Multi-Agency Approach to Early Childhood Studies - Essay Example

Introduction The need to provide children with highly effective services that encompass quality and speedy response in development and acquisition ofeducation, has proved an important undertaking for effective provision of children's needs. This can be made possible through identification of the needs of the children as the main driving force and the central agenda in every undertaking that seeks to provide the best means of catering for the needs of children. Hence all those parties that deal with children can be of great importance in provision of information that can assist in elevating the position of the children, when pooled in an initiative that aims to solve the problems associated with children. This means that their collaboration in initiatives that aim to upraise the level of development and educational standards of the children would yield diversified information that can prove highly effective in taking care of the needs of the children. Such agencies may include the kindergarten/preschool practitioners, staff working in children centres and junior schools, teachers, medical workers, social workers, and minders of children among many other child practitioners. All the afore mentioned groups of people working with children have some information that they can share with each other about how they can improve the conditions of children given that working with the children has given them some experience and insights into the improvement of children's wellbeing. The performance of the initiatives would also mean that participants recognize the role of parents and guardians as the primary educators of the children and as people who understand the children keenly. Hence, a multi-agency approach to early childhood studies can be an effective tool in taking care of a myriad of the needs of the children. A multi-agency approach in early childhood studies is a system that integrates the contribution of different stakeholders each playing a role in the development of the children in finding and attempting to overcome the factors that downplay the wellbeing of the children. This approach is designed to offer results of improved learning and development for the children. The collaborative effort calls for cohesion of the organizations/ agencies delving in the initiative for the sake of ensuring that the initiative succeeds. The government has pinpointed the major stakeholders for the role of development of the children as the social services department; the health department as well as the national service framework, among other agencies. Four premises that resonate around provision of children's needs are identified in Every Child Matters. They include: integration of families and caretakers into the intervention; protection of the children through involvement to prevent them from falling victims of predicaments; catering for the problems of poor accountability and poor agencies' collaboration- these two problems were identified in the report conducted by Victoria Climbie; and recognizing, training and valuing the people who care for and deal with children (Every Child Matters 2003p3). Some policies on children's services have been reconstructed from the four above named premises. Multi-agency collaboration in catering for the needs of children takes place in different levels e.g. through a coordinated effort, or through a unified approach. It has its challenges as this paper will discuss. These challenges emanate from the amalgamation of various agencies that hold different values and which utilize different approaches to provision of the needs of children, into a single initiative meant to reach the attainment of a common goal. At the same time, the different agencies working together may undertake different roles in the actual practice of studying the problems associated with children. Problems associated with multi-agency working Problems associated with finances Pooling of financial resources has always been considered strength of multi-agency working as it prevents overlapping that leads to wastage, and it assists the agencies to use available resources more effectively (Siraj et.al. 2008 p34). Agencies that come together to study the needs of the children often find them trapped in fiscal problems. The main concern has often been the provision of financial resources, during the actual research, which helps to offset financial problems encountered when gathering the needed information. The agencies are at times incapacitated from gathering enough data to make any progressive or important decisions that can lead to the improvement of the children's standards if the finances allocated prove insufficient. At the same time, the agencies find themselves failing to agree on the percentages to be contributed by participating agencies to cater for the financial needs of the undertaking. Some of the members of the team find themselves unable to pay the required/ postulated amounts in terms of percentages or even given figures that cut across the whole lot of the agencies participating in the undertaking. The other financial concern revolves around the sustainability of the intervention after the participating agencies are done with launching the intervention in a given community. This is always a concern when a given intervention requires continuity or is intended to last for a long period of time for it to prove effective. Funding may cease before the initiative can bear any fruits (Walker 2003 pp22-25). Non financial resources These include the staff to be involved in the actual undertaking. Such kind of staff is expected to be effective and suited for the kind of work that the multi-agency undertaking is involved in. At the same time, trust must be cultivated between the individuals working together and the roles undertaken divided in a manner that draws the best results for the undertaking. To enable this, the professionals taking the work must be comfortable enough to take up risks, share important issues and delve into business with the confidence that they are supported by all the other organizations engaged in the initiative. Time constrain also proves challenging with the professionals assigned different kinds of work having problems with the time they have been allocated to finish a given assignment. At times, the workload exceeds the time allocated for a given assignment thus forcing agencies to rush