'Loughlin & O'Loughlin, 2016). The identified factors were later addressed in the Children Act 2004 which focused on improving the well-being of children and the outcome of young people.

The paper is aimed at determining the impact of Multi-Agency Working on the aspect of safeguarding children. The protection provided focuses on the abuse and neglect of children and also on the adverse consequences that are associated with abuse. The impact focuses on a different aspect that includes the safety of the children, the impact on the individual professionals, and also on the agencies that are working with the authorities (Hood, Gillespie, & Davies, 2016). Conducting a critical analysis of the impact on the key areas enables the establishment of the benefits and disadvantages that are involved and, in the process, determines the most effective action to be undertaken.

Working Together

Safeguarding Approaches

In order to ensure that the agencies and organizations can work together, there are several factors that should be taken into consideration. This action helps in increasing the ability to effectively safeguard and achieve the main goal of ensuring that children are protected against any abuse and mistreatment. Starting with a child-centered approach, this plays a key role in ensuring that the welfare of every child is safeguarded. This is done through including their lives in the event of decision-making and ensuring that practitioners work in partnership with them and their families. Furthermore, this encourages the involved parties to follow the requirements of the Children's Acts of 1989 and 2004 (Gray, 2017). In addition, the approach ensures that children are not vulnerable to neglect and abuse in their day-to-day lives from their close relatives or individuals that they come across.

Focusing on the major threats that children face, different forms can be included ranging from sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, exploitation by criminal gangs, neglect, trafficking, or even influences of extremism and radicalization (Clarke, & Wydall, 2015). Practitioners need to prioritize children's needs in the event of determining the most appropriate action to be taken. In the event of decision-making, individuals working with children need to ensure that they can speak with them and listen to their views (O'Loughlin & O'Loughlin, 2016). Adding to the ability to shape and support individual children's needs, practitioners should also be in a position to ensure that the local organizations and agencies have a clear understanding of the generalized needs in the event of implementing effective services.

The second approach that should be utilized is safeguarding everyone’s responsibility through a coordinated interaction. Through engaging in this perspective, it will enable each agency to have a clear picture of the child’s needs by exploiting different aspects. To achieve this goal, it is required that every organization that comes into contact with the children has the responsibility to identify their needs and concerns, share the information obtained, and take the necessary action (Horwath & Tarr, 2015). Effective collaboration between agencies, organizations, and practitioners enhances the chances of ensuring that children are kept safe and protected from any form of negligence or abuse. It is important to ensure that the arrangements are developed and promoted at the local level before implementing them as they are involved in the overseeing of the quality of social work.

Need Assessment and Help Provision

Early help provision enhances the effectiveness of promoting children's safety and welfare as compared to later actions. Providing early help enables quick problem-solving and prevents further problems from arising in the process ensuring the safety of the children affected. Achieving this requires the agencies to work together to have better chances of identifying children and families that are in need of early help (Calder & Hackett, 2017). Moreover, multi-agency working enables assessment of the need for early help and improves the outcome as the help services are in a position to address the assessed needs. It is the local authorities’ responsibility to ensure inter-agency cooperation that is aimed at improving the welfare of the children.

In the identification of children and families that are in need of early help, multi-agency working provides a clear understanding of their needs and develops better help services. This is possible as all practitioners are in a position to understand the role they play in the identification of the emerging problems due to information sharing that enables early assessment and identification of children in need of help (O'Loughlin & O'Loughlin, 2016). Engaging in multi-agency training, there is a high chance of achieving a collective understanding of the local needs of the children. Working together shows their responsibility in the identification of the symptoms that encourage abuse or neglect and the ability to share the information obtained provides the children with the help needed. In support of this approach, it is important to develop more skills and knowledge in this area to determine the emerging trend in child abuse and neglect. From the research, better approaches can be implemented through effective evaluation and monitoring of the safeguarding training.

