Joining forces: case studies of integrated working in children's services

Celebrating the work of the Occupational Group Fund

Joining forces is a celebration of work that has brought employees and volunteers in the children's workforce together to learn and develop. Each of the projects highlighted has received support from CWDC's Occupational Group Fund (OGF).

This funding has helped them promote and support integrated working between different professions and traditions. Integrated working enables workers to connect with each other, to focus their behaviour on improving outcomes for children and to join forces to keep them safe.
Delivering the best quality services possible for children, young people and families.
Joining forces tells the story of twelve groups of workers from across the country and across the workforce who have set out to improve how they work with others. Each group has drawn workers from different sectors and occupational groups together and demonstrated the value of collaborative approaches to training and staff development.

• Barnardo's - Father figures
  Engaging African Caribbean dads in training children's workers
• Barnardo's - Total respect
  Looked after young people help to educate social work students
• bibic - A special approach for special children
  One charity's work to share their model of integration with the wider children's workforce
• Blackpool Council - Valuable volunteering
  Supporting families through a quality volunteering programme
• Bromley by Bow Centre - Creativity in childcare
  Improving children's experiences through shared training
• Croydon Youth Service - Stretching the boundaries
  Using the web to train sessional youth workers in the Common Assessment Framework
• Dudley Council - Driving up quality in a scattered workforce
  A workbook for newly registered childminders
• London Borough of Camden - Team around the practice
  Workers join up services for children and families accessing a local health practice
• Middlesbrough Children's Trust - Putting the work into networking
  Listening to children connects early years workers
• Partnership for Young London - Lighting the blue touch paper
  London's Regional Youth Unit sparks strategic planning for integrated training and workforce development
• Peterborough VSF - The long arm of the voluntary sector
  Research to plug a knowledge gap for family support workers
• Rosetta Life - Everyone wants someone to play with
  Centering skills around children's needs