[Ruthierhyme]

Hi, this is from page 153 of the Early Years Educator handbook

The complexity of partnership working
We have seen that there are several barriers to partnership working. What can make partnership working more complex is when families and children require the input of many different professionals at one. Coodinating the different input can be difficult and it is easy for communication and information sharing to break down. Thjis might happen for a variety of reasons.

Parental Consent
It may be that parents do not give their consent for information to be shared between professionals and, unless it is a safeguarding matter, their wishes have to be respected.

Systems of keeping information
We have seen that sharing information about a child is important when morre than one professional is involved. This is not always easy as each serv ice will keep their own records. In many areas of England, these cannot be accessed by other services.

Changes of professionals
Difficulties can arise when there are changes of professionals. Parents and early years staff might have built up a good relationahip with one professional and then a different person may come into the role. When a child or family has many different professionals working with them, this may cause a lack of continuity.

Coordination
Ideally, when a child or family has many different professionals working with them,, it would be good for eveyone involved to meet up. Unless thereare safeguarding idssues, this may not happen very often ot not at all. This is because it can be difficult to coordinate a meeting when everyone is free to attend. Ideally, in complex cases, a lead professional is appointed. A lead professional is responsible for coordinating and sharing information with the range of professionals involved with the family.

It'll help if you use examples for your setting that show how partnership working can become complex.

Hope this helps