2.1 Care Planning and Co-ordination in the context of the GIRFEC Practice Model
This protocol describes the framework within health for the safe and effective care management of babies, children and young people with complex care needs and/or associated family related vulnerabilities.
Developed in line with the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child1 this framework assumes family centeredness with the child and family/carers at the heart of decision making, who are included and involved at all points in the patients journey. Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) is the national multi-agency approach to improving outcomes for children and young people in Scotland. NHSGGC is committed to delivering the principles of GIRFEC throughout children’s health service. Full detail of GIRFEC can be found in the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright.
It provides clarity of duties and responsibilities for health professionals in developing a comprehensive child’s healthcare plan which is coordinated and provides ongoing review and assessment.
It includes the Antenatal Universal Pathway developed across Maternity, Family Nurse Partnership and Universal Health Visiting Services, based upon GIRFEC principles. (Appendix 1)
This protocol introduces the concept of and circumstances where there is a requirement to appoint a Lead Health Professional whose role is to ensure that planning and delivery of complex health care, ongoing and particularly at discharge and times of transition remains robust and coordinated.
It applies GIRFEC principles in identifying both a Lead Health Professional role and multidisciplinary team known as the Team around the Child (TAC).
It enhances the support to children, young people and families provided by the Named Person and enables a person centred care response to identified health needs.
Where another agency is involved with the child, young person or family and fulfils the role of the Lead Professional, the framework strengthens the health contribution to multiagency assessment and planning (via the role the Lead Health Professional) and ensures that complex heath care continues to be robustly planned and co-ordinated across all Multidisciplinary health teams involved with the child or young person’s care.
It describes a pathway which ensures seamless transition through services applying the same model and principles throughout the patient’s journey.
Any pathway has to be flexible and responsive to fluctuating need. Assessment and identification of care management is not a binary process and must be seen in the context of multiple factors such as changing need and vulnerabilities, or at points of transition and transfer of care.
Information sharing between professionals and services is an essential component in the ongoing assessment and identification of need. (Appendix 2).
Robust communication between professionals must be diligently endorsed and applied throughout the patient’s journey.
Systems and processes must be in place which supports effective communications and information sharing.
Datasets must be agreed by services which enable effective care management as well as provide the ability to monitor outcomes.
It is the duty and responsibility of professionals to fully embrace the GIRFEC principles and undertake robust assessment of need based on wellbeing indicators and may also include the My World Triangle concept.
2.2 Named Person and Lead Health Professional Role
The Named Person Role
Every child and young person will have a Named Person. The Named Person will usually be a practitioner from a health board or an education authority, and someone whose job will mean they are already working with the child. The Named Person will act as the first point of contact for children, young people and families providing a central point of contact if a child, young person or their parent (s) want information or advice, or if they want to talk about any worries and seek support The Named Person can also, when appropriate, reach out to different services who can help and enable access to assistance more easily.
The role includes:
- Assessment of what children and young people need, within the context of their professional responsibilities
- Linking with the relevant services that can help them
And - Being a single point of contact for services that children and families can use, if they wish. The Named Person is in a position to intervene early to prevent difficulties escalating. This is an essential feature of a child centred approach to early intervention.
The role offers a way for children and young people to make sense of a complicated service environment, as well as a way to prevent any problems or challenges they are facing in their lives remaining unaddressed due to professional service boundaries. Their job is to understand what children and young people need, and quickly make the connection to those services that can help when extra help is needed.
getting-right-child-practice-guidance-2-role-named-person-2022.pdf
The GIRFEC Lead Professional Role
There are some circumstances where children and young people’s needs involve two or more agencies working together delivering services to the child and family. Where this happens, in all cases, a Lead Professional will be needed. The Lead Professional becomes the person within the network of practitioners supporting the child, young person and family who will make sure that the different agencies work together and the help they are all offering fits together seamlessly to provide appropriate support for the child and family. The Lead Professional will have a significant role in working with other agencies to co-ordinate a multi-agency Child’s Plan. 6. What is the role of the lead professional? - Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) Practice Guidance 3 – The role of the lead professional - gov.scot
Across the Local Authorities contained within Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Health, Education and Social work have agreed the following demarcations for identifying Named Person and Lead Professional responsibility:
Age and Stage |
Named Person |
Children aged 0-5 from midwife handover |
Health Visitor / Family Nurse Partnership |
Children school aged children (still in education) |
Education Staff |
Children and Young Person |
Lead Professional |
Pre birth to 10-14 days old |
Midwife |
All looked after children |
Social Work Services |
Children with complex health needs |
Children’s Services |
Child Protection |
Social Work Services |
N.B. Family Nurses will also take on the role of the named person for those families enrolled on the Family Nurse Partnership Program until 2 years of age before transitioning to the health visitor. Pathway from maternity services pre birth complex babies and Health Visiting being created.
