Understand partnership working in services for children and young people l 2

Working in partnership with others is very important for children and young people; it will help them to have consistent routines, which is very essential it provides them with a sense of security and structure to their day. All adults who work with children and young people have a duty to get on very well with each other to demonstrate a positive attitude at work setting and to develop good professional relationships and also be a good role model to the children and young people they are caring for, this will help determine the type of care the child needs; temperament, likes, dislikes, health, interest and behaviour.

Successful relationships between colleagues will allow them to pull together to create a warm, friendly welcoming atmosphere and maintain a safeenvironmentfor the children and young people and also to build a plan fix for individual this will help to avoid any unnecessary conflicts or misunderstanding between them.

Parents/carers must always be involved in their children’s daily learning development and willing to work with the child care workers as part of the team, so good relationship and goodcommunicationskills between the two parties will have a huge effect on the child’s development, and it will make it easier for both to approach one another for any feedback and concerns for the child which is important to have this information and be aware of any sudden change in the child to act fast, to resolve any problems he/she may have, after all parents/carers and practioners are all aiming at the same goal, that is the health and well being of the children and young people and to make sure that they have the opportunities to get the most out of life.

Feedbacks between the two happens either face to face when the parents/carers drop off their children or at the pick up time, but sometimes through informal meetings to discuss their child’s progress and needs, and suggest ways in which parents/carers can stimulate their child’s learning and development at home. The importance of these meetings is to have a clear picture and full understanding of the child in addition to organize activities that will encourage the child’s physical, emotional, intellectual, and social growth. It is the practioners duty to help children explore individual interests, build self-esteem, develop talents and independence and learn how to get along with others. In some cases unfortunately are not straight forward, where outside professional agencies may get involved in the child’s life where there may be issues like for xample, speech difficulties, in this case the child will be referred to speech therapy where he/she be seen by a specialist who will provide sessions on one to one basis, to help the child to improve their speech. For children who are affected by behaviour or emotional difficulties, psychologist will be involved in their learning development. Social services may be involved too if there are any concerns or sign ofchild abuse, it is their duty to investigate any alleged incident and to assess the risk to the child and their need for protection. Social workers will often work closely with the child and thefamilyto provide them with supports, but if the child is highly at risk of abuse, then the police will be contacted and involved too.

Other outside agencies who may be involved are physio, they provide exercises to help children who having problems with their muscular or breathing problems. SENCO is responsible for supporting children with specialeducationneeds to reduce the underachievement gap and enable all children to reach their full potential. Children who are facing problems with visual or hearing impairment are referred to sensory impairment team who will offer the best advice to the parents/carers on how to help the child and also how to use equipment effectively. The effective partnership working together is to share information about the child, their interests, routines and working to resolve issues such behaviour, sleep routine etc…

That is why it is vital to have good working partnership with parents/carers or guardians, they seem to know their child better than anybody else when it comes to the child’s interests, needs and strengths. Many parents/carers are very supportive and have a very good knowledge on how to help their child, especially where the child has medical or physical disability. When there is poor or lack of communication between the two parties, lot of unnecessary conflicts and misunderstanding will appear causing barriers to partnership which may have a strong effects on the child’s learning development. Sometimes there are various reasons for barriers to partnership working; one of them could be simply language barrier, culture, attitude and social economical background.

There are also many reasons can cause barriers between practioners and the child, it can be anything that prevents the child from participating fully because he/she was not given a chance to try certain activities, which make him feel excluded from the group. Some adults have a belief that disabled children are incapable, or to be pitied or feared. Barriers can be environmental too where the premises are inaccessible due to steps or poor lighting or other difficulties that occur within the environment such as the use of complex language; or it could be a lack of discriminatory policies or procedures. In order to promote inclusion, practioners must be aware of features that may cause a barrier to participation.

Good communication between partners is central to working with children and young people and parents/carers; it helps build trusts and understanding the perspective of others. It also encourages them to seek advice and uses services; it is key to establishing and maintaining relationships. It is important for practioners to use clear language to communicate with all children, young people, and parents/carers and all partners including people who find communication difficult to overcome any conflicts and misunderstandings, it is best to summarise situations in the appropriate way for the individual, taking account factors such as background, age andpersonality.

Having a clear communication between partners will make it easier to collect and gain information on the children and understand their needs which will help providing the right activities for individual and maintain a safe learning environment for the children and young people whom they are working with, and again it becomes much easier to communicate about issues and resolve problems that inevitably arise. Listening is the heart of clear communication, when people feel listened to and have their feelings accepted, they feel relief and move on to problem solving but when they do not feel understood or they feel judged or are interrupted, their annoyance or upset increases. Policies vary depending on type of work and the business, but there are quite a few policies that every work place should have like A Code of Conduct sets standards of ethical conduct and work place behaviour.

Policies in workplace is a statement of principle and practice dealing with ongoing management and administration of the organisation, they act as a guiding frame of reference for how the organisation deals with everything from its day-to day operational problems or how to respond to requirements to comply with legislation, regulation and codes of practice. Policies explain how to perform tasks and duties, it is a procedure specifying who in the organisation is responsible for particular tasks and activities, or how they should be carry out their duties, these should be reasonable and clearly understood. Confidentiality is one of the things that is included in child care policy, it is very vital to be kept private unless otherwise.

This confidential information is private and personal; it includes: *Address *Contact number *Birth date *Emergency contact information *Records of any medical history including immunisations *Contact information of the next kin *Details of the child’s GP & dentist *Nutritional restrictions *progress reports that has been gathered byobservation*Referrals details *slips/forms of any injury occurring at the program *family changes All these information must be treated confidential in all child care programs and must not be shared outside the programs between friends and families of practioners; it is against the confidentiality policy and can have serious consequences. It can upset lot of people.

Trust may be lost causing damage to working relationships and also leads to disciplinary action by superior, not to mention the bad affect on the care worker’s professional reputation. Sensitive information should made available to practitioners only on a need-to-know basis. That means that different practitioners in the same setting will not necessarily have access to the same information. Therefore should not discuss confidential matters with colleagues unless it is appropriate and can be done privately. Sometimes confidential information needs to be discussed with parents/carers, this should be done privately as well. All this confidential information must be stored securely and handed with care.

Never leave sensitive paperwork or files where people who do not need to know will have access to them. If a setting stores records on computer, they must be registered on the Data Protection Register. There are rules about what information can be recorded and how information should be kept. Referrals take place for different reasons such as having concerns about the safety, welfare and/ or well being of children etc… Referrals of children in need should whenever possible, be accompanied by a statement of consent from the child or young person and parents/carers. Children and young people who are suffering significant harm will have social services involved in their cases, or maybe even the police depending how serious the harm is.

Some children who having difficulty in communication will be referred to speech therapy, who will arrange one to one sessions once a week with parents/carers permission, the child will be assessed by specialist to help them recognize the cause of speech delay or problem, and what kind of methods and activities will be useful for individual to be able to respond to the treatment he/she be receiving. Other children may have different issues like behaviour, or emotional difficulties, in this case they will be seen by psychologist and again same procedure will be needed. Physio will deal with children and young people who have muscular or emotional problems. Physio will use exercise for this matters.