LOOKING THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS

The Integration of children’s services aims to ensure access to the right service, at the right time and in the right place for children with additional needs and their families. In theory this sounds simple, however in practice integration is complex and takes time to achieve. This research project uses a case study methodology to investigate the experiences of teaching practitioners trained in the thrive© programme (Gerlach & Bird, 2005) with the aim of discovering and understanding their experiences in relation to integrated practice. Interpretive analysis of the data indicates that progress is being made to integrate practice despite the current socio-political change and reductions in public sector funding. The findings suggest that key factors to achieving success include local collaborative leadership with a shared vision developed from local need, together with continued investment in the professional development of the frontline workforce. The findings also advocate the use of theory to develop structures that enable multi-professionals to come together to communicate, explore and challenge each other as helpful processes in building trusting and respectful relationships critical to the development of innovative integrated practice. Finally this study distils the outcomes into ‘fuzzy generalisations’ (Bassey, 1999) that will influence my practice, as a manager of integrated children’s services, and will hopefully be of use to the school and community to further develop local integrated practice