2.3 The role and function of the Lead Health Professional (for this single agency health plan)
It is recognised as best practice to provide children and young people who have complex health needs and their and families with a ‘care coordinator’, identified from the body of health professionals providing care and support to the child and family. This care coordinator is known as the Lead Health Professional (LHP).
An LHP is appointed based upon assessment of need, and or the professional who has the most effective engagement and or therapeutic relationship with the child or young person and family
The role is to coordinate the key activities contained within a multidisciplinary healthcare plan.
The term Lead Health Professional describes a designated clinician within the team who has responsibility to co-ordinate the organisation of patient care activities to facilitate the appropriate delivery of the required health care services to a child or young person
The role exists to ensure our complex health service pathway processes are progressed timeously and efficiently, and to ensure the child, young person and family has a clear point of contact.
The role of LHP should augment the continuing role of the Named person recognising the need for enhanced coordination and access to a broad range of services to optimise care for children and young people with exceptional care needs.
2.4 Team around the Child (TAC)
- The Team around the child is comprised of the key professionals involved with the child and family. The Lead health professional is identified from and by the membership of the Team around the child. In some cases dual/ Joint Health lead professional is required with identified professional from acute and one community to coordinate the care plan.
- The Team around the child is responsible for coordination of robust multi- disciplinary assessment of need, the creation, of a single child’s healthcare plan, co-ordination of delivery and evaluation of the impact of the child’s plan in addressing their identified needs, and improving their outcomes.
- For complex care management to be delivered a variety of professionals with the necessary competencies must work as a team to augment the role of GP, Universal and Primary Care Service. There will be a range of specialist skills within the members of the Team around the child (TAC).
- Professionals will engage with the child or young person ongoing /or at appropriate stages for the delivery of a specific intervention from an individual discipline.
- Health professionals will adopt collaborative working practices to facilitate joint appointments and visits with the child or young person, and their families and carers where appropriate, ensuring responsive service provision reflective of ongoing and changing needs.
Key Principles to:
- Provide services in accordance with local and national key performance indicators, recognised best practise, and other emerging targets.
- Provide care based on assessment of the child, young person and family’s needs, promoting the health and wellbeing of the child and family, and ensure social inclusion of the child and family supporting families to live ordinary lives.
- Act as a contact/link for the family and communicate with Named Person.
- Actively involve children and young people and their families, adopting What Matters to You (WMTY) approach, together with their primary care team, in all decisions affecting them.
- Facilitate family and professional collaboration at all levels of service provisions
- Respect and honour the racial, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic and gender diversity of the child, young person and family.
Key aims are:
- Provision of multi-disciplinary assessment, diagnosis and interventions based upon the guiding principles of Realistic Medicine.
- Seamless transition to new lead health professional when that clinical need has resolved and new presenting need emerges.
- Co-ordination and management of care
- Co-ordination and dissemination of information relating to the child or young person to multi-disciplinary and multi-agency meetings and professionals
- Provision of high quality family centred care and support
- Maximised health and quality of life outcomes for children and young people
- Onward referral and signposting where appropriate
- Effective transition planning
Essential Members of the Team around the Child Team (TAC):
- RHC Paediatricians /paediatric surgeons./ RHC practitioners
- Community Paediatricians
- General Practitioner
- Clinical Nurse Specialist
- Ward based Nursing Team
- Community Paediatric Nursing
- Health Visiting
- Family Nurse Partnership
- Mainstream School Nursing
- ASL School Nursing
- Hospital Allied Health Professionals
- Community Paediatric Physiotherapy
- Community Paediatric Occupational Therapy
- Community Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy
- CAMHS (where appropriate)
- Dieticians
- Others
- Third Sector Providers (where appropriate)
In addition at transition to adult services, adult clinical teams will join the TAC and might include professional(s) from Mental Health, Learning Disability, Addiction, Acute and Community Adult Services. Also Team Around the child (TAC) to consider advocacy workers as appropriate.
