Headteacher, primary school

Pratap is headteacher of a primary school in an inner-city area. Around 86 per cent of the children speak English as a second language and 82 per cent receive free school meals. Pratap has led the school through the transition to multi-agency working. His school is one of a group of primary schools working with the local behaviour and education support team (BEST).

"Before the multi-agency team came to work with the school, I felt that I was managing disasters and fighting fires. Without them, changes to the way the school works would have taken a long time to implement. They have really contributed making the vision for a more successful school become a reality. But we, as a school, had to put something in to get something back."

Before the arrival of the BEST, Pratap would usually be in classrooms between 9:00am and 3:00pm, resolving problems or supporting staff. He would also lead group work with particularly challenging pupils. Pratap would carry out his management, administrative and planning work before and after the school day.

He felt that there were so many pressures he did not have the time and capacity to provide strategic leadership. Pratap had a clear vision for the direction of the school and was frustrated that he did not have the ability to implement it. Pratap also had to handle the media carefully because of the poor reputation of the school locally.

Pratap benefited from committed staff who wanted change and improvement in the school. However, they were understandably beleaguered by constantly working in very challenging circumstances. Pratap had to spend a lot of time working to improve confidence and morale. Pratap felt that the staff should not just be measured in terms of achievement statistics, but in terms of the quality and involvement of their teaching. He was keen to get outside skills and expertise to help the staff, and requested to be part of the local BEST pilot. He felt that this would give the school an additional support system which would be beneficial to staff and pupils.

The BEST that came to work with the school was made up of a family worker, support teacher, play worker, an educational psychologist and a worker with experience in arranging education provision outside school. First they monitored the school, before setting up strategies to address behaviour both in and out of the school. The team also identified individuals and families who would benefit from additional support.

Challenges of multi-agency working

There were a number of challenges to begin with, and the school and BEST have not always had a smooth working relationship.

The main challenge for Pratap has been to secure the support and buy-in of the staff. The staff were suspicious it might be a short-term initiative, so at first they were not as responsive and honest with the BEST as they are now.
Staff found it especially difficult to understand the perspective and views of BEST members who were not from an education background. These team members were expected to 'prove themselves' and their ability.
School staff had to recognise that they also had responsibilities to the BEST, such as carrying out appropriate monitoring and making appropriate referrals, to ensure that the work was effective.

Pratap feels that good management and leadership can help staff come to terms with the involvement of outside agencies.

Pratap tried to make sure that staff felt supported and not attacked by the 'outsiders'. He did this by making it clear the BEST were there to change the school system and not individual teachers.
He presented the BEST as a resource to identify the needs of pupils and schools, and to suggest and develop solutions.
Staff were encouraged to view the BEST as a partner to work on long-term strategy and development with, not as an outsider parachuted in to provide a quick fix.

Benefits of multi-agency working

Pratap thinks the BEST has made a real difference to his work, to his staff and, most importantly, to the children in his school.

He is now able to spend more of his time on leadership and management, such as working on subject strategies and whole-school policies.
Behaviour systems have been put in place and are proving sustainable, so Pratap and the staff spend much less time addressing individual behaviour problems.
Pratap and the staff have the time to take a more proactive approach to problems, and to plan their work properly, which means it is more effective and less draining.
Pratap thinks that multi-agency working is really beneficial in setting up solution-focused systems, and reduces the perception that school staff can refer to other services to get difficult cases off their hands.
He also thinks its important that they have been able to offer support to families, as the team is able to identify and address needs holistically rather than focusing on one aspect of a problem. He thinks that families have been happy to access support from the BEST, when previously they did not know where to go for support, or were concerned about accessing social services.

Pratap is very enthusiastic about multi-agency working and is building on the foundations established by BEST to make new links with other services. The school is contributing to a new partnership which is being set up by health, social services and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to look at the contribution multi-agency working can make to other issues faced by children.

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Last updated on 30/04/2009

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