access pathway. access pathway criteria where a child or young person presents with problems below:...

Access PathwayProtocol and Practice Guidance

May 2018

1. Introduction 3

2. Access Pathway Criteria 4

3. Prevention and Early Help Provision 5

4. SpecificInformationforchildren0-5years 6

5. Single Agency Responses 7

6. UniversalPlusAssessmentandSupportingTools 8

7. EarlyHelp-ModelofAssessment 9

8. FrameworkofAssessment 10

9. AccesstothePathway 11

10.Consent 12

11.FamiliesFirstAccessPoint(FFAP) 13

12.ContactDetailsofFFAP 14

13.OutofHoursService 14

14.OutcomesfromFFAP 14

15.AccessPathwayMulti-disciplinaryPanel 15

16.AccessPathwayFlowChart 16

17.RecommendationsfromPanel 18

18.ReviewingProcess 18

19.SpecialistAssessment 19

20. InterventionPlan-BespokePackagesofSupport 19

21.DischargefromSpecialistService/Intervention 19

22.Governance 20

23.EvaluationandPerformance 21

24.Complaints 21

25.ComplaintsProtocolConsentInformationSharing 21

A. Terms of Reference 22 - 23

Contents

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1. IntroductionThe Access Pathway is intended to support those children and young people aged birth to 19 years inclusive where their broader needs around communication and interaction, cognition and learning & social, emotional and mental health difficulties need support.

This guidance is to support practitioners who are identifying, assessing and supporting children to achieve their optimal outcomes and work towards responding to their future needs in the most timely and coordinated manner.

The Access pathway provides a multi-modal model of care which considers a holistic approach rather than a single agency working in isolation. Multi-model approaches considers a wider range of services and support to meet individual needs, for instance the pathway will consider the social needs alongside the clinical needs of a child or young person and not either in isolation.

North East Lincolnshire places emphasis on early intervention and prevention, and fosters a multi-agency approach which considers how to achieve and;

• Provide services that promote resilience and are built upon a strengths and not a deficit based model

• Encourage children, young people and families to be self-managing

• Provide children, young people and families with appropriate support at the earliest opportunity

• Provide support for the right children, at the right time and at the right level of intervention.

• Meet the full range of individual needs for children, young people and their families

• Develop services that can respond effectively to hard to reach families

Overview of the holistic needs of the children or young person needs to be obtained from a range of relevant practitioners including the voice of the child and their parents / carers, in order to gain a full picture of the needs, including environmental factors and parental capacity. Examples of relevant practitioners are; a School, SENCO, School Nurse, GP or Social Care.


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2. Access Pathway CriteriaWhere a child or young person presents with problems below: As described by the SEND code of practice 2017.

Communication and interaction 6.28 Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication. The profile for every child with SLCN is different and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives.

6.29 Children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions, including Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism, are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction. They may also experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination, which can impact on how they relate to others.

Cognition and learning 6.30 Support for learning difficulties may be required when children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD), where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and associated difficulties with mobility and communication, through to profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), where children are likely to have severe and complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment.

6.31 Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), affect one or more specific aspects of learning. This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

Social, emotional and mental health difficulties 6.32 Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.

6.33 Schools and colleges should have clear processes to support children and young people, including how they will manage the effect of any disruptive behaviour so it does not adversely affect other pupils. The Department for Education publishes guidance on managing pupils’ mental health and behaviour difficulties in schools – see the References section under Chapter 6 for a link.

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3. Prevention and Early Help ProvisionThere is clear recognition of the importance of prevention and early help in working with families to improve child development deficits, improve social inclusion and prevent the incidences of abuse, by offering the right support at the right time to families in need.

Prevention Services The Healthy Child Programme for the early life stages focuses on a universal preventative service, providing families with a programme of screening, immunisation, health and development reviews, supplemented by advice around health, wellbeing and parenting. Development checks within this programme allow us to identify and assess when there are emerging concerns about a child’s development and respond to those concerns at the earliest opportunity

Universal ServicesAll children in NEL have access to universal services such Health, Education and local authority Family Hub provision. The aim of universal service is to ensure that all children and young people have access to information, advice and guidance, support and access to services which will maximise their outcomes and reduce health inequalities. This includes universal access and early identification of additional and/or complex needs.

It is essential that the universal access of services is promoted to all families and wherever we encourage the access to improve child development across the board and increase social inclusion.

