In Warwickshire the Lead Professional is identified at the end of the first Family Support Meeting (FSM).
The concept of Lead Professional has been introduced by government to ensure effective co-ordination of services to children and young people at the stage of early identification of needs and multi-agency intervention.
The Lead Professional (LP) can be any practitioner from the voluntary or statutory sector who is working with the young person or family and has a positive working relationship with them.
The Lead Professional acts as a point of contact for the young person, family and other practitioners. The LP monitors the action plan to ensure actions are followed through.
However, the LP is not responsible for ensuring other agencies fulfil the actions and responsibilities that they have undertaken. The LP is only responsible to her/his own agency.
However, the LP is able to raise any issues about fulfilling the action plan including non-engagement of other agencies via the EIN Learning Log.
In practice, the LP has not proved as onerous or time-consuming as many practitioners first feared. In Warwickshire, no one practitioner is expected to undertake LP responsibilities for more than 2 cases at any one time.
What is the role of the CAF Officers?
CAF Officers provide local training, support and information to practitioners using the CAF. They offer advice, information and guidance about whether or not it is appropriate to address needs via CAF.
They help facilitate Family Support Meetings, support Lead Professionals and maintain the ESN Learning Log.
The Learning Log contributes to the ongoing evaluation of EIN to ensure optimum efficiency. It registers positive feedback about services to young people and families; and facilitates the identification of trends and gaps in services and the monitoring of problems with the system.
Useful documents to support the lead professional
|