Why do most families not have a keyworker?

Keyworkers are an essential part of a quality service for families. So why do most families not have one? Is the "Team around the Child" part of the solution?

Essay by Peter Limbrick

Introduction

It is generally acknowledged now that a multi-agency keyworker should be offered to each family who has a baby or young child with complex needs. This has been documented over three decades in research, surveys, reports and guidance and yet still the majority of families do not have one. It is interesting to speculate why keyworking has not been widely adopted by service providers in spite of the obvious need.

In my view the reasons include overloading practitioners who agree to add keyworking to their main professional role, inappropriate expectations of what keyworkers can achieve and a general failure to treat keyworking seriously within organisational systems. The Team around the Child approach is offered as a remedy to some of the problems.

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This essay was first published in PMLD Link Vol. 16, No.2, Issue 48