Multi-agency services: the practicalities

Links with your home agency

Maintaining links with your home agency can help you stay in touch with the latest good practice developments and ensure you have a network of support.

This will be easier for some staff than others, and will probably be influenced by whether you have been seconded or recruited. Ways that people have maintained links with their home agency include: 

• Being line managed by the team leader but having professional supervision with their home agency
  
  
• Attending meetings of the home agency to keep up to speed with developments
  
  
• Joining a local network of practitioners from the same agency
  
  
• Ensuring the home agency is represented on the steering group or other governance arrangements for the team
  
  
• Having a mentor from the home agency

This is unlikely to be such an issue if you are working in a multi-agency panel such as a youth inclusion and support panel (YISP), as you will remain employed by your home agency and still spend a proportion of your time working there.

Terms and conditions

In a multi-agency service where people come from a range of different agencies, you are likely to find that your terms and conditions are different to those of your colleagues. Some may be paid more, some less. Some may be on term-time-only contracts, others may have to work through the year. Some will have more annual leave, others less.

Unfortunately, issues like this can get in the way of people working effectively together. There is not an easy short-term solution, but there are some things that can help. For example:

• Make sure that the things you are doing and learning are being recorded as part of your performance appraisal so that you maximise your own personal development.
  
  
• Speak to the manager/coordinator about how you feel. There may be opportunities to focus people's work more effectively according to their skills, and also for different staff to have the opportunity to 'cascade' their learning from different experiences or training programmes to colleagues.
  
  
• Find out what is going on in your home agency in response to the government's workforce strategy. This includes a commitment to develop a common standards and qualifications route for the children's workforce, which over the longer term should provide opportunities for moving up and across the workforce.

If you work for a multi-agency panel, you will probably find that terms and conditions tend not to be such an issue, as staff remain employed by their home agency and continue to view themselves as members of that agency, rather than a new multi-agency organisation.

If you have a concern about your terms and conditions, the best starting point is to speak to your manager.

Line management and supervision

Good line management and supervision are critical when you are new to a multi-agency service. They can help your feel more confident and competent in your role, by ensuring you are clear about what you are doing, that your caseload is appropriate and that you are adjusting to the demands of a new environment. Management and supervision arrangements vary from service to service, though they share some common elements which are described below:

Line management

This involves managing day-to-day issues like planning and monitoring workload, ensuring quality of work, ensuring health and safety, time management, team building, motivating, administration and record keeping. Your line management arrangements will vary according to the structure of your service.

In multi-agency teams it is most common for staff to report into the team leader, though in some cases there may be dual line management arrangements, with an additional reporting line into the manager in the home agency. This can be helpful in terms of maintaining links with your home agency, but can lead to tensions if there is not absolute clarity in the arrangements. It is helpful to make sure the arrangements are documented and that there is a regular three-way dialogue between the parties.

In multi-agency panels it is most common for panel members to continue to report into their line managers in the home agency. Sometimes, it may be necessary for the panel coordinator to liaise with the home agency on certain line management issues, such as workload or performance monitoring.

In integrated services the line management arrangements depend on the basis by which the staff are brought into the service. In most cases they will be recruited or seconded and will therefore tend to be line managed by someone within the service, who may be from the same agency as them - for example a team of family support workers being managed by a social worker who is also a deputy within the centre. However, where services are commissioned or 'contracted out' - for example a voluntary sector programme being offered after school as part of an extended schools programme - the line management arrangements will probably remain with the home agency, though there will need to be clear lines of communication and relevant agreements between the agency and the centre manager.

Supervision

This refers to a process of working through the practice issues that arise in the course of everyday work. A good supervisor will enable you to reflect on your practice, to support and challenge it as appropriate, to discuss skills needs and to help you work through situations where you may be experiencing resistance. Your line manager may be your supervisor, however some disciplines require professional supervision through their home agency.

Professional supervision: in some disciplines - for example nursing, midwifery, health visiting and clinical and educational psychology - there is a requirement for professional supervision by someone from the same discipline. The process of supervision will still involve working through everyday practice issues in a reflective way, but will be provided through the practitioner's home agency.