More than the sum of its parts? inter‐professional working in the education of looked after children

Abstract

This article highlights work underway in three English local authorities to promote effective inter-agency collaboration around the education of looked after children. Insight drawn from these local authorities is used to review previous literature concerning interagency collaboration in a variety of contexts. The relevance of previous research to issues concerning the education of looked after children is discussed and key factors associated with effective collaboration are highlighted. Barriers which have served to obstruct joint working and strategies adopted to deal with these are also discussed. Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. IntroductionThe acknowledgement that different facets of children and young people's lives are inextricably related has led to increased calls for collaboration between different agencies working to address a range of social problems. One such problem is the low attainment, non-attendance and relatively high levels of school exclusion associated with looked after children , 2002a. The deprived pre-care backgrounds of many of these young people plays some part in explaining this poor academic achievement (Rutter, 2000) and almost a quarter of looked after children have a statement of special educational need (Department of Health, 2002b).However, the pre-care experiences and characteristics of looked after children cannot fully explain the underachievement of this group. Additional explanations highlight certain structural features of the care and education systems which can prevent the education of looked after children being prioritised. Key departments involved in looking after children are not always successful in adopting a corporate parenting approach and consequently fail to communicate effectively to share relevant information and coordinate services (Audit Commission, 1994; Borland and others, 1998;Roaf and Lloyd, 1995 2000), which emphasises the need to establish and enforce joint procedures and protocols to promote effective inter-agency collaboration.There is a body of research highlighting factors that support inter-agency work (Atkinson and others, 2002; Sloper and others, 1999;Stobbs, 1995;Webb and Vulliamy, 2001;Wigfall and Moss, 2001;Wilson and Charlton, 1997) and many of these are reflected in the joint guidance. This paper outlines what these supportive factors might be and illustrates their relevance, drawing on research in three English local authorities, to achieving collaboration around the education of looked after children.A number of terms are used to describe the ways in which different agencies, disciplines and professions attempt to work together. This can mean that it is unclear whether different commentators are referring to the same thing. Leathard (1994) suggests that the main variations in terminology stem from three, quite different, concepts:Association: inter/multi/trans Grouping: agency/sectoral/disciplinary/occupational/professional Focus of operations: integration/cooperation/collaboration/teamwork/work All possible combinations of these...

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