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8. Partnership Working

8.1 Every Child Matters (9) highlights the Government's commitment to improving partnerships between all agencies. The complexity and variety of children's service provision in any one locality also creates a logistical challenge for services attempting to achieve good partnerships. This needs to be taken into account in the planning and commissioning of services. Removing Barriers to Achievement: The Government's Strategy for SEN (10) also highlights the importance of partnership working to improve outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs.

8.2 Partnership working across agencies working with children and young people with mental health problems can be a challenging task. The lack of understanding of the respective roles, duties, responsibilities and organisation of the different agencies and professionals and of their different language, may lead to poor communication, misunderstandings and frustration. Effective partnership working can improve children and young people's experience of services and lead to improved outcomes. There is a continuing role for universal services once a child or young person has been referred to specialist CAMHS, and ensuring that partnership working is effective is particularly important in these situations.

8.3 Factors that can facilitate joint working between CAMHS and schools have been identified (11) are outlined in Box 2.

Box 2: Factors that facilitate joint working between CAMHS and schools
  • Secondments between organisations;
  • Being based in the same location;
  • Flexibility of recruitment so that people move between posts across organisations;
  • Having a clear understanding of the different roles and expertise of members of staff;
  • Having a clear rationale for working jointly, which is shared with the team;
  • A commitment to joint working from all levels of the service; and
  • Informal meetings, networking and team building.
Commissioners and services are able to demonstrate multi-agency partnership working in the following areas:
  • The provision of services to children and young people who may or may not have been harmed, as set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children (12): contributing to the assessment of complex child abuse cases; the assessment and provision of postabuse therapeutic services; and services for looked after and adopted children (see Standard 5);
  • The delivery of services to children and young people with significant behavioural difficulties ('conduct disorder'), who are at risk of exclusion from school; based on agreed protocols;
  • The delivery of services to young people with mental health disorders who are misusing drugs and alcohol;
  • Agreements between health, education and social services, and youth justice, which may need to be organised across several Primary Care Trusts/Local Authorities, for the joint funding, assessment and provision of services (including specialist residential provision when required), for children and young people with complex, severe and persistent behavioural and mental health needs. Contingency arrangements are agreed at senior officer levels between health, social services and education to meet the needs and manage the risks associated with this particular group;
  • The assessment of educational needs and provision of services for children and young people with mental health problems, including those with special educational needs and/or learning disabilities and looked after children, whether they are living in the community, in hospital or residential settings. For example, children and young people with serious mental health disorders require their ongoing education to be provided, either in home tuition units, or in hospital;
  • Specialist CAMHS input where there are locally agreed joint initiatives such as Behaviour and Educational Support Teams (BESTs), pupil referral units and provision for children with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD);
  • Appropriate, negotiated, resourced and integrated CAMHS contribution to youth justice services;
  • Protocols between CAMHS and adult mental health services to ensure collaborative working arrangements and joint provision, where appropriate;
  • Arrangements for joint training and provision for the identification, assessment and therapeutic services, where appropriate, of children of mentally ill and drug and alcohol dependent parents and those in families subject to domestic violence (see Standard 5);
  • The development of Early Intervention teams for young people with a first-episode psychosis that effectively integrate child, adolescent and adult mental health services through joint commissioning and collaborative working arrangements, and
  • Collaborative arrangements with paediatric units and wards for the joint care of children, where appropriate, protocols for the management of deliberate selfharm and the availability of paediatric liaison by CAMHS professionals. See Standard 7 sections 4.25 to 4.27

Face-to-face working and joint training is provided to overcome the barriers to co-operative working relationships.

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