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This article explains how joint agency services for children with special needs have been operating in Devon for a number of years. The business processes and ICT systems underpinning the service are described and specific key worker services are explained. The Fair Access to Carers' Breaks model explains how Devon has allocated financial resources to meet individual users' needs. This will be relevant to any authority looking for a transparent means of distributing equitably financial resources such as the additional resources provided by Aiming High for Disabled Children. The article goes on to describe how child and adolescent mental health services were added to the joint agency service and how the choice and partnership approach (CAPA) has virtually removed the waiting list for this service in Devon. The article then describes how further integration of services will be achieved by establishing early response and further response services which will include the Public Health Nursing Service and Education staff.

The purpose of this paper is to communicate the findings of an empirical research project based on a real world problem that involved the development of a continuous professional development (CPD) framework for a children’s integrated service workforce. In addition, to give attention to the notion that children’s integrated services have not necessarily been viewed from the perspective of conflict management and that this has meant ensuing conflicts that characterise such organisations are more often than not ignored.

A case study approach involving a mixed methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews for senior managers and service leads; a quantitative survey for frontline practitioners and focus groups for service users, carers and children.

Rather than the service being fully integrated, services were aligned, and this was reflected in the conflict between professional cultures, reinforcing an “us and them” culture. This culture had seemingly permeated all aspects of the organisation including the senior management team. It was also noted that certain systems and processes, as well as bureaucracy, within the service were seen as hindering integrated working and was in effect a catalyst for conflict.

What has become evident during the course of this empirical study is the need to further explore the functioning of children’s integrated services using conflict management theories, tools and techniques so as to understand how best to manage conflict to an optimum where an environment of creativity and productiveness is created.

Therefore, when devising a CPD framework it can be argued that there is a need to address some of the types of conflict at the micro-frontline practitioner level of the organisation, as it is this level where there is opportunity through a variety of mechanisms, for example formal and non-formal learning, ring-fenced time, attendance at conferences, team away days and shadowing opportunities can be used to achieve a greater understanding of professional roles, improve working relationships and engage in the division of tasks in a fashion that will promote collaborative working.

The extent to which a children’s integrated service can be the harbinger of a range of multi-faceted conflicts that include the jarring of professional cultures, task conflict, inter-personal incompatibilities and competing value bases cannot be underestimated. Therefore, when devising a CPD framework it can be argued that there is a need to address some of the types of conflict at the micro-frontline practitioner level of the organisation.

Through the application of conflict management theory it will be illustrated how conflict could be used to effectively steer children integrated services towards creativity and productivity through an organisational wide framework that not only embraces dissonance, but also promotes a learning environment that takes advantage of such dissonance to incorporate a hybrid of professional practice and expertise.

This article explores some of the contemporary challenges facing leaders of children's services. Using the theoretical framework of the ‘incomplete leader’ developed by Ancona and colleagues (2007), the article reflects on the many challenges facing children's service leaders. It argues that a distributed and connected model of leadership is the best available in the current climate of change and challenge. This model contradicts the current one of embodied, individualised leadership contained in the England and Wales Children Act 2004. The article argues that the key leadership skills are about making sense of change, relating to people, creating a vision and developing new ways of working. The article utilises Government policy documents such as the Children's Plan and Care Matters, workforce issues and strategic planning to illustrate the nature of the leadership challenge. It concludes by suggesting a way forward for children's services leadership in integrated settings, in the current climate of audit and managerialism.

This article seeks to help senior local policy‐makers, managers and practitioners in children's services to develop robust but realistic and manageable strategies for measuring outcomes in a multi‐disciplinary context. Drawing on orthodox research methods, it sets out strategies for measuring outcomes in children's services at individual child, service and community levels. It is intended to show how, in a given local jurisdiction, different approaches to measuring outcomes could fit together logically and within a reasonable budget, so creating an outcome culture and contributing to the development and integration of services. The principles outlined would also apply to adult services.

Through the results from part of a formative evaluation in England and Wales of the Integrated Children's System, the authors aim to illustrate the diverse ways in which policy, technology and practice interests challenge conventional assumptions regarding the construction and use of evidence in children's services. We identify four connected consequences of the ICS for practice. The ICS actively shapes practice, brings issues into focus, renders social work visible and distances the services user. We interpret the findings in terms of the persistence and diversification of professional discretion and the interplay of standardisation and case‐based practice. We challenge some accepted academic understandings of the relationship between technology and professional practice.

