Learning for integrated children's services

We are very pleased to introduce this special edition of the journal with its focus on interprofessional learning for practice in integrated children's services. We also believe that this journal is the first to dedicate a themed edition to what is emerging as a very significant workforce issue in the UK. Indeed, in the recent literature review of the ‘pedagogy of interprofessional education’ (Payler et al. 2008), the ‘integrated’ children's services agenda was not discussed. As Sharland & Taylor (2007) noted in their systematic review of interprofessional education (IPE) that includes social work, learning for interprofessional practice with children was barely addressed.

The plan for this themed edition grew out of the Integrated Children's Services in Higher Education project (ICS-HE) launched in 2007, led by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Social Policy and Social Work in association with the Subject Centres for Education, Health Sciences and Practice, Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine and Psychology, and in collaboration with the Children's Workforce Development Council and the Children's Workforce Network. The project team, in collaboration with a Stakeholder Reference Group, coordinated a national conference in November 2007, attended by over 200 delegates, which showcased a range of initiatives at all levels of higher education. We invited conference presenters to submit conference papers to this themed edition and the following are the outcome of this process, having been reviewed using established journal processes.

Imogen Taylor and colleagues from the University of Sussex set the scene and map key aspects of the far reaching policy agenda, developed in response to Every Child Matters (DfES 2003). The authors suggest that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) must play a significant role in responding to the policy process given the large proportion of graduates who will join the Children's Workforce. Activity theory is used to explore findings from the Knowledge Review of the higher education response to integrated children's services, including a research review and a practice survey of responses by higher education.

Jane Leadbetter's paper then sets the practice scene for ‘learning in and for interagency working’. Leadbetter and colleagues developed ‘cultural–historical activity theory’ to analyse activities on the range of research sites: a Youth Offending Team, a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team, a Looked-After Children's team, a multiagency generic team and a team that had formed around and with staff of an extended school. This paper adds to knowledge about activity theory approaches to work-place learning, clearly attracting interest as a theory that can help inform discussion of the complexity of interprofessional work. It also reflects on key findings about learning and multiagency working, one of which endorses the importance of taking ‘a pedagogic stance at work’– across the range of professionals within the organization and between people at all levels of the organization.

Four papers then address different pedagogic responses within Higher Education. Billie Oliver's paper discusses a response at the University of West of England. They have provided a closely researched prequalifying health and social care IPE curriculum since 2000 but as Oliver notes, these modules did not address integrated children's services. She reflects on the challenges of developing a new degree ‘Working with Children, Young People, and their Families’ where the aim is to develop a generic children's worker as a response to workforce needs. Oliver highlights the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration within the HEI and collaborative and strategic partnerships between the HEI and other stakeholders.

Alison Bennett and Tracey Race from Leeds Metropolitan University write about another neglected yet very important topic, that of the participation of children and young people in learning for practice. They discuss a Children, Young People and Families module jointly taught to community health and social work students with the active involvement of a Barnardo's Young People's Group. For the authors and their colleagues, it was not enough to lecture about child-centred practice, children's rights and the importance of participation, but it was also essential to model these principles as educators. The article outlines key aspects of the module and its delivery, drawing on student feedback and findings from an evaluation exercise carried out with the young people.

Carol Haines and Joan Livesley from Salford University discuss an innovative approach of storytelling used with social work and nursing students to model critical refection and open up professional practice to the scrutiny of other professional groups in order to develop a shared understanding. The authors, from social work and from children's nursing, tell another story about the seeds for this innovation being grown from the accident of being located in the same office. The classroom story focuses on reflections of a children's nurse who worked with a young boy where there were child protection concerns. Haines and Livesley portray storytelling as a powerful technique for use in interprofessional learning.

Jane McCombe, Deborah Develin and Maggie Mallik tackle another gap in the IPE literature, the complex area of interprofessional learning in practice (IPL). They identified children's centres, which serve preschool children and their families, as an ideal environment to promote IPL. Adopting an action research approach, they draw on findings from a two-year partnership project established with 14 children's centres to develop new IPL placements for preregistration students from social work and children's nursing. The benefits in providing students with an opportunity to develop into effective collaborative practitioners were recognized by a high level of commitment by participants, and barriers to IPL were also identified. A key factor contributing to the success of the project was effective partnership working between HEIs, local authorities and the National Health Service; however, the authors note that sustainability of such innovations will always be an issue.

Finally, Tony Coughlan explores a very different kind of workforce development in his discussion of the Children's Workforce Learning Network established between Barnardo's and the Open University. This partnership was developed to address the challenges of an underfunded voluntary and community sector workforce, where members often have few relevant educational qualifications and are dispersed across a large rural region. Drawing on communities of practice theory, Coughlan analyses development of a learning network that provides ‘bite sized’ blended learning that includes both face-to-face opening courses and subsequent on-line learning and support. This initiative was one of the few ICS-HE projects that emerged as significantly using e-learning.

We hope that this edition will serve to encourage debate about options for progressing the higher education response to the integrated children's services agenda, in light of Engeström's apt comment that ‘People face not only the challenge of acquiring established culture; they also face situations in which they must formulate desirable culture’ (1999, p. 35). Crucially we would argue that the developments provide an opportunity for funded pilots and focused research essential to provide evidence of outcomes for students and ultimately for children, young people and their families. As Taylor and colleagues comment, unlike our counterparts in practice with children, HEI practitioners are not obligated to act according to Every Child Matters or to make major changes; we could simply opt to tinker at the edges. However, this minimal position is clearly not desirable, and change is essential to improve outcomes for children.

Guest Editor: Chris Kubiak

This special issue appears at a time of increasing attention to the paraprofessional workforce – assistants to the nursing or allied health professionals, care, community or support workers. With services increasingly reliant on their input, paraprofessionals are being called upon to work in new ways in a field characterized by drives for registration and role extension as well as increasingly complex user needs and service standards. These drives point towards an increasing concern with the practice and learning of this group.

The issue will examine from scholarly and practical perspectives, critical issues in the practice, learning and development of this group. Submissions for publication of original research, case studies and scholarly articles are invited.

Support is available for less-experienced authors.

Submission deadline: 31 March 2009.