Universal Plus ServicesIt is recognised that sometimes children and young people need access more support in order to improve their development and achieve their developmental milestones and optimum potential. Universal Plus Services provides a swift response, when a child or young person needs specific expert help or accessible services, working together and with the family to deal with more complex problems over a longer period of time. These services can be offered as a way of improving outcomes for specific and identified issues which need support. It is essential that practitioners consider these activities for children, young people and families and support families to access these as an initial route to improve outcomes.


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4. Specific information for a child aged 0 - 5 yearsGiven the complexities of children’s developmental needs and the opportunities in Early Years to improve and enhance children’s development it is anticipated that interventions will be recommended which will enhance children’s development at the earliest opportunity such as, speech and language, fine motor and coordination support as well as training or education programmes for parents and carers or group based programmes designed and structured for understanding the complexities of the management of children difficulties and behaviour.

These programmes and activity will be offered for the support and management of children with these difficulties and will be fully accessible to parents and children whether or not there is a recorded diagnosis.

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5. Single Agency ResponsesChildren often can struggle in one area of development and need support on a single issue, such as the need for speech and language support, the development of fine and gross motor skills, or access to a service which can directly address their need, cases such as these have already had their need identified and a service which can meet their needs and therefore does not require a multi-agency response or a multi-faceted intervention plan. In these cases you will need to refer directly into those services, and there is no need to access these services via the FFAP.

It is essential that referrals to single agencies where the needs of that child are clear, go directly to that service to reduce delay in child accessing appropriate support to meet their needs.

Practitioner ToolkitThe practitioner toolkit is designed to support practitioners in guiding and signposting children young people and families to the most appropriate services, practitioners should always consider “What the family can do to support themselves”, What services are available at Universal and Universal Plus Services to improve development as a starting point to addressing children’s needs. To gain a greater view of the lived experiences of children the screen checklist allow practitioners to ask children, parents and other involved professionals the best questions in order to gain a deeper understanding of the child or young persons needs. These tools can also be used to either evidence information included in Early Help Assessments (EHA) or can be completed and sent alongside EHA as evidence.


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6. Universal Plus Assessment and Supporting Tools for PractitionersAdditional evidence based assessments are available at Universal and Universal Plus Level such as the Nelsons Assessment, the Early Year Foundations Stage tracking document and Educational assessments which support in identifying and specifying any additional or complex needs which may need a more target approach. Where to access these assessment are included in the information sheet for the pathway.

These assessments can be used as identification tools to pinpoint where a child have difficulties and provide evidence to include into the Early Help Assessments.

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7. Early Help - Model of Assessment North East Lincolnshire has adopted the Early Help Assessment and plan as a holistic, multi-agency model of assessment. This model is consistent with the Framework of Assessment and incorporates the signs of safety approach as the mechanism for the assessment of need for children, young people and families.

The process is consistent with Working Together procedures in North East Lincolnshire and supports a common language and understanding across professionals and families. It places the need to listen to children, young people and families at the heart of every assessment.

It is essential that we consider the child and families whole needs and consider what other factors in that child’s life maybe impacting on their behaviour, emotional responses or ability to interact and this information should be outlined in the Early Help Assessment. Considering aspects of the Child concern model to help practitioners think through the lived experiences of children and their families and what effects them in their daily lives, information such as family issues, domestic violence within the home, parental mental health or substance misuse must be included in the Early Help Assessment to give an holistic view.

An Early Help Assessment (EHA) is a form to collect information about a child and family - Their family situation, their worries and what is working well with a view to understanding the fullest picture in order to identify the most appropriate support for them. The EHA is a valuable tool to help any professional to think about the best support for a child and family and can be used the make a referral to the Families First Access Point where needs are multiple or complex. Any professional can complete one and they are available by searching for: Early Help Assessment at: www.safernel.co.uk

Identifying Need Professional working with a child identifies a need

Uses professional knowledge, available assessment and services and EHA to review

situation and decide next steps

Universal services/activities via family hubs

Universal plus services/activities via family hubs

Speech and language or occupational therapies

Early Help Assessment to FFAP

Requires support of safeguarding nature

Referral to Young Minds Matters

Referral to Children’s Disability Service

Early Help assessment and support

Education, health and care plan (EHCP via the school/parent


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8. Framework of Assessment

When accessing the Pathway the Early Help Assessment should clearly outline:

• What the difficulties and behaviours look like and the responsiveness to intervention and support.