There is a growing call both globally and nationally for integrated multisectoral and multidisciplinary systems of care to be implemented for children's needs in the foundation stages of their growth to be met. Extant literature shows that historical, structural, epidemiological, political and social factors create many adversities for South African children both in the short and in the long term. South Africa's fragmented and weak service delivery compounds the situation. In this paper, the authors describe the lessons learnt from a multisectoral and multidisciplinary community of practice established to strengthen social systems to ensure child wellbeing outcomes.

A qualitative research design was used, drawing on data collected over a two-year period. Data included meeting minutes, focus group discussions, and email communications between project partners. Focus group discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data was analysed thematically.

Findings show that having a shared goal, establishing supportive, mutually beneficial relationships and contributing to services that enhance child wellbeing outcomes enabled the community of practice, while differing organizational mandates and heavy workloads constrained the partnership.

The study shows the effectiveness of a Community of Practice (CoP) in integrating services across sectors for children's well-being and promoting collaborative learning and intersectoral work. However, this success also depends on the presence of strong leadership and efficient coordination.Limitation: Despite its benefits, the CoP model presents challenges, including securing active participation and buy-in from stakeholders, managing time and resource constraints, and dealing with issues in the existing service delivery system. Questions about long-term sustainability and the practicalities of scaling and institutionalizing the model need to be addressed.

Through this paper, the authors contribute to a nascent area of research in the Global South, critically reflecting on the lessons the authors learnt from implementing an integrated community of practice approach to strengthen social sector systems toward the enhancement of children's wellbeing.

The Children Act 1989 sought to be evidence based in that its development reflected a growing body of research in the field of child care. This article explores the dynamic relationship between research, policy and practice in child welfare in the UK over the subsequent 21 years. It looks at the implications for the workforce and professional expertise, with a particular focus on social work. Initially, the implementation of the Act was closely associated with social services but provision has become more integrated and multidisciplinary. This has led to a far‐reaching debate about the roles and tasks of social work and its efficacy in safeguarding and promoting children's welfare. Social work can make a broad contribution to child welfare but to realise this both the role of social work and the knowledge base on which it is based must not be defined in a narrow or prescriptive way.

This article describes the experience of designing and implementing a joint health/social services/education strategy for children with special needs and their families in the Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon and North Devon Primary Care Trust localities. While partnership with parents was a guiding principle and beneficial changes in policy and practice were introduced, the article gives practical illustrations of how easily a gap can emerge between rhetoric and reality during implementation.

The purpose of this article is to explore findings from the children's services mapping (CSM) policy monitoring exercise on the implementation of Children's Trust arrangements in England in 2008 and 2009. It outlines progress made in implementation in the context of debates on Children's Trusts and partnership working, considering where progress was being made and where implementation was less well developed. The future of partnership working in children's services and the role of the data collection in public service policy monitoring are discussed.

Responses are from a sub‐set of 74 local authorities to a self‐completion questionnaire on Children's Trust implementation in 2008 and 2009 as part of the CSM annual policy monitoring exercise.

Findings, presented within the context of Government policy on children's services reform and literature on partnership working, indicate increases in the number of Children's Trusts implementing joint and strategic working. However, not all agencies under a statutory duty were represented on the Board and joint commissioning arrangements had declined.

The findings and discussion consider the limitations of the method of data collection.

This paper presents the most recent information on implementing Children's Trust arrangements, drawing on responses from 49 per cent of local authority areas. Data from two years of the CSM collection alongside earlier research findings indicate progress at the strategic level, but careful reading of the data and literature also suggests an increasingly challenging environment for establishing and maintaining partnership working within children's services.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how innovation in children’s services is adopted and developed by staff within new multi-disciplinary children’s safeguarding teams. It draws on diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory to help us better understand the mechanisms by which the successful implementation of multi-disciplinary working can be best achieved.

It is based on interviews with 61 frontline safeguarding staff, including social workers, substance misuse workers, mental health workers and domestic abuse workers. Thematic analysis identified the enablers and barriers to implementation.

DOI defines five innovation attributes as essential for rapid diffusion: relative advantage over current practice; compatibility with existing values and practices; complexity or simplicity of implementation; trialability or piloting of new ideas; and observability or seeing results swiftly. Staff identified multi-disciplinary team working and group supervision as advantageous, in line with social work values and improved their service to children and families. Motivational interviewing and new ways of case recordings were less readily accepted because of the complexity of practicing confidently and concerns about the risks of moving away from exhaustive case recording which workers felt provided professional accountability.

DOI is a useful reflective tool for senior managers to plan and review change programmes, and to identify any emerging barriers to successful implementation.

The paper provides insights into what children’s services staff value about multi-disciplinary working and why some aspects of innovation are adopted more readily than others, depending on the perception of diffusion attributes.