Multi-agency teams: Why should working together make everything better?

With the advent of Every Child Matters (ECM) and the move towards joint children’s services, those involved with these changes, including educational psychologists, have become increasingly interested in multi-agency work. It is unlikely that an understanding of multi-agency work is shared across different agencies. Some of the terms, such as partnership, collaboration and joint work, are explored so as to investigate the meaning of multi-agency work. Many documents post-ECM appear to regard multiagency work unquestioningly as ‘a good thing’. Wanting to sign up to the multi-agency agenda and work well with other professionals should not prevent us from exploring ideas which help to critically consider the purpose of multi-agency work and question the assumption that working together will make everything better. A discourse is emerging which makes it increasingly difficult to challenge the accepted orthodoxy of multi-agency working.