Role and responsibilities of the lead practitioner

A GP, family support worker, school nurse, teacher, health visitor and / or special educational needs / pastoral co-ordinator could undertake the lead practitioner role. Decisions about who should be the lead practitioner should be taken on a family-by-family basis and should be informed by the child and their family. This may change over the lifetime of the plan.

• The Lead Practitioner should seek consent from the young person and family to develop a graduated, multi-agency response. A My Plan or My Assessment and My Plan+ will be required to provide a holistic, family centred understanding of need. This can also help educational settings to build up a picture of need and support that can be used if there is a need to peruse an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Assessment. If the needs require a multi-agency response, a Team Around the Family meeting should be convened.
• Identifying that a child or young person has additional needs does not necessarily mean that you will become the lead practitioner. There may already be a holistic plan of support in place, or the Team Around the Family meeting (including parent/carer) will agree on the person best placed to support the family. As a Lead Practitioner, you will be responsible for the co-ordination of a multi-agency response. This does not mean that the lead practitioner needs to do everything, but they are likely to be the main point of contact. Other members of the team around the family can take notes, organise the meeting and take away actions as part of the multi-agency plan of support (My Plan or My Plan+)
• If the family or young person will not consent to share information as part of the Graduated Pathway process, or withdraws consent for wider early intervention, you will continue to support the needs of the child or young person and their family through ordinarily available provision and personalised services. This will provide future opportunities to engage them with additional support and to continue monitoring for safeguarding concerns.