• The extent to which the difficulties or behaviour is exhibited and impact in a range of settings.

• How this affects the child, young person, parents/ carers and other family members

• Severity of problems and impact on access to Education, social and health needs.

If the difficulties/behaviour is not considered to be persistent or pervasive then low level Early Help support should be considered. This could include universal parenting programmes, Early Help interventions & education support. Please see the Universal Offer for this Pathway.

Any practitioner or professional working across education, health, social care or other agency can instigate an Early Help Assessment and be involved in the work up to accessing the Access pathway – this can include parental or carers requests.

An early help assessment will not be required to access universal or universal plus activity. Access to these activities will be promoted via your local family hubs or the local offer. However EHA can be used to guide practitioners own thinking on next steps for the child and used as a planning and review tool within the practitioners own service.

Professionals in need of advice and guidance on more complex cases can contact the FFAP, where a Young Minds Matter (YMM) professionals and a multi-disciplinary team will be available to discuss and offer guidance on accessing the right support for individual cases. Tel: 01472 326292 Option 2.

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9. Access to the PathwayAccess to the pathway requires a completion of an Early Help assessment and multi-agency input and is subject to parental consent or in the case of children and young people known to Vulnerable Children’s Services an Initial or Core Assessment followed by a multi-agency meeting to agree a plan of support and intervention; as it is recognised that the needs of this group of children and young people may not be managed by a single agency.

To evidence concerns additional developmental assessments maybe used to highlight any particular areas of development that need support and holistic information regarding potential social and environmental factors which could be affecting the family can be gathered through discussions with the Families First Access Point to gain the holistic view of needs.

It is not essential to bring a case through the Access Pathway if needs have been identified and met via other service provision, only when a child’s needs are not making progress and require additional, support, intervention or assessment should they be directed through the pathway.


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10. ConsentReferral to the Access pathway requires the consent of the parent or carer and young person if they are deemed Fraser / Gillick competent. Individual practitioners and agencies should seek consent and actively engage young people and their parents or carers into the process.

Should consent be withheld, then attempts should be made to explain the pathway in an attempt to encourage engagement.

Should consent continue to be withheld then discussion should take place with the Practitioner’s Line Manager, considering thoroughly whether the lack of consent would indicate a safeguarding issue.

If safeguarding issues are raised then a referral would need to be made to Vulnerable Children’s Services via the Families First Access Point. Tel: 01472 326292 Option 2.

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11. Families First Access Point (FFAP)North East Lincolnshire Council has established a simplified single point of access for all enquiries coming through to Children Social Care within North East Lincolnshire. When a worry or concern about a child or family has been identified, the new FFAP provides information advice and guidance, to the public, as well as professionals, ensuring that the right level of support is established first time. Staffed by a multi-agency team of professionals from Early Help Services, Children’s social care, health, Young Minds Matter (YMM) and policing teams, and access to consultation from the Specialist Advisory Service in terms of education support. The FFAP will be able to promptly and effectively offer the most appropriate response to the concerns raised by the contact.

On occasion it is necessary to formally intervene in families where a child’s safety cannot be ensured, and to co-ordinate a multi-agency response to safeguard those children at risk from harm. Support to children and families will be accessed through a social worker within the Children’s Assessment and Safeguarding Service who as well as immediate intervention, will assess, monitor, review and provide services to children in need, looked after children and children in need of protection.

The FFAP Aims:

• Provide a timely and consistent response to complex enquiries regarding worries and concerns about a children and family and ensure families receive the “Right Support” at the “Right Time”

• Using the Signs of Safety framework for intake / first response and taking a consistent approach to decision making, threshold of concern and service allocation.

• Provide social care services for children in North East Lincolnshire who require early intervention or protection in order to meet their full potential.

• Wherever possible, we support children and their families to develop family resilience, ensuring that children thrive within their own family networks and stay together, except where there is a detrimental impact on their welfare.

• Investigate child protection concerns and work closely with other agencies to ensure children are safeguarded.

• Work with children and families to agreed outcomes wherever possible

• Work in partnership with colleagues from health, education, police, North East Lincolnshire Council, private and voluntary organisations to provide positive outcomes for all children

• Carry out assessments and provide services for children in accordance with national standards who meet the threshold for a statutory response.