2.5 Multidisciplinary Assessment and Care Planning by the Team around the Child
The formation of a person centred single child healthcare plan requires gathering a range of information to inform the type and level of support required for the individual child or young person and the family based on robust assessment of need
This is the responsibility of the Team around the Child and is coordinated by the Lead health professional. Implementation and progress is reviewed via multidisciplinary Complex care coordination meetings for children and young people with Complex exceptional healthcare needs. The complex care co-ordination meeting will enable the development of a multidisciplinary assessment based upon professional assessments and facilitate the creation of a healthcare plan.
The meeting will:
- Coordinate a multidisciplinary assessment of the needs of the child or young person
- Develop a single child’s care plan
- Secure the views of the child or young person and their parents /carers
- Identify and agree the input of members of the Multi-disciplinary team
- Implement the care plan, with clear timetable for planned review
- The child’s plan will explain what the expected outcomes are for the child within defined timescale, what actions are to be taken and by whom.
- The child's health plan is coordinated by a 'lead health professional': someone with the right skills and experience to make sure the plan is managed properly.
- Depending on the situation and the child's needs, the lead professional may also be their named person or a health professional who had key impact on their care. This can change over time but communication with the Team around the child must remain and be considered at each review point or as requested.
- The child and parent(s) will know what information is being shared, with whom and for what purpose and their views will be taken into account. (This may not happen in exceptional cases, such as where there is a concern for the safety of a child or someone else this aspect will fall under NHS GGC Child protection guidelines. National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 - updated 2023 - gov.scot
- The parents/carers and child and young people must be active contributors to their plan with the views listed too and considered documented. In the event the families do not wish to be engaged or have Coordinate care plan this should be considered by practitioners involved, parents supported to ensure their decision is informed and documents in the child’s records the reason why.
2.6 Request for Assistance
There may be occasions during the patient journey when the identified needs and indicator of risk change requiring alteration to the child healthcare plan. This can be identified by the professionals involved or the parents/ child or young person. When this happens the Professional who identified the change invokes the Request for Assistance Procedure or a referral. (Appendix 3)
When a health professional considers discharge of the child or young person from service. (This should be done in conjunction with Team around the Child to ensure that there will be no detriment to the child’s overall care needs and/or outcomes by discharge from an individual service
The Request for assistance form/ Referral form should be completed and submitted to the identified agency /Health service in which the practitioner believes could support child’s unmet needs.
If the practitioner is unsure that the request is appropriate or proportionate -a telephone call to the service to discuss in first instance is recommended. This will allow fuller discussion/ consultation and considerations as well as acceptance and understanding of the case and proposed plan.
In the form a concise summary of any concerns that have been identified as needing addressed by another practitioner, service or agency should be clearly noted
In the event of a Request for Assistance not being accepted due to not meeting service specifications, communication must be established to understand why not and to support/ analyze to next steps.
Escalation will be via Team leader/Lead Nurse/ Service manager to support wider system working to support strategic improved outcomes for children within the requested service and the requester service. This must be done in a timeous manner to avoid delay to care and interventions to the child and family.
Practitioners involved with the Complex/Vulnerable child should consider the support in line with the GIRFEC 5 key question principals. (Appendix 5 -GIRFEC 5 Questions Practice Checklist.)
This carries an explicit requirement for the Named Person, Lead health professional and team around the child to provide assistance by responding as follows:
- Convene a Team around the child request for assistance where they identify any emerging risks or concerns and feel the current plan is no longer meeting the needs of the child, young person or their family
- Escalate concerns to their line manager where they feel their request for assistance had not elicited the response and support required to address emerging risks and concerns for the child or their family.
- Contribute fully to Team around the child meetings and send a deputy where attendance is not possible
- Ensure they share pertinent information appropriately and timeously with the Team around the child .
- Update child’s healthcare plan to reflect changes.
- Amend frequency of scheduled review meetings as required.
2.7 Evaluation and Review
Children and Young People with exceptional health needs will require ongoing evaluation and review of their health needs.
The membership of the Team around the child are responsible for these ongoing assessment and review. The membership of the Team around the child may change in response to the changing needs of the child or young person. If at any time the membership requires to elicit support of specific or specialist service to help assess or meet the needs of the child they should make a Referral / Request for assistance to the appropriate professional to elicit this support.