What is a Team Around the Family?
Where a multi agency response is identified from the CAF assessment, a Team Around the Family brings together relevant practitioners with the young person, child or family to address unmet needs.
The Team Around the Family work together to plan co-ordinated support from agencies to address problems in a holistic way through an agreed written support plan which clarifies each team member’s responsibilities.
The young person or child and their parents/carers are equal members of the team.
The aim is to reduce duplication and support a common service delivery approach.
The Team Around the Family agree who will be the Lead Practitioner.
The other team members have a responsibility to support the Lead Practitioner by following through on the activities they agreed to deliver, keeping the Lead Practitioner informed about progress, providing reports to agreed timescales and attending Team Around the Family meetings where meetings are appropriate.
A Lead Practitioner is accountable to their home agency for their delivery of the Lead Practitioner functions. They are not responsible or accountable for service delivery of other team members, only for monitoring what agreed actions have taken place.
The Team around the family share a collective responsibility to deliver co-ordinated support.
Further guidance can be found in the Gateshead Protocol on: The Common Assessment Framework, Team Around the Family and the Role of the Lead Practitioner.