2.1.5 Tripartite Panel

NOTE

This revised procedure was agreed on 26 October 2005

1.	The Tripartite Panel considers applications for joint funding for children with complex needs who require support from more than one agency – Health, Education, Children Young People and Families – and where discussion and agreement may be needed in order to meet their high level and transitional needs. The Panel is made up of senior representatives from the three agencies. The aim of the Tripartite Panel is to coordinate support from parents/carers and the different agencies involved in the family coherently so that everyone is working together.
2.	Multi-agency review meetings should be held on all children where there are concerns that gaps in service provision mean that the child’s high level needs are not being met locally and that this is placing the child or other children associated with him/her at risk of Significant Harm. The purpose of the meeting is to avoid out of county placements, by realigning services, with the expressed intention of keeping the child in county. The focus is on the child and it is recognised that it is in every child’s interests to be cared for, educated and kept healthy in local provision, wherever possible. Referral to Tripartite Panel is one of a range of outcomes where there is a consensus that an out of county placement may be necessary. The multi-agency review process should be used to demonstrate through analysis that all creative in-county options have been explored before cases are sent to Tripartite Panel for consideration for funding out of county options.
3.	Where inter-agency working is not already well established around an individual child, concerns about their unmet needs can be raised by any agency via their Tripartite Panel representative without prejudice. There will be no assumption that raising the concern means that one particular agency has a greater responsibility for meeting the child’s needs than any other.
4.	The following guidelines have been agreed for multi-agency review meetings:
	Health: Community matron/a lead nurse/service manager Education: An Education Officer Children, Young People & Families: Team Manager/Placement manager< Multi-agency meetings can be convened by any of the above. Each agency is responsible for ensuring that the key players involved in the child’s care within their own agency attend the meeting or send reports to it. All review meetings will at a minimum require 3 key managers or professionals with delegated management responsibility, one from each agency. Parents should be informed that the different agencies are concerned to find solutions together to meet their child’s complex needs. They need to be asked whether they give their consent to information about their child and any relevant information about their family circumstances being shared between agencies. Using an amended version of the Integrated Support Service projects’ consent form is advised as best practice. Written consent should always be obtained if there is any indication that information sharing is likely to be at all contentious. Parents should always be invited to meetings if the reviews are going to consider solutions to a child’s high level needs. They do not need to be invited if professionals are meeting solely to review inadequacies in existing in county service provision and how to remedy them. Whoever convenes the multi-agency review will give one month’s notice to invitees, together with 3 optional dates for meetings. Effective chairing and preparation by all is essential to the success of multi-agency reviews. Meetings have to be care management driven and not led by providers. Up to date detailed assessments must be provided by each agency involved in the multi-agency review meeting. CYP&F will provide an up to date Core Assessment, Education will provide a review of the SEN statement and Health an assessment of the child’s health needs, how they are being addressed and a review of the outcome of any therapeutic input. It is helpful if these assessments can be circulated before the review. Parents or someone with Parental Responsibility must have seen the completed assessments and have been given the opportunity to comment on what is included before they are circulated to other agencies. The senior managers of the agencies involved in the Tripartite Panel may explore the possibility of drawing down additional funding from their agency to meet particular needs identified through these in-depth assessments. Managers will need to obtain authorisation for the additional resources they require through their own agency management structures. Parents need to be aware of this. Each lead manager will take responsibility for informing the parents about the additional resources agreed from within their own agency. They will also inform the manager co-ordinating the multi-agency review so that s/he is fully aware of the outcome of the review.
5.	The manager coordinating the multi-agency review will provide a brief report to the Tripartite Panel. This will explain the outcome of the review meeting: what is being offered to the child/family and how this will address areas of high level need. Copies of letters sent by individual agencies to families should be sent to the Panel chair for the records.
6.	If a multi-agency review meeting does decide to refer a child’s case to the Tripartite Panel for consideration about funding a placement elsewhere because high level needs cannot be met locally, the review co-ordinator remains responsible for ensuring that the parents and child where appropriate are kept informed about what is happening and timescales. Decisions about funding out of county placements will be communicated to parents by the different agencies involved.

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