Regarding effective assessment for children who are in need of early help, multi-agency working provides a better chance through coordinated support. This is possible due to the ability to share information across all aspects including education, health, housing, and police enabling practitioners to take the necessary action based on the evidence obtained. Assessments are undertaken by a lead practitioner who provides help to the affected child, acts as an advocate, and helps in the coordination of the delivery of the support needed. The effectiveness of early help assessment depends on the proper agreement between the child, family, and practitioners that are involved where the child’s wishes and feelings are taken into account (Gray, 2017). However, in cases where consent is not obtained, it is the multi-agency's role to ensure that the needs of the child are met as provided by the Children Act 1989 or make a referral immediately to children’s care in the relevant local authority.  

In the event of accessing the help and services, in a case where the need of the child is relatively low, there is a better chance that individual or universal services can take action. However, if the needs are more complex, the provision of help may be guided by the Children Act 1989 which requires the local authorities to make inquiries and decisions in regard to actions that should be undertaken (Cleaver et al., 2019). Through engaging in multi-agency working, it is possible to develop clear criteria that are utilized across different organizations and agencies that are working with children and families. A uniform approach enables better action in the process to ensure that the needs of the children are assessed properly. Proper assessment enhances the chances of effective service commissioning leading to the right help being given at the right time to the child in need.

The proper safeguarding of the children requires the relevant agencies to agree on the assessment and services that require commissioning and delivery. In this case, the major focus is on children who are likely to suffer abuse, and neglect, or those who are already exposed to the abuse and neglect. Abuse and neglect can be presented by family members from external threats such as terrorists (Curnin, Owen, Paton, Trist & Parsons, 2015). By working together, Multi-agencies need to develop and publish threshold guidelines for relevant action in a manner that is transparent, easily understood, and accessible (Frost, 2017). The main requirements that should be included in the guidelines are the process to be engaged in early help assessment, the criteria and level of need in the event the case should be referred to local authority children’s social care, and clear procedures and processes to be utilized in different needs.

The Impact of Multi-Agency Working on Children

In determining the impact of multi-agency working on safeguarding children, the impacts identified focused on three major areas that include; the quality of services, direct outcomes for children and their families, and the prevention of abuse or negligence. In regard to the areas identified, engaging in multi-agency working provides a better chance to improve the access to services needed. Though working together in many cases enabled better delivery of services that were initially unavailable to the children (Hood, Gillespie & Davies, 2016). For example, focusing on a mental health situation, schools, and social services are now in a position to access mental services in mental health facilities for children who are in need of the same. These services were not available before multi-agency working.

Multi-agency working increases availability and easier access to services for children in need since the professionals can understand better the systems of other agencies and organizations (Barton, 2018). Knowing who to contact, provides a better chance of increasing the speed of operation and in the process increasing access to services. This also raised awareness on what is offered by other agencies thus improving the relationships and how they meet the needs of the children. In regard to access, the developed relationship enabled multi-agency consultation and training and from this approach, more children were in a position to access the required services (Trotman & Tucker, 2018). In an example that enabled better services speech and language therapists worked alongside teachers and in the process enabled better determination of the developmental needs of the children.

Improved services to the affected children were also a result of multi-agency working due to the increased direct outcomes. A major aspect focused on included improved education and better ways to ensure that children remained in school. To achieve this goal, multi-agency work provides a more holistic approach that addresses children's needs (Barton, 2018). Moreover, the contribution from other agencies with educational professionals ensures proper emphasis in regard to education. In the process, it ensures that children can receive better education thus impacting their behavior, self-esteem, motivation, and confidence.

Joint working also ensures that there is early identification of the needs and intervention as it presents a key feature in the decision-making process. Working together leads to a coordinated approach that enables early flagging of needs and in the process addressing them more appropriately. This benefits children and agencies involved in that their problems are identified early enough before they become more difficult to address (Holmes & McDermid, 2016). Through multi-agency working, more services could be provided within the country during the intervention process leading to reduced costs. This involved the increased pressure that it puts on the local services with an aim to meet and respond to the children's needs. The approach plays a key role in improving the local specialist skills enabling them to meet complex needs. In addition, the initiative allows for focused assessment leading to the development of varied local provisions for children that are in need of safeguarding.