WHAT FFAP DOES AND DOES NOT DO

FFAP do not complete Early Help Assessments. If FFAP receive an EHA, that lacks basic information about the child and family and does not clearly articulate what you are worried about, it will be returned to you asking for more information.

FFAP are not a referral service – If you need to refer into a single agency, please do not use FFAP… you can refer directly to individual agencies which will ensure that children and young people are receiving services in a timely and efficient way.

FFAP is a multi-agency hub which analyses information from various sources to ensure that children and young people receive the most appropriate support at the right time.

FFAPs primary function is to ensure the safeguarding of children. In terms of the Access Pathway the FFAP provide an understanding the holistic picture of a child or young person’s needs, by layering historical contact with services to ensure that the right support is offered at the right time.


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12. Contact DetailsIf you would like to speak to someone about a concern about a children please contact FFAP on 01472 326292 Option 2.

13. Out of hours serviceChildren Assessment & Safeguarding Service run the Out of Hours Service, which you can contact on 01472 325555. This service is an EMERGENCY ONLY service open from 5.00pm – 8.30am. Please only contact the Out of Hours Service if you have a concern where by a child is at immediate risk of harm and the call cannot wait until the following morning when a Social Worker from FFAP will be available to take your call.

14. Outcomes from FFAP

IAG Information Advice and Guidance

Mainstream Early Help

Safeguarding

EHA, info from other systems and screening checklist

CDS Children’s Disability Service

ACCESS PATHWAY PANEL

Young Minds Matters

FFAPReceives request, collates information from other systems and analyses to decide next steps

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15. Access Pathway Multi-Disciplinary PanelPanel consists of a number of multi-disciplinary professionals who meet on a regular basis, panel will consider new referrals and review existing cases.

The panel will comprise of professionals from Education, Health and Children’s social care, and will have skills, knowledge and experience in understanding the complexities of the children and young people needing support.

It is essential to prevent delay that you provide as much information as possible to support in giving a clear picture of children and young people’s needs. (Please see Assessments and Supporting Tools)

Panel Members will review the evidence provided within the Early Help Assessment alongside any additional assessments which would support the identification of need for the child concerned.

It is important to note that Early Help assessments received which are incomplete, will be returned to referrer, with a letter advising the referral is incomplete and recommending completion with relevant information to make informed decision in the best interest of the child.

• The GP will be advised of the referral and outcome of the panel decision making.


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16. Access Pathway Flow chart

Referral does not meet criteria, direct to universal, universal

plus or early help

Universal Services

Referral does meet criteria multidisciplinary intervention

package designed

Intervention package monitored and reviewed - may involve assessments and activities by CDC, Portage, YMM,

Paediatrics, Therapies, ADHD Clinic and Joint Paediatric Clinic re ASC

Referral indicates support from one specialist service

only - direct to specific

Multidisciplinary intervention package finalised and then passed to lead

professional in relevant area to continue supporting child and family

Early Help Education Health and Care Plan Safeguarding Children Disability

Services

Access PanelReview EHA from FFAP & collate additional information as needed

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17. Recommendations from Panel:• An intervention plan based on the individual child’s need will be developed at panel and will outline the

bespoke package of support developed for that child.

• Considering whether the needs of the child or young person can be met by Universal, Early Help services – clearly outlined and passed to the appropriate service to respond.

• Recommendations of any additional support, strategies or interventions, which will support the child or young person.

• Consider whether a specialist assessment is required and which service will provide this and panel will direct the referral straight to the assessing service.

• Determine whether any additional measures or assessment tools are required and who will undertake them.

• Who will be the most appropriate professional to ensure that the plan for the child / young person is progressed and reviewed.

• Will the case require review via the Access Pathway Panel and review date.

Any intervention plan will be circulated as part of the process and will be forwarded to the parent or young person, GP and referrer and Lead Professionals as required. The intervention plan will clearly outline why decisions have been made and what are the next steps in terms of supporting the child / young person.

NOTE: Decisions made at Panel around the best route to address children’s and young people’s needs are made as a multi-agency group and no individual service should be attributed to any decisions making made within this group.

The case should have a lead practitioners assigned to this to support the family in accessing services and monitoring progress of the plan, this can be anyone within the child or young person’s life, such as Early Help Practitioners, Social Worker, Education Provider, Health Visitor or School Nurse.