over their job and provide unreliable data. At times, the time allocated for a particular professional in the undertaking may coincide with the time the same professional is expected to undertake another task that may be equally important. This may call for prioritization of duties which at times may prove challenging. The challenges attributed to the non financial resources often impact on the advancement of the undertaking - during the initial stages of development, as well as its sustainability thereafter (Siraj et.al. 2008 pp36-37). Division of roles and responsibilities Due to the different practices and experiences that practitioners of the early childhood development have from the nature of the jobs they undertake, the multi-agency undertakings require the different individuals taking part in the initiative to take up different roles that eventually drain into achieving the common goal of developing the status of the children. There arises a challenge associated with the understanding of the different roles to be undertaken by the different individuals such that some of the individuals end up taking the wrong roles. This may result in the neglect of some parts of the undertaking. Having a huge number of professionals working on one area of the undertaking while some of the other areas are neglected leads to unequal development of the undertaking. This may prove detrimental to the project when the different parts of the project are dependent on each other for its success. Equally, professionals getting to know the roles of the other professionals within the initiative may prove challenging. Confusion as to who is charged with the responsibility of doing what may throw off coordination since the professionals fail to recognize the parties that can help them solve the emerging issues with the accuracy and precision that may be required in the given circumstance (Fitzgerald and Kay 2005 p41). The other area of conflict arises when the practitioners fail to understand the stages at which they need to switch their allocated roles to fit a given situation in order to save a prevailing situation. Change of roles might be expected in the process of delving into the initiative as some of the areas that may have been overlooked or not anticipated, may crop up in the process of developing the initiative. This may call for a change of roles that may be rendered ineffective in the process or at least for the realignment of the roles expected of a given individual in the undertaking. If the individuals fail to recognize the time in which to change their roles and responsibilities, parts of the initiative may suffer from neglect and may end up causing the whole initiative to break down. Organizational cultures The different organizations that come together during the multi-agency initiative often draw their operational stipulations from their constitutions. The stipulations direct the operations of the different organizations touching on the philanthropic stipulations, professional undertakings, rules of conduct and the values that these organizations uphold. The unity that the initiative adopts often intrudes into these organizational stipulations in the process altering them and at times disrupting them. The differences associated with procedures are also brought into the scenario during the multi-agency initiative such that some of the organizations are forced to carry out some of the undertakings in line with the requirements as opposed to the procedures that the organizations are familiar with. Other implications included differences in data preparation that may affect the understanding of shared information (Walker 2003 pp12-16). Communication Communication between the individuals taking part in a multi-agency initiative is viewed as an important undertaking for the success of the project. This helps in the creation of a smooth working environment as everyone is informed of the developments as they appear in the undertaking and the steps to be taken to ensure that the project succeeds. This means that anytime communication is broken, then a corresponding downplay of the success of the project is felt somewhere. The problem of communication can be experienced when the practitioners working at different levels fail to communicate effectively due to the issue of the differences in their levels of work. This may arise in cases where the different levels found within the organization are barred from communicating by the difference in levels of their work (Fitzgerald and Kay 2005 p42). The breakdown of communication between the organizations is believed to be brought about by the disruption caused when the individuals offering communication services from the different organizations are not known to these organizations. In this case then, communication is broken within the initiative and the progress may be stunted if not broken altogether. Management of the initiative The issue of managing the multi-agency initiative calls for the creation of a management team from among the individuals elected to push for the development of the initiative. For the sake of being effective, such a group must have the support of the junior staff for the sake of attaining the goal of the initiative. At the same time, this group has to be supported at the strategic level for the sake of winning the support of the people trusted with the development of the initiative. Challenges arise when the managers fail to get support from the juniors implying that the leaders were imposed on the 'subjects', who later reject the leaders at all the levels; in decision making, giving instructions, asking for support to pass important information e.t.c(Siraj et.al. 2008 p38). It should also be noted that if the management is left to the individuals holding leadership positions but whose presence is not found within the group, that is, leaders working in the field from their offices, then such an initiative often face the threat of failing as such leaders are never physically present to determine what really is the problem the initiative is facing, and how best from an experienced position, the problem can be solved (Pugh 2001p56). Another major challenge experienced in this cadre is the identification of the persons with the right qualities for the job, and then to later match them with the persons with whom they can best work with to produce the best possible results for the initiative. When some factors like the afore