Multi-agency/partner working
Protecting vulnerable children is not the sole responsibility of any one professional. Learning the roles and responsibilities of your multi-agency partners is critical for the best outcomes for children and young people.
Below are the competencies relevant to multi-agency/partner working – please refer to the level 4 competencies in the intercollegiate document (2025) for more information.
Core
- facilitate and contribute (at the appropriate leadership level) to own organisation’s quality assurance activities and multi-agency meetings for effective safeguarding of children and young people and services for children and young people in care; this will involve multi-agency work and recognises the importance of individual organisation and service contribution, and also will include internal governance, learning events, statutory reviews, and inspections
- work effectively and collaboratively with safeguarding children and young people teams, children and young people in care teams, and partners in other agencies, to conduct safeguarding and children and young people in care training needs analysis
- work effectively with multi-agency colleagues
Additional – safeguarding
- support partnership working with social care and offer constructive challenge where safeguarding needs are not being met
- support transitional safeguarding where appropriate, working collaboratively with colleagues in adult safeguarding
Additional – children in care
- support adequate service development and liaison with other health teams
- act as a key conduit and contact for social workers, key workers at residential units, families, and local authority/council/health and social care trusts, where there are challenges accessing health services
- possess the ability to support networks of carers and families to deliver appropriate care and support, offering constructive challenge where health needs are not being met
- liaise with other agencies and escalate as needed regarding the health management of individual children and young people in care
- work effectively with multi-agency colleagues to support young people leaving care or transitioning to adult services
Suggested activities
- Experiential learning and on-the-job practice
- Regular participation in multi-agency forums
- Formal training and structured learning
- Strategic and policy-level engagement
- Communication, advocacy and influence
- Reflective practice and CPD
Examples from experience
There are various multi-agency meetings that you could ask to observe to gain better awareness of how partnership working is enabled. These include:
- Interagency Referral Discussions (IRDs) – find out from your local health child protection team if there is a IRD operational group you can attend
- Strategy discussions/child protection planning meetings (CPPMs)
- Child protection conferences
- Core group meetings
- Safeguarding partnership board meetings
- Local safeguarding practice review meetings
- Operational groups on neglect, exploitation, contextual safeguarding etc
- Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) meeting – this will help understanding of roles of different professionals in the context of Dometic Abuse.
In Scotland, learn more about Bairns Hoose and how their standards pertain to your health board. If there are operational meetings, this is an excellent opportunity to get involved/gain insight to widespread multi-agency working with partners such as social work, police, education, third sector, housing.
In addition, NSPCC provides a good foundation for understanding multi-agency working.