Principles of Joint Working (between Adults and Children and Families Services)

Adults Services and Children and Families Services are committed to working together to promote the health and well-being of their respective clients and they undertake to:

• Work to provide a flexible and responsive service which actively seeks to share expertise, information and resources;
• Work to provide equal access to services regardless of age, gender, ethnic origin or disability;
• Provide a service which acknowledges both the integrity of family life and the needs and rights of individual family members;
• Promote independence for individuals and support their freedom of choice;
• Recognise the particular vulnerabilities of children and therefore ensure that the welfare of children is the paramount consideration when Children's Social Care has to intervene in a family’s life;
• Ensure that privacy and confidentiality are maintained for both the family and for individual members, as long as this is possible in the best interests of the client;
• Ensure that the different professionals involved understand each other’s roles and responsibilities whenever necessary;
• Work with families in the least obtrusive way;
• As far as is possible, develop local services and involve users and carers in the planning and review of the services that are provided;
• Provide information about services to which the individual and family may be eligible and their rights to assessment of needs for these services.

The following procedures are designed to ensure that:

• Decisions to commit Children's Social Care resources for young people are shared between Adults and Children’s services;
• There is continuity in the transition from Children’s to Adults’ services;
• Staff with the appropriate knowledge and skills contribute to a comprehensive assessment of needs;
• The young person and family are fully involved in the assessment;
• Multi agency assessment of need takes place where appropriate;
• Recognition is given to the combined effect of individual problems within family situations. The existence of two or more identified problems may justify access to a level of service for which the family would not be eligible if each problem was assessed in isolation;
• There is clear communication whenever joint working situations arise, within Children's Social Care and between agencies.