18. Reviewing ProcessIt is important that families have a clear understanding of the next steps for the child’s support plan, and this should be outlined clearly in their existing plan for the child.

On occasion it will be necessary for the child or young person to be reviewed at panel, for instance if the child is being observed in specialist activity or the child is waiting/having a specialist assessment.

Parents or young person, GP, referrer, teacher, childcare setting and Lead Professionals will be informed of the outcome from each review and next steps for that child/young people’s support plan. It is important that relevant professionals are informed of any intervention package provided to give them a clear picture of support for that child/young person and who is responsible for providing that support.

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19. Specialist AssessmentThe Specialist assessment may conclude with diagnosis of a number of characteristics or may not conclude in any diagnosis.

In the absence of a diagnosis a care plan and support or intervention may still be offered to the child, young person and parent or carer where appropriate.

20. Intervention Plan – Bespoke Packages of SupportThe Intervention Plan (IP) will be compiled on completion of any specialist assessment, with treatment or intervention in an appropriate timescale depending upon individual need.

The IP will need to be comprehensive and holistic considering a range of factors identified by the assessment; this will consider the child, young person and parents or carers, their experiences and needs within home and across all settings.

The IP should be incorporated into any multi-agency plan such as the Early Help Assessment and Plan, Child in Need, Child Protection and Looked After plans, also support information sharing with school or educational providers to ensure consistent application and monitoring of interventions across a range of settings.

Once the Intervention plan is finalised, with consent, contact should be made with the child or young person’s teacher to explain:

• Any diagnosis, severity of symptoms and potential impact

• The IP and any specific educational needs that may need to be addressed

• Any school specific interventions required as detailed in the IP

21. Discharge from Specialist Service/ Intervention Discharge from a specialist service does not mean that the child will no longer receive or need, an intervention plan or package of support. It is essential that the multi-disciplinary panel consider the long term needs of the child and family and any multi-agency plan should reflect those needs and a lead professional identified should support the implementation of that plan.

If there are any concerns or difficulties which mean the Intervention plan cannot be achieved and there are issues in providing the most beneficial services to young people the Lead Professional should contact the Panel with their concerns and panel can address these issues individually or as part of the wider development group.

Post discharge, should the child or young person’s behaviour deteriorate then the Lead Professional can refer back to the panel for further advice, consultation and support.

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Health and Wellbeing BoardBoard has been established to join

up commissioning and services across the NHS, social care, public

health and voluntary sector to benefit the health and wellbeing

of local people.

Portfolio Holder for Health Wellbeing and Adult Social Care

NELC.

Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People.

Director Leads

Director of Children’s Service NELC.

Associate Director Women and Children’s Services, Nelincs, CCG.

Share at relevant NELC 0-19 meeting for performance

before HWB.

Access Pathway Performance Report

Quarterly reporting.

Population of Performance Dashboard

Access Pathway Panel Meeting

Activity/Performance.

22. Governance

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23. Evaluation and PerformanceThe success of the Access Pathway will be evaluated through feedback from families after their package of support has been finalised. Families will also be asked to provide feedback on the activities they take part in while being supported through the Access Pathway. This will help to identify how well the various activities support the needs of children and families.

A scorecard reporting based on Outcome Based Accountability (OBA) will be reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board on a quarterly basis. This will feed into the wider NEL outcomes framework. As the Access Pathway is a new approach the scorecard will develop over time to ensure it captures information that helps to continue improving the service.

24. ComplaintsFamilies may have questions about the decisions made by the Access Pathway panel and in the first instance they should approach the lead professional working with them. If the lead professional is unable to help, the family can ask the Lead Professional to approach the Access Pathway panel and a panel member will endeavour to address their concerns. If the concern cannot be resolved with a panel member a complaint can be made through the following route below:

Formal Complaints PolicyAll partner involved in the development of the Access Pathway have a vested interest and commitment to ensuring the success of the pathway in terms of meeting the identified needs of children and young people in North East Lincolnshire

Therefore the partnership will endeavour to work together to manage any complaints, comments, concerns and compliments directly attributed to the Access Pathway that require co-ordinated handling across all organisations.

The organisations concerned include:

• North East Lincolnshire Council

• North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

• Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust

• Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust

If families have questions or concerns about specific services they are working with, they can approach those services direct to discuss them. If a family wishes to make a complaint about a specific service, this can be done using the complaints procedure for the specific service.