Similarly, multi-agency working enables a more coordinated approach among the relevant agencies as research indicates that no one agency is in a position to address all the needs. By engaging with other organizations, the children's needs could be fully addressed due to the different perspectives that are obtained especially on complex needs that require engaging with different groups. From this perspective, professionals believe that the children's needs are in a position to be addressed appropriately as it improves the quality of the services provided. Furthermore, the support that multi-agency provides to the children and parents plays an important role in supporting them (Trotman & Tucker, 2018). The support focused more especially on the stigma that is associated with a single agency. Engaging in multi-agency showed increased satisfaction to the parents as compared to the case where services were provided by a single agency or organization.

Multi-Agency Working Impact on the Agencies

Determining the impact presented by multi-agency working on the agencies involved, enabled the development of a broad perspective and improved understanding of other agencies. Through working together, relationships are improved and in the process enabling shared responsibility. Moreover, multi-agency working increases the area of work, raises the profile, increases workload, and also improves agency practices (Dobson et al., 2018). Engaging in multiagency initiatives enabled the development of new perspectives as it enhanced individual thinking and broadened the scope of work. Working together also enabled professionals to understand that meeting and safeguarding the children, involves achieving several aspects and not only their education. This is the process that led to a broader approach in regard to the social perspective and education in meeting a given child’s needs.

Secondly, having an improved understanding and knowledge in regard to other agencies enhances understanding of the issues involved. Due to improved understanding of other agencies, it provides a better approach to securing more educational provision for the children hence saving time. In addition, working together encourages understanding of the roles of different agencies and the problems that they may face in meeting the needs encouraging more realistic expectations (Hughes-Morley, Clarke & MacBryde, 2016). More importantly, having a better knowledge of a given agency's role allows for a better professional approach to meeting the child’s needs by allowing relevant professionals to handle given situations.  

Engaging in multi-agency working helps improve access to more services by gaining more skills and expertise in relation to child abuse and neglect. To achieve this need, professionals engage in multi-agency training and consultation enabling increased access to children's and parent’s needs. The increased ability in decision-making ensures early assessment of the problems affecting children and the development of better strategies to safeguard children (Dobson et al., 2018). Similarly, multi-agency work enhances the development of agency profiles due to the increased ability to address difficult situations.    

Besides, in the event of information sharing, agencies have the ability to improve their planning, especially on the strategies they utilize in safeguarding children. Through information sharing, multi-agency working presents a broader view of problems in the process increasing the chances for effective intervention. This action also portrayed a good example for other organizations to follow (Ashley, Armitage & Taylor, 2017). Other impacts associated with multi-agency working is the adoption of honest discussions with other agencies leading to a shared responsibility between the agencies involved. From this perspective, a coordinated approach increases problem identification and intervention that is aimed at safeguarding children. Moreover, working together increases the ability of the agencies to improve service delivery and achieve the set targets and goals.   

Impact of Multi-Agency Working on General Activity

Focusing on the general impact of multi-agency working with an aim to safeguard children, studies indicate that initiatives developed can be applied in different areas. This process increases the chances of identifying a wide range of abuse or neglect significantly reducing the assessment time required. Earlier identification of problems affecting children enhances strategy development that is aimed at safeguarding them from the associated effects (Walker, 2018). From this approach, agencies were able to determine how they develop better strategies to dress children abuse and neglect as compared to when they work singly.

Working together provides a better chance of overcoming challenges as the agencies are able to exploit their relevant strengths to the maximum. Evidently, there is a high chance of reducing the cost of operation as multi-agency working encourages cost-sharing (Wilson et all., 2018). In the event of successful projects, this helped in motivating other organizations involved and in the process encouraged others to engage in multi-agency working. Multi-agency working also proved to increase inter-agency relationships as it has a great influence on the agencies involved (Ashley, Armitage, & Taylor, 2017). Studies indicate that the relationships developed enhanced for the better as they increased the chances of safeguarding the children (Curnin, Owen, Paton, Trist, & Parsons, 2015). Trust development that was established encouraged information sharing that led to increased identification of problems affecting children.

