Expert Guides

Terminology: multidisciplinary teams are often discussed in the same context as joint working, interagency work and partnership working. The latter two refer to different agencies working in partnership rather than with the operation of a single team. The term 'joint working', though, is often used to cover teams and agencies.

Why?In all areas of social work and health there are clients who require the help of more than one kind of professional. Elderly people, people with mental health problems, disabled people, troubled teenagers, families in crisis... all require more expertise than one kind of professional can offer.

When did they start? Multidisciplinary teams have evolved at varying speeds in different parts over the past 30 years or so in response to local need, the foresight of individual local authorities and the imperatives of central government. Mental health was among the first professions to adopt them professionals in this sector work in teams of between eight and 16 people and consist of workers from different professions.

Latest articles on multidisciplinary teams

Examples of types of team (councils differ in terminology for team names and team composition):

CMHTs: The community mental health team (CMHT) is regarded as the model for all multi-disciplinary teams. Approved social workers and community psychiatric nurses are the mainstay of CMHTs. And the Mental Health Act 2007 created the role of approved mental health professionals and approved clinicians to take over the role of approved social worker (in the former case). This role will be open to other professionals, not only ASWs.

YOTs: Another good example of a multidisciplinary team is the youth offending team. Set up after the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 these consist of social workers, probation officers, housing, employment and educational professionals. They are monitored by the Youth Justice Board - a full listing for the teams can be found here

Home Treatment Teams: Operating for adults with mental health problems who can remain at home with support. They can consist of occupational therapists, social workers, community psychiatric nurses, and psychologists. Click here for an example from London Also, a job advertisement for a team member.

The Single Assessment process: Introduced in 2003 to reduce the number of separate social work and nursing assessments for older people. Its use clearly implies that older people have their own multidisciplinary teams.

Children and family teams: Include a variety of professionals. Often broken down into age groups (1-5 etc). Their work can be gauged by looking at job adverts. The Laming report following the death of Victoria Climbie gave fresh impetus to better multidisciplinary working in teams and between agencies.

Social work fears: Some social workers have expressed concern that their professional identity could suffer in multidisciplinary teams as other professions may tend to take the lead, notably medical professionals. For more on this click on the Ray Jones link below.

Useful links

Teams displaying best practice in a variety of fields from Community Care's Excellence Network

Ray Jones on how multidisciplinary teams fit in to the changing face of social work

How effective are multidisciplinary teams?

How to work within multidisciplinary teams

Examples of multidisciplinary teams

Information on Community Mental Health teams

Multi-disciplinary teams in mental health

Example of a community learning disabilities team

Joint working and CPNs

Youth offending teams

More articles from Community Care on multidisciplinary work