Joint working campaign launched to combat exclusion

Social workers and other public sector professionals are being urged to make use of a new good practice toolkit on working together to help socially excluded adults.

It was unveiled today as the government launched the Link Up, Link In campaign to boost inter-agency working to help improve progress against a key government target on getting excluded groups into stable housing and employment.

Public service agreement 16 – one of 30 top priorities for government from 2008-11 – calls on agencies to increase the number of learning disabled people, care leavers, offenders on probation and people with mental health problems in stable housing and employment.

Better joint working key

Research carried out by the Cabinet Office’s Social Exclusion Task Force, which is leading on the campaign and is supporting the delivery of the PSA, found that better joint working was key to success. It also found frontline staff would appreciate a resource to help them work together more effectively.

The toolkit contains examples of joint working that has improved the lives of each of the four client groups in each of the English regions, and advice on identifying other relevant professionals to contact and making the business case for better joint working.

The taskforce is also piloting a searchable directory of professionals in the East Midlands, to enable staff to connect with each other to work on a specific case, work across geographical boundaries or gain expert advice and assistance.

Still seeking case studies

It has taken nearly three months to gather information for the launch of the site and the taskforce is still looking for good practice examples from social workers and other professionals.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We are not necessarily looking for a flashing and expensive scheme; it can be small. It’s about whatever makes life better for excluded individuals.”

• Submit a case study to the campaign.
• Discuss the campaign on CareSpace.

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