Impact of Multi-Agency Working on Individual Professionals

In safeguarding children, multi-agency working enabled individual professionals to develop their understanding of how other agencies worked in the event of solving the problems presented. Other impacts that multi-agency working presented on professionals include enhanced working relationships, individual experiences, and career development. Starting with individual experience, multi-agency working has a great impact on professionals as it increases the workload they engage in (Jasper et al., 2016). This, however, provides a better chance of developing one’s experience on how to engage in multi-agency working and safeguarding children who are faced with abuse and neglect. Furthermore, the initiatives that were used in the event of organizations and agencies working together enhance a more holistic view of different issues enabling those individuals to see the bigger picture.

The experience gained helps the professionals to develop new approaches and strategies that are aimed at ensuring proper service delivery to affected children. Studies indicate that professionals with a broad perspective enable them to address a wider range of children’s needs (Wilson et al., 2018). Similarly, multi-agency working helped those professionals to be in a position to know the different policies, practices, and systems that other agencies engaged in. For example, the knowledge in regard to referral procedures enabled easy access to help from other agencies to be more effective. In addition, agencies working together enabled professionals to know what can be offered by given agencies for quick referrals.

Focusing on the decision-making process, and engaging in multi-agency work enhanced the ability of decision-making as it encouraged a coordinated approach. Through increased face-to-face contact with professionals from the other agencies, individuals get to know each other and in the process develop a mutual understanding that helps in reducing the barriers that exist between organizations. Additionally, in some cases, mutual understanding encourages the incorporation of new ideas that help safeguard children from neglect or abuse (Walker, 2018). Meeting with other professionals reinforces multi-agency working and safeguarding children as it provides an opportunity to discuss the issues that are affecting them and determine the best approaches to solve them.   

In regard to knowledge acquisition, multi-agency working enables individuals to increase their knowledge as there is increased awareness of the issues about safeguarding children. By continually working together, professionals have the ability to gain more insight into the issues that are concerned with children and young people's safety against any abuse or rejection (Clarke, & Wydall, 2015). Some of the major topics involved in educational development include mental health, topics related to kidnapping, and topics associated with speech and language development (Jasper et al., 2016). The issues established are thus better handled through engaging in joint working that allows for information sharing and the development of more insights that are aimed at providing better services to children in need.

Moreover, other factors that are as a result of multi-agency working on the professionals include the reinforced belief in multi-agency working, the exposure gained and different approaches learned that involve different areas of work and the feeling of empowerment (Curnin, Owen, Paton, Trist & Parsons, 2015). From this perspective, it is evident that some individuals termed multi-agency working as a way to liberation from the constraints represented by working singly (Alfandari, 2019). However, it is important to note that despite the benefits presented by multi-agency working, at some point some professionals challenge the working practices utilized by other agencies.  

Major Challenges Affecting Multi-Agency Working

Although safeguarding children’s needs is key in multi-agency working, several challenges are involved in achieving the same. The first challenge identified is the financial resources which led to the identification of three concerns including the general lack of funding, concerns about sustainability, and conflicts between agencies or within a given agency. In regard to the general lack of funding, multi-agency working lacked enough funds for the implementation of the required services, and in the event, the funds were provided, they were presented with strings attached (Wilson et al., 2018). Other financial resources that present challenges in multi-agency working include conflicts related to the operational costs in both areas within agencies and between agencies working together. Additionally, more financial challenges were presented by the lack of sustainability due to lack of resources.

The second multi-agency challenge faced focused on the roles and responsibilities that those agencies adopted with an aim to safeguard children against abuse. Some of the key areas involved understanding the role that other individual from different agencies played in achieving the stated goals, the conflicts that existed in regard to responsibility, and moving beyond the existing roles (Lloyd, 2018). Starting with understanding the roles that each agency played, it was evident that this presented a major challenge as the initiatives utilized different strategies to ensure service delivery. It is also evident that multi-agency working presents a conflict pertaining to the area of responsibility especially in terms of consultation and training (Vincent & Petch, 2017). From this perspective, the different policies that are presented by each agency present difficulties in the decision-making process hence affecting the assessment process. Moreover, multi-agency working never presented distinct boundaries in regard to the existing roles in the process presenting a challenge to the employees as it presented difficulties in the decision-making process.

