© 2008 The AuthorsJournal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Learning in Health and Social Care

,

7

, 4, 181–183

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Editorial

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 pre-

senters 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.

182 Editorial

© 2008 The Authors Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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 pro-

fessional groups in order to develop a shared under-

standing. 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; how-

ever, 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 develop-

ments 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

Editorial 183

© 2008 The AuthorsJournal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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.

Imogen Taylor

University of Sussex

Pam Shakespeare

Open University

(Full reports on outputs from the ICS-HE project

may be found at http://icshe.escalate.ac.uk)

References

Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2003)

Every

Child Matters

. HMSO, London.

Engeström Y. (1999) Innovative learning in work teams:

analysing cycles of knowledge creation in practice. In:

Perspectives on Activity Theory

(eds Y. Engestrom, R.

Miettinen & R.L. Punamaki). Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge, UK.

Payler J. & Meyer E. & Humphries D. (2008) Pedagogy for

interprofessional education – what do we know and

how can we evaluate it?

Learning in Health and Social

Care

7

, 64–78.

Sharland E. & Taylor I. (2007)

Interprofessional Education

for Qualifying Social Work

. Social Care Institute for

Excellence, London.

Call for PapersParaprofessional Learning and Practice

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.