mentioned organizational cultures are put into consideration, then each of the persons pooled into the managerial team drawn from the different categories of the organizations participating in the initiative will come in with different approaches that they are familiar with but which might prove totally different from those of the other organizations. This often leads to conflicts and a delay in making decisions that affect the development of the initiative thus in effect delay the success of the initiative. The management team must also be prepared to find all the possible means of getting or winning the trust of the communities in which they are working. This may in the long term have the effect of ensuring that the initiative attains sustainability once the intervention is withdrawn by the sponsors since the community has learnt to own the initiative. Getting the right team that can overcome the structural and any other organizational barriers to the development of the initiative with the required openness in approach, inclusiveness and clarity is a challenge that must be overcome in the best way possible to encourage development and ultimately to the success of the initiative undertaken (Walker 2003 pp18-22). Competing priorities Competition for the priorities within the multi-agency undertaking is found in two levels: on an individual level; and on the organizational level. The effect of individual differences is most effective when the differences arise from the management level or in the cases where it emanates from the junior level but with backing from the management level. This ends up dividing the team into smaller rival groups that take their time to seek the attention of the decision making group and opposing each other as opposed to working together to reach a common goal (Siraj et.al. 2008 pp35-37). At the level of the agency, the different organizations participating in the undertaking may have priorities that totally differ from the priorities of the initiative itself. In cases where the agencies feel obliged to push for their priorities, there arises conflicts that often impact negatively on the initiative. Differences often arise in some areas e.g. targeting different groups as the beneficiaries of an initiative; differences in procedures of obtaining money from sponsors; and targeting different results for the initiative, among others. This produces a kind of a tension or discomfort for the members of the team who feel that they are working against the aim of the agencies for which they are working. Opportunities for training There arise a need for training the members of the organizations that intend to take up tasks in the multi-agency initiative since assuming the desired tasks may call for the familiarization with the new roles. This can be effectively accomplished through training. This means that those taking part in the initiative may have to prepare to learn some other practices other than those they are familiar with. This might at times prove tasking for the professionals. At the same time, this is the time that is directed towards learning the approaches that the other organizations within the team adopt in their day to day operations. This may lead to some confusion for the practitioners and the creation of conflicts between the participating organizations as each may wish to view the practices they are familiar with as the most favourable and applicable for the situations they may face during the actual implementation of the initiative. The training might be conducted in a totally different environment from the areas where the teams participating in the initiative are drawn from. This may have the result of causing discomfort for the participants which may eventually trickle down to nervousness and clumsiness in the execution of duties in the event that the initiative is undertaken. Conclusion The integrated approach that agencies adopt for the development of the initiatives that seek to promote the wellbeing of the children within the society banks on the attained experiences of the different groups that engage in the initiative. The pooling of the various experiences and knowledge as well as principles and skills into a single initiative has a positive impact of bringing together the various resources that attempt to increase the chances of finding means to cater for the needs of development and learning that the children may have. The practitioners must however show a common desire for attaining the goal of effecting a change in the community by showing support for the initiative at all levels while at the same time putting away the differences that might be presented by the fact of originating from different organizations with different values. The initiative may call for the support of the beneficiaries who may help with the integration of the initiative into the society as they may feel that they own the initiative. This is where the parents and the guardians of the children come in to present to the organizations the various needs of the children obtained from observing the children, and assist with offering solutions that they feel can work for the children they care for. To ensure that the initiative is indeed having an impact on the target group, various markers or pointers ought to be put into place to ensure that indeed the initiative is practical and that the community is indeed benefiting from it. Such pointers would assist in identifying the areas that the initiative would need to improve on and those which they would need to discard altogether and those which they would wish to encourage. In conclusion, based on the various experiences that the members of a multi-agency undertaking may contribute to the team in order to offer the best way of meeting the needs of the children, then the approach is valid to the extent that it can indicate the benefits (results) it has produced to the elevation of the status of the children in terms of development and learning. References Fitzgerald, D & Kay, J. (2005):- Working together in children's services; Oxford University press pp41-42 Pugh, P. (2001): Contemporary Issues in the Early Years; London Paul Chapman p56 Siraj, B., Clarke, K & Needham, M. (2008): The team around the child, Multi-agency working in early years; -London Paul Chapman; pp34-38 Walker, G (2003): Working together for children a critical introduction to multi-agency working; Oxford university press pp 12-25 Read More