Information for Lead Professionals

Families who have a child or children with additional needs meet with a range of agencies and are often faced with the daunting task of telling their stories over and over again. Historically there has been very little opportunity for the co-ordination of services but all of that is changing with increased multi agency working and the evolving role of the Lead Professional.

There seems to be an apprehension, uncertainty or unwillingness by some people to take on the role of lead professional yet many are already doing so and have it formalised at a Common Assessment team around the child meeting. The title and perceived workload can seem daunting but practitioners need to realise that they can do (and probably are doing) the role and have the confidence in their own ability to accept the challenges it may raise. National guidance states that ”Many practitioners in the children and young peoples workforce can be a lead professional at certain times for some of their cases.”(p.23) It makes it clear that anyone within the children and young peoples workforce, may at some time take on the lead professional role. (see orange diagram p.23/24 in the guidance referred to below). More information about the role can be found in “The Team Around the Child (TAC) and the lead professional" (PDF, 2.71MB) CWDC 2009.

Each and every one of us working with children and young people should be prepared to take on the role of lead professional. By spreading the work load across all practitioners, in all agencies, it will save time, use resources more effectively and more importantly enable children young people and their families to receive better services leading to positive outcomes. In some instances a young person or parent/carer may be choose to be the lead professional.

So what does the role entail?

The lead professional contributes to the delivery of integrated frontline services to children, young people and their families by:

• Acting as a single point of contact for the child, young person or their family
• Co-ordinating the delivery of the actions agreed by the practitioners in the multi agency Team Around the Child ( TAC )
• Reducing overlap and inconsistency in the services received

As someone who works closely with the child or young person the lead professional has a trusting relationship with them and their family. The lead professional can engage them in making choices and giving support to obtain the services that will effect change. Clearly this will involve some work and time but effective early interventions will save time at a later date and actually reduce workloads and costs. It may take cultural changes in some organisations for the role of the lead professional to become embedded and to be properly supported. This should include the expectation that line managers will give appropriate supervision and that professional development opportunities are available.  For further information please refer to “The Team Around the Child ( TAC ) and the Lead Professional – a guide for Managers" (PDF, 3.41MB)

What are the qualifications of a lead professional?

A lead professional is usually someone trained to work with children, young people and families. The lead professional does not need any particular qualifications to undertake the role and does not need to be an “expert” in everything.
They will, however, need certain skills such as:

• Organisational skills (for organising meetings/liaising with the family and agencies etc)
• Communication skills and empathy
• The ability to be solution focused
• Some IT capability, etc.

Please refer to “Information Sharing: Guidance for practitioners and managers" (PDF, 719KB), for further information.

What training is required?

If you feel confident in being a lead professional, you may not need to undertake any further training (you can be a lead professional without any extra training). However, we offer a one day Lead Professional training for those who require it –which includes – managing meetings - but this can only be attended by those who have previously attended the one day CAF User training.  Please refer to our CAF Training page for more details.

Who benefits?

For agencies supporting the role of lead professional will bring benefits in appropriate allocation of resources and reductions in costs. Identifying and addressing issues will also lead to staff and customer satisfaction.
 
For a practitioner being a lead professional can be satisfying and rewarding and can lead to a sense of empowerment through the ability to be able to co-ordinate services for a child or young person.

For a child, young person and family a lead professional may be the one person that helps to initiate changes that improve their lives and prevent situations escalating to higher tier services. Early, positive interventions and support can improve outcomes and life chances.

Ultimately we all benefit as more people are able to achieve the five outcomes and make a positive contribution to society. So how can you not become a Lead Professional? Just think of the difference you could make!