Who can be a lead professional?
Many practitioners in the children's workforce could take on the lead professional role, as the skills, competence and knowledge required to carry it out are similar regardless of professional background or role. We have therefore defined the role by the functions and skills, rather than by particular professional or practitioner groupings.
For most children and young people with additional needs requiring support from a lead professional, we anticipate that the person carrying out this role will be drawn from the range of practitioners who are currently delivering effective early intervention support.
This could include (but is not limited to) personal advisers, health visitors, midwives, youth workers, family workers, substance misuse workers, nursery nurses, educational welfare officers, community children's nurses, school nurses and support staff such as learning mentors working in schools.
Such practitioners could be drawn from voluntary sector organisations or from statutory services, depending on the agencies currently involved with the child or young person.
What is important is that where support staff working within schools, such as learning mentors, take on the role of lead professional, this does not create a new burden on schools but results in them gaining access to co-ordinated and targeted support for the pupils and families who need it.
The person who takes on the role of lead professional will vary according to the specific needs of the child.
For example, the lead professional for a child who requires regular
physiotherapy, has speech delay and feeding difficulties, will be very
different to the lead professional required for a child and their family whose
primary support needs are to improve the mother's self-esteem, help the
parents develop effective behaviour management skills, and provide additional
support to the child in school to support their behaviour and learning.
This page was last updated on 29 June 2005
