Paper Example: Multi-Agency Meeting

Some of the professionals in our multi-agency meeting included; police, health facilitation nurses, welfare social workers, housing officers and the drug and substance abuse manager. We carried out the multi-agency meeting to work on the various plans we would use in helping the child Sammy as well as Derek and Cora his parents. This is after we noticed that the child's living conditions were deplorable ( a cramped and damp bedsitter) and that his parents were not working meaning that they could barely sustain the various needs the child needed. Our group made sure to follow the 2017 Children and Social work Act which outlines how various agencies should work together and also places some new duties to the local authority, clinical commissioning groups and the police to make proper arrangements of working together with other individuals to help safeguard and enhance for any child within their area (Calder & Horwath, 2018).

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As children grow, they need the use of various services vital for their development and other significant life skills. When working with a new child, the multi-agency needs to integrate all successfully to make the Childs parent aware that the child has been accepted and welcomed in the multi-agency (Atkinson et al., 2001). Considering this, we carried out the agency meeting to work with various professionals to ensure Sammy received the proper equipment necessary in helping him.

Key Issues the Group Worked on

Adult social care service: our team worked on how to provide services to the Childs parents (Cora and Derek) since them responsible for the two-month-old child in need. We first checked whether the child needed just general help or specific help of been protected from harm. We noticed that Sammy, the child required general help since his parents were not financially stable and were not working (Brand &White, 2017). Sammy also required protection from harm because his mother is a shoplifter while his father is very violent, especially when drunk, and this can make him hurt the baby. Additionally, the father was once convicted for having intentions of supplying class A drugs, and he, therefore, needed reform to avoid posing risks to the child.

Housing services: our agency noticed that the housing condition in which the baby was living with his parents was deplorable and they could have adverse effects on the child. The child and the parents were living in a cramped and a damp bedsit (Wood, 2016). Taking this into account and also the impacts such living conditions could have on the child health as well as the safety hazards in the environment which are vulnerable to the child, we decided on the actions to take to give the child better living environment.

Health: according to the case, a health visitor noticed that the Childs mother appeared to have some bruises on the neck and on the arm, some of which seemed to be fresh and others old. Our multi-agency team consisted of health professionals (nurse) who helped identify the welfare needs, safeguard and offer support to the vulnerable child( Edwards et al., 2009). The fact that the mother had some injuries meant that the child was also not safe at all, and he could go the same thing any time. We understood the risk factors like violent father and the mother who was a shoplifter and responded to them. We did this by bringing primary care practitioners or health visitors like nurses for the child. As for the parents, we brought alcohol and drug services by treating the parents to ensure that the Derek did not try engaging in supplying class A drugs while Cora would not attempt using the drugs in future.

We also involved the police to help in safeguarding the child and the family and made them aware that the child's welfare was at risk by living with a violent father and a shoplifter mother and that there was, therefore, a need for the child to be protected against any harm. We noticed that the behaviours of the two parents might have some significant risks to the child and officers needed to pay special attention. The officers were aware of how the father been involved in possession of the class "A" drugs and the mother been arrested for shoplifting could adversely affect the child (Fergusson & Horwood, 2003). Our main aim for involving the police is because we knew that they have the right to get any child out of unsuitable accommodations, especially when it is clear that the child will suffer some significant harm. Since we wanted to remove the child from the parents and take him to a better place, the police were of very great help to us.

My Professional Role in the Agency

The agency gave me the role of drug and substance misuse abuse. I ensured that I talked with Derek and Cora on how they can deal effectively with peer pressure. This is because the major reason why most individuals engage in drug and substance abuse is due to influence form their friends and people around them. I taught the parents on the proper ways they could deal with various life pressure. In this case, the parents were facing unemployment; hence they could barely sustain themselves financially or afford appropriate living conditions, and he could have pushed the father to engage in supplying the class "A" drugs. I made them aware of the several risks factors like physical, environmental or psychological factors which they possessed and pushed them to abuse drugs ( McDaniel & Bielen, 1990). This enabled them to identify the various ways of dealing with these risk factors. Lastly, my role also involves educating the parents on how to keep a properly balanced life. Most individuals engage in drug abuse because something might not be well with their lives; hence they are unhappy. I taught them to look at the big picture of life and how to set their priorities in order.