The third challenge presented by agencies working together is the competition in achieving their priorities. Organizations or agencies have their own initiatives that each classifies as an operational-team delivery and this presents a conflicting objective to be met. Each agency prioritizes its project and in the process poses a challenge in the event of multi-agency working. For example in safeguarding children against abuse and neglect, different organizations focus on different aspects of child abuse and when they decide to work together each organization will want its objective to be met first (Curnin et al., 2015). As a way to resolve the tension, initiatives developed may aim at ensuring that most of the project terms can meet the majority of the aspects that are presented. However, it should be noted that not only agency priorities lead to tensions but also different governmental targets that involve multi-agency work that is in line with individual agency targets.

The fourth challenge affecting successful multi-agency working is the lack of proper communication within an organization and between different organizations. Communications, in this case, include those that determine the general initiatives and objectives to be provided and those that are concerned with the daily routine. Major challenges involved in multi-agency work include interpretation problems that depend on the operational area (Tatham, Spens, & Kovács, 2017). Depending on the local area of operation, different perceptions and interpretations could be obtained leading to several inter and intra-agency problems.

Similarly, multi-agency working has an effect on the existing agency cultures that involve the strategic approaches that are utilized. Engaging with different agencies requires those participants to get involved with varied systems and values that may be different from those in their own agencies. In the event of different priorities, budgets, roles, and responsibilities, the perception in regard to safeguarding children may be misinterpreted (Lewis et al., 2017). In regard to policies and procedures that are deployed, these differences also portray a major challenge for individuals working in multi-agency environments. Due to the differences in principles of operation, sometimes unrealistic expectations from other agencies are forecasted. On the same note, different policies have an issue with confidentiality and in the process can lead to ineffective multi-agency working.

Furthermore, engaging in multi-agency work in safeguarding children’s needs may present a major challenge on the issue of time. Since the needs should be determined early enough to ensure quick service delivery, multi-agency working presents overlapping responsibilities with a limited time to meet them. This process involves a lot of time to come up with a decision on the initiatives to be utilized similarly delaying assessments of the problems that children are facing (Curnin et al., 2015). Other non-fiscal resource challenges that are associated with agencies working together include staff compatibility. In this case, research indicates that in some of the strategies that are used by different agencies, there is a possibility that some of the professionals may not be in the capacity to work effectively with their counterparts from the other agencies.

Additionally, other challenges that were evident in multi-agency working include staff training, data collection and sharing, geographical factors, and different aspects in regard to child abuse and neglect. Focusing on these challenges, data collection, and sharing, different assessment tools were used by different agencies in obtaining similar information (Calder & Horwath, 2018). On the issue of information sharing, this presented a challenge in regard to ethical principles and actual mechanics such as the kind of computer systems used or software. Focusing on staff training, multi-agency working presented new ways of working that in the long run required more training and this proved to be a challenge to those who were already involved. For the challenges presented by geographical location major focus was on the coordination between the teams and on client group, challenges were aimed at the initiatives and need to be met.

Significant Factors for Multi-Agency Working

Effective multi-agency working in safeguarding children’s needs engages in a number of factors and skills. To establish better assessments of the issues that are affecting the safety of the children and their specific needs, professionals involved are required to commit to the tasks appointed. A proper understanding of the roles and responsibilities assigned helps in enhancing the decision-making process in regard to initiatives that are center-based (Thompson, 2016). Individuals that are focused on safeguarding children from abuse and neglect, need to engage in the operational commitment that sometimes may lead to sacrificing individual needs for the safety of the children.

The development of common objectives and aims between agencies plays a key role in ensuring early and proper assessment of children’s needs. In the event that multi-agency working engages in similar strategies, it provides a better chance of assessing specific needs that children require for their safety and welfare. Safeguarding children covers a wide range of contexts starting from abuse or neglect from families and also from exploitation or abuse from other members of the general community (Sullivan & Skelcher, 2017). Threats can be in different forms ranging from criminal gangs, trafficking, sexual exploitation, and radicalization from extremist groups among others. Engaging in a shared priority enhances the initiative of child safety across relevant agencies and by agreeing that priorities would differ between agencies, however, some professionals within agencies can engage towards a common goal.

