Essay: How does partnership working benefit children and young people with disabilities?

Partnership working can be described as “A relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal” Author unknown, (2016).
I have chosen to look at this topic as i am interested in ways of how partnership working can benefit children and young people with disabilities.
When professionals work in partnership it may help and benefit children and young people who live with a disability. An example of this would be if a child lived with a physical disability then a health visitor and a practitioner (disability nurse) could work in partnership in order to ensure that the child develops within a ‘normal’ range, if this is not possible then collaborative working will take place in order to aim for the best possible outcome for the child with a disability. A health visitor may work with a practitioner and share information such as where the child is at on their development, their needs and other need to know information.
When a child has a disability it may affect their development. There are many reasons