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Social Work vocabulary · Services and Multi-Agency Work

Multi-agency working

Meaning in social work, with examples

nounCore term

In social work, multi-agency working means: Different organisations, such as social services, schools, health, police and charities, working together on the same case or problem.

In Turkish: kurumlar arası çalışma, kurumlar arası işbirliği

How it is used

A key idea in safeguarding: case reviews often find that agencies did not share information or work together. Common phrases are multi-agency meeting, multi-agency team and multi-agency approach; 'inter-agency' and 'partnership working' are close synonyms.

Example sentences

  1. Good multi-agency working meant the school, the family doctor and the housing officer all knew the plan.

  2. The review called for better multi-agency working and clearer information sharing.

Common collocations

  • multi-agency meeting
  • multi-agency team
  • multi-agency approach
  • multi-agency safeguarding
  • case conferenceA formal meeting where the professionals involved in a case, and usually the family, share information, assess risk and agree a plan.
  • information sharingPassing relevant information about a person between professionals or agencies so that the person can be protected and receive the right help.
  • referralA formal request passing a person or a concern to another service or professional so that they can assess the situation or provide help.
  • key workerThe main professional who coordinates a person's or family's support and is their first point of contact.

More terms: Services and Multi-Agency Work

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