The joint arrangement is intended to ensure that any feedback about a jointly provided service or that involves services provided by more than one organisation is dealt with seamlessly, promptly and clearly through a co-ordinated process, and as stated in the Local Authority Social Service and NHS Complaints (England) Regulations 2009. Complainants will be given the advice and assistance they require to make their experience as effective and timely as possible.

North East Lincolnshire Council

Go to: www.nelincs.gov.uk and search for complaints, compliments and suggestions North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group Contact the Customer Care Team

Telephone: 0300 3000 500 (Calls to this number are charged at local rate from a landline or mobile number) Email: [email protected]

25. Complaints Protocol Consent to Information SharingIn order to deal with feedback effectively it will be necessary for all organisations to make relevant information that they hold on the complainant available to any identified investigators from the other organisations, or that are wholly independent. Similarly they will be required to give access to any internal policies or procedures.

In respect of personal information this must be handled in line with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and any confidentiality policies the respective organisation may have. All investigators should be aware of their responsibilities in respect of confidentiality.

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May 2018

A. Access Pathway Panel Multi-Disciplinary Meeting Terms of Reference

Appendix 2

Access Pathway Multi-disciplinary Panel Meeting

Terms of Reference

Ethos

To provide a transparent, fair and equitable process for the consideration of a child or young person’s needs experiencing Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning and Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties.

Role of meeting

1. The Access Pathway Multi-disciplinary Panel Meeting will be independently chaired by one of the four joint chairs for the Local Authority and LPFT and will review the multi-agency plan and assessments to date, noting the level of engagement and interventions delivered.

2. The meeting will consider assessments and the needs of children and young people aged 0-19 years (inclusive) 19-25 where appropriate, where there is evidence of significant and Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning and Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties needs that have not been resolved via access to universal or universal plus support.

3. Meeting members will be supported in their consideration of the child and young person’s needs by the referrer, if appropriate.

4. Meeting members will consider whether the child or young person’s needs can be met via the provision of universal and targeted services or whether a child or young person requires a Specialist Assessment.

5. Where recommendations are made for universal or targeted provision the decision record will be explicit in signposting the referrer to specific services to meet the need or range of needs.

6. Panel will ensure that the referrer, GP and parent / carer receive written confirmation of the decisions and recommendations made at the meeting.

7. To be responsible for informing the commissioning process of gaps in services and unmet needs. This will be undertaken on a quarterly basis by Access Pathway Lead and will be reported to the Children’s Partnership and the Health and Well-being Board

Membership• Head of Children’s Complex Care (Independent

Joint Chair)

• Early Help Specialist Lead ( Independent Joint Chair

• Young Minds Matter (YMM) Psychology (Independent Joint Chair)

• Educational Psychology (Independent Joint Chair)

• Paediatrician

• Family Hub Co-ordinator

• Children’s Social Care

• Children’s Disability Service

• Therapy Service

• Child Development Centre

• Special Educational Needs service

• Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator

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Members’ responsibilityTo ensure that their agency is represented at all meetings.

• To ensure attendance at the meeting and to send a suitable nominated representative, able to contribute to decision making and agree resources as and when required.

• An Information Sharing Protocol will be in place between the partner agencies.

• To ensure that suitable actions are agreed at the meeting in relation to recommendations/ actions to be completed at a Universal / targeted level, i.e. multi-agency level.

• To ensure that actions, resources, service provision is agreed from the decision to initiate a Specialist Assessment.

• Respond to any complaints or comments about the process in a timely manner.

Meeting information• The Access Pathway Multi-disciplinary meeting

will meet weekly on Thursdays.

• The Access Pathway Multi-disciplinary meeting will be independently chaired by the agreed chairs for the Local Authority and CCG.

• The Local Authority will administer the meeting i.e. prepare papers, send out the agenda, take minutes, record decisions and distribute minutes and decision records / action plans accordingly.

• The agenda and paperwork will be circulated in a timely manner as appropriate, prior to the meeting.

• The meeting will be considered to be quorate if there are a minimum of three disciplines represented. Recommendations and decisions will be based on a majority agreement of those present.

• Professionals attending the meeting should endeavour to reach agreement regarding the recommended course of action. If agreement

cannot be reached, the group can agree to defer a decision pending investigation of further inquiries; in the event there are no further leads to pursue then the chair has the final decision.

• Reasons of dispute and action taken to resolve the matter should be clearly documented.

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