Overview of Each Professional Role

Police: the powers of the police which guide them in protecting children are governed by the 1989 Children Act where section 46 of the Act allows the police to take any person involved in neglecting or abusing the child in custody without having any warrant until their cases are brought in a court of law (Morris, 1999).

The police in our agency took into custody both Derek and Cora for showing negligence to the child. This was after they made some professional judgments and decisions whether Sammy was at risk by being in a dangerous environment and whether there were chances of him facing significant harm. The best place to keep the child was at the hospital since the child would receive proper protection from the nurses in the facility.

Health facilitation nurse: protecting the child by identifying child protection concerns. According to the public nursing act, the RPNs and the RNs meeting specific conditions have the authority and power to initiate particular controlled Acts( Morris,1999). Therefore, the RPNs and RNs can independently make decisions that specific procedures are necessary and even start these procedures without any particular order or any directive from any physician.

The role of the facilitation nurse complimented the part of the other professionals in the agency. The facilitation nurse was in a very privileged position of forming a good relationship with Cora and Derek who are the Childs parent, and this would enable the facilitation nurse to see the child in his real environment something hard for most of the other professionals.

As a health facilitation nurse, the individual had significant roles in working with other professionals and organizations to protect and safeguard the child. This is because the nurse has been trained in recognizing the triggers of concern, the risks and specific signs of neglect and abuse in children.

Welfare social worker: according to the UK's children and social work Act 2017, the social worker should enhance the well-being of safeguarding the child. Section 23 of the Act states that the local authority should accommodate the child appropriately and also maintain them (Morris, 1999). The local authorities should give any child under the age of 16 years care until they are 21 years old.

Therefore, the primary role of our welfare social worker was to protect the child from the situations he was in; like neglect and risks of significant harm form the violent father. The social worker ensured that proper social, emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing of the child.

Housing officer: following the 1989 Children Act, section 17 of the Act states that all social services have a standard duty of safeguarding children and also promoting their welfare in instances when these children are in need( Morris,1999).

Therefore, the housing officers in our agency had the power to give financial assistance and also accommodation for a child who was needed for shelter. The housing officer ensured that the Childs health and well-being was promoted and that the residence of the safeguarded child met the standards of a decent home.

Why the Multi-Agency Meeting was Appropriate

As stated earlier, our multi-agency meeting included the police, a welfare social worker, a housing officer, health facilitation nurse and the senior child protection manager. This meeting was appropriate since it consisted of the proper professionals needed in instances of a neglected or abused child to offer the best protection to the child. In our case, Sammy was a child who needed help since he was at the risk of suffering significant harm. His father was convicted for having intentions of supplying class "A" drugs, and he always gets violent whenever he is drunk, this meant that Sammy might suffer violence from his father hence the need for our multi-agency meeting to plan on how to protect him. Also, his mother has been caught shoplifting severally, and she also had some bruises a clear indication that the child was not safe to live with his parents. Lastly, our meeting was appropriate since it also looked at how this child would be given proper living environment since he and his parents were living in a damped and cramped bedsit which can have serious harm to the child.

Service user Contribution in Decision Making

Service user refers to the person using or receiving primary or secondary services. Service user participation is essential since it has always been associated with positive or good clinical outcomes like improved confidence, self-esteem, and also some therapeutic effects which results from improved social interaction (Stafford et al., 2011). Inclusion of service user in decision making is considered to offer vital inputs in the decision-making process; having this in mind, we decided to include Sammy's parents in the decision-making process. The method used by our multi-agency to make the decision include; first, we identified the decision which was to safeguard Sammy by giving her proper living conditions away from his parents who were posing some significant risk to him. During this stage, we made sure that we involved Derek and Cora, who are Sammy's parents in this initial stage. Second, we gathered some pertinent information about Sammy as well as his parents since they were the best people to give us relevant information about the family. Thirdly, we identified various alternatives which we could use to protect Sammy and decided to follow the appropriate means like using the police, welfare social workers and nurses to safeguard the child. This was after weighing the evidence and choosing among the various alternatives.