In regard to communication and information sharing, this play an important factor in achieving better training and consultation that is aimed at improving the chances of safeguarding children. Through proper communication channels, different agencies are in a position to provide opportunities for dialogue between the agencies involved (Roberts, 2018). Moreover, for effective multi-agency working, it was important to ensure that individuals involved have better communication skills and that the channels utilized for information dissemination can take into account all individuals and agencies that are working together (Szilassy et al., 2017). Proper communication skills enable informed assessment that helps in gathering important information about the child and family, analyzing their needs, helping in the decision-making process, and providing the baseline to address the needs identified to ensure their safety.

To ensure that the most relevant personnel are involved in the process of safeguarding the children’s needs, it is important to incorporate different agencies. Different agencies provide different assessment tools enabling a more dynamic approach to determining the child’s needs. It is important to ensure that proper identification of the child is done and information is collected and checked systematically (Kirkland & Baron, 2015). Through engaging in different approaches, there is a better chance of obtaining more information within a short time hence accelerating service delivery to the child in need. The assessment process requires the involvement of the right individuals and this can be achieved through engaging in multi-agency working. However, it is important to note that this depends on the availability of resources and the level of priority given by individual agencies.

In regard to the needs and views of the child, the assessment process should take into consideration the unique characteristics of each child in relation to their family and community. Proper assessment should be in a position to determine relevant information from relevant practitioners and to achieve this, multi-agency working plays a key role. It is also important to utilize information sharing and analyze previous assessments to determine the child’s specific needs (Calder & Hackett, 2017). The analysis conducted from the information gathered should be aimed at providing the necessary guidelines in deciding the nature and level of children's needs and level of risk. In the event of decision making more focus should be on the best interests of the child as no system can fully eliminate the risks that children are faced with.  

Furthermore, having a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities presented by different agencies and professionals enables effective multi-agency working. Through this understanding, safeguarding children can be maximized as it helps organizations and agencies to focus their assessment on the outcomes. This has a major impact on the decision process to determine the kind of services and support that agencies should provide to deliver better services to children in need (Sullivan & Skelcher, 2017). A clear focus on the child’s welfare is determined by the effective supervision of practitioners as they have a direct impact on the decisions that affect the safety of the child and the family. Moreover, a proper understanding of the roles and responsibilities has a major impact on the speed of assessment and the outcomes of the child (Walker, 2018). Proper knowledge of the roles and responsibilities increases the rate of assessment as there are minimal conflicting actions and in the process identification of the child’s needs is more efficient. In addition, it enables individuals to consider different points of view and their priorities hence encouraging them to work together.

Other key factors that are significant in multi-agency working include good working relationships, flexibility, encouraging risk-taking, and the development of interagency procedures for shared working among others. Developing good working relationships helps in case there is action needed such as referring them to other social services (McGregor et al., 2017). Flexibility, on the other hand, helps in the decision-making in regard to the best approaches to be utilized and methods to be deployed in service delivery. Additionally, shared working encourages multi-agency working as it encourages risk-taking by engaging professionals to think and act beyond normal practices. In areas that utilized these initiatives, there was a great deal in determining better approaches that are aimed at safeguarding children in need.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, the paper establishes the impact of multi-agency working and how its activities help in the safeguarding of children. Some of the aspects focused on that affect child safety include child abuse and neglect either by their parents or the community. For the agencies to work together several factors should be taken into consideration such as ensuring that the approaches are safeguarded, the need for working together, and help provision is assessed. Some of the major impacts of multi-agency working discussed include the impact it has on safeguarding children, the impact on different agencies involved, the impact on the general process, and its impact on individual professionals. Additionally, the paper establishes the major challenges that multi-agency working faces and the key factors that play a key role in achieving its main goals and objectives.  

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