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The purpose of this paper is to argue that the future of social work can be situated as part of a fundamental shift towards co-located, multi-disciplinary practice and networking. It is argued that social work has a key role to play in co-located, multi-disciplinary child welfare practice, and indeed can be a leading profession in this context. Situating social work in this way involves re-conceptualising social work as a network profession, rather than a silo profession. The paper builds on an earlier study of five multi-professional, co-located teams updated with interviews with social workers currently situated in such co-located teams. An exploration of the role of social work in relation to child sexual exploitation is provided.

The first study was an ESRC-funded study and used a multi-method approach to understanding the work of five multi-disciplinary, co-located teams working with children, young people and families (Frost and Robinson, 2016). Four co-located teams with eight social workers participated in the research. This was followed up by a small scale study involving semi-structured interviews with six social workers situated in co-located, multi-disciplinary teams. The focus of the study was on professional identity and working practices with other related professionals.

The ESRC study explored the complexity of co-located, multi-disciplinary professional teams – exploring how they worked together and analysing the challenges they face. Professionals felt that such working enhanced their learning, their skill base and the process of information sharing. Challenges included structural and organisational issues and differences in ideological and explanatory frameworks. The follow up study of six social workers found that they gained satisfaction from being situated in such co-located, multi-disciplinary teams, but also faced some identified challenges. Child sexual exploitation is explored as an example of the work of co-located, multi-disciplinary teams.

Semi-structured interviews with social workers based in co-located, multi-disciplinary teams have provided valuable insights into the operation of social workers in such settings. It is acknowledged that all the interviews are with social workers in co-located settings and that further work is required on the views of other social workers in reference to their experiences and views in relation to multi-disciplinary working.

The paper brings together theoretical positions and policy contextual material with qualitative research data which situate the social worker in wider multi-disciplinary, co-located settings. Drawing on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 14 social workers in such teams, the paper aims to contribute to an understanding and development of the future of the social work role in these contexts, arguing that this is fundamental to the future of social work.

Internationally, healthcare systems are moving towards delivering care in an integrated manner which advocates a multi-disciplinary approach to decision making. Such an approach is formally encouraged in the management of Atrial Fibrillation patients through the European Society of Cardiology guidelines. Since the emergence of new oral anticoagulants switching between oral anticoagulants (OACs) has become prevalent. This case study considers the role of multi-disciplinary decision making, given the complex nature of the agents. The purpose of this paper is to explore Irish General Practitioners’ (GPs) experience of switching between all OACs for Arial Fibrillation (AF) patients; prevalence of multi-disciplinary decision making in OAC switching decisions and seeks to determine the GP characteristics that appear to influence the likelihood of multi-disciplinary decision making.

A probit model is used to determine the factors influencing multi-disciplinary decision making and a multinomial logit is used to examine the factors influencing who is involved in the multi-disciplinary decisions.

Results reveal that while some multi-disciplinary decision-making is occurring (64 per cent), it is not standard practice despite international guidelines on integrated care. Moreover, there is a lack of patient participation in the decision-making process. Female GPs and GPs who have initiated prescriptions for OACs are more likely to engage in multi-disciplinary decision-making surrounding switching OACs amongst AF patients. GPs with training practices were less likely to engage with cardiac consultants and those in urban areas were more likely to engage with other (non-cardiac) consultants.

For optimal decision making under uncertainty multi-disciplinary decision-making is needed to make a more informed judgement and to improve treatment decisions and reduce the opportunity cost of making the wrong decision.

Among various efforts pursued to produce fuel efficient vehicles, light weight engineering (i.e. the use of low‐density structurally‐efficient materials, the application of advanced manufacturing and joining technologies and the design of highly‐integrated, multi‐functional components/sub‐assemblies) plays a prominent role. In the present work, a multi‐disciplinary design optimization methodology has been presented and subsequently applied to the development of a light composite vehicle door (more specifically, to an inner door panel). The door design has been optimized with respect to its weight while meeting the requirements /constraints pertaining to the structural and NVH performances, crashworthiness, durability and manufacturability. In the optimization procedure, the number and orientation of the composite plies, the local laminate thickness and the shape of different door panel segments (each characterized by a given composite‐lay‐up architecture and uniform ply thicknesses) are used as design variables. The methodology developed in the present work is subsequently used to carry out weight optimization of the front door on Ford Taurus, model year 2001. The emphasis in the present work is placed on highlighting the scientific and engineering issues accompanying multidisciplinary design optimization and less on the outcome of the optimization analysis and the computational resources/architecture needed to support such activity.

The use of a multi‐disciplinary research team can often enhance the investigation of IS phenomena ‐ particularly when the construct under study is multi‐dimensional. This paper explores the challenges and benefits of carrying out IS research with a multi‐disciplinary team. By way of illustration a study is described which purposefully pulled together researchers from different (but related) disciplines to carry out an IS research project. The challenges confronting the team included miscommunication, initial disagreement concerning research constructs, and the amount of time required for meetings. The benefits far outweighed the difficulties. Benefits accrued to the study itself and to the research participants. The study was more holistic and included better construct definition. The participating researchers benefited from critically examining their own views and outlooks whilst being exposed to viewpoints from other disciplines.

The Evidence Supported Medicine Union (EMU) was formed in the West Midlands to introduce and develop the ideas of evidence‐based medicine into general and hospital practice. To understand the educational needs of multi‐disciplinary members of acute trusts, a series of half‐day workshops were planned. All acute trusts accepted the invitation to send multi‐disciplinary teams — delegates attended in total in groups varying from one to nine. The major needs of acute trusts were: 1. critical appraisal skills, 2. multi‐disciplinary training workshops, 3. prioritizing areas for evidence‐based medicine, and 4. linking evidence‐based medicine into clinical audit.

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.

This paper proposes and tests, through a series of structured multi-disciplinary design activities, a “Concept Design Stages Protocol” (CDS Protocol) to structure project initiation, to attain smoother collaboration and greater consensus among multi-disciplinary project teams.

A collaborative approach from the outset is imperative for project success, especially when considering multi-disciplinary teams in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. However, involving different disciplines hinders communication paths and affects informed decision-making.

Based on these findings, the research demonstrates that the CDS Protocol provides a solid foundation to aid in the optimal implementation of collaborative design, and with particular regard to multi-disciplinary working.

The research demonstrates the potential for significant improvement in the optimisation of the conceptual design stages, with positive implications for time, communication and whole-team engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relevance of shared leadership to multi-disciplinary cancer care. It examines the policy background and applies concepts from shared leadership to this context. It includes discussion of the implications and recommendations.

This is a conceptual paper examining policy documents and secondary literature on the topic. While it focuses on the UK National Health Services, it is also relevant to other countries given they follow a broadly similar path with regard to multi-disciplinary working.

The paper suggests that shared leadership is a possible way forward for multi-disciplinary cancer care, particularly as policy developments are supportive of this. It shows that a shared perspective is likely to be beneficial to the further development of multi-disciplinary working.

Adopting shared leadership needs to be explored further using appropriate empirical research.

The paper offers comments on the implications of introducing shared leadership and makes recommendations including being aware of the barriers to its implementation.

The paper offers an alternative view on leadership in the health-care context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which a systematic review approach is transferable from medicine to multi-disciplinary studies in the built environment research.

Primarily a review paper, it focuses on specific steps in the systematic review to clarify and elaborate the elements for adapting an evidence base in the built environment studies particular to the impact of green building on employees’ health, well-being and productivity.

While research represents a potentially powerful means of reducing the gap between research and practice by applying tried and tested methods, the methodological rigour is debatable when a traditional systematic review approach is applied in the built environment studies involving multi-disciplinary research.

The foundational contribution of this paper lies in providing methodological guidance and an alternative framework to advance the longstanding efforts in the built environment to bridge the practitioner and academic divide.

A systematic review approach in the built environment is rare. The method is unique in multi-disciplinary studies especially in green building studies. This paper adopts the systematic review protocols in this cross-disciplinary study involving health, management and built environment expertise.

The purpose of this paper is to inform information and communication design for multi‐disciplinary multi‐national projects through the presentation of examples and recommendations based on lessons learned.

Experiences from action research involving field study with 20 organizations, together with survey research involving 30 external experts.

Shared understanding in multi‐disciplinary multi‐national projects can be better enabled through the application of information and communication design.

The action research involved only two cases.

Project participants need to have shared understandings in order to achieve project objectives. There are formidable inherent barriers to shared understanding in multi‐disciplinary multi‐national projects. Generic methods for the communication of information; such as use of gestures, speaking business English, and application of standard process charting; can be ineffective. Particularly, when inherent challenges are exacerbated by the introduction of new technological and/or business concepts. Information design seeks to improve the effectiveness of information. Communication design is concerned with the selection of media most suitable for carrying particular information to specific audiences/recipients.

The originality of the research reported in this paper is that it encompasses: inherent challenges in establishing shared understanding; limitations of generic methods for the communication of information; issues underlying information and communication design; as well as two cases of multi‐disciplinary multi‐national projects. The value of this paper is that it includes practical examples to inform information and communication design by personnel in project businesses. Further, practical recommendations for reducing time and cost are provided. Furthermore, these practical recommendations are related to the challenges highlighted by established theory.