Integrated Service Delivery

The development of integrated service delivery across children's services is essential to achieving the 5 Outcomes in "Every Child Matters". Indeed, the main reason for the establishment of Children's Trusts is to ensure much closer collaboration across all services working with children and families.

To date in Staffordshire a number of key processes and structures have been developed to support more collaborative approaches, including:

• District Trusts
• Community & Learning Partnerships
• The Threshold Framework
• Information sharing processes (CAF, TAC, Lead Professional, ContactPoint)
• Workforce Development
• Joint commissioning

These are starting to provide a very sound foundation and they are the 'building blocks' towards the ultimate goal of integrated service provision for children and families.

A Working Group set up by the Children's Trust Executive is now developing proposals for how integrated service delivery should be mainstreamed across all children's services.

Locality Working

The Children's Trust has made a significant commitment to developing locality working and the Community & Learning Partnerships have become widely accepted as the means for achieving this, particularly with those organisations delivering universal and early preventative work. In many parts of the County they are developing successfully and are drawing together agencies and local organisations that see them as providing a shared focal point for local delivery.

However, it is important that integrated working is developed and mainstreamed not just across universal and early preventative services but also with specialist and targeted services who have to focus their work on individual children in need rather than on targeted groups or whole communities. But most important, integration should only be developed where it will make a real difference and improve outcomes for children. Therefore, the Working Group is aiming to develop a flexible framework, having completed extensive background research, which takes account of these factors and integrates specialist and targeted services in ways which enable them to deliver most effectively in liaison with more locally based services.

The Threshold Framework should provide the basis to support a workable structure for integrated service delivery. It describes very clearly the continuum of services from universal through to targeted (Levels 1 to 4) and this will be used by the working group as a tool to guide them. The Working Group is also taking into account developments to establish Joint Commissioning and the proposed Integrated Youth Support Service. 

For any queries regarding Integrated Service Delivery please contact:

Anne Heckels, Chair, Integrated Service Delivery Working Group,
Tel: 01827 306 114
Email: anne.heckels@southstaffspct.nhs.uk Last Modified: 01/10/2008 10:04:16
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