This guidance begins with the impact and outcomes of partnership working for children and young people. It is important to consider the Getting it right for every child practice model and My world triangle which place the young person at the centre. This allows everyone involved to consider systematically:
- How the child or young person is growing and developing
- What the child or young person needs from the people who look after him or her
- The impact of the child or young person's wider world of family, friends and community
It is clear from Getting it right for every child principles, the practice model and My World triangle that placing the child at the centre is vital to successful partnership working. It is also clear that in addition to friends and family, a child or young person might be involved with a broad range of professionals. This guidance on partnership working does not want to diminish the key role of professionals from social work, other areas of health and the third sector who are all key partners in delivering Getting it right for every child. However, it is focused on the specific role that allied health professionals play in delivering additional support for learning in schools. We recognise that the principles in this guidance will have wider relevance and apply to partnership working in other contexts.
Collaborative Advantage
The My World triangle introduces a mental map that helps us all to understand a young person's whole world. The impact of what we do and the outcomes for the young person, captured by Getting it right for every child well-being indicators, relate to his or her whole world. It is important to acknowledge however, that identifying outcomes for young people which are the result of partnership working can be challenging. Difficult questions include, what is the result of maturation, independent of interventions? What is the result of the involvement of education alone or the involvement of allied health professionals independently? While acknowledging the difficulty, it is also important to avoid using false measures or settling for what can be measured and presuming that is the whole picture. If partnership working is valued and valid then there has to be an identifiable outcome for young people which is more than what would be gained by services being provided separately. This may be described as collaborative advantage. The concept of collaborative advantage has to be central to evaluating the impact and outcomes for young people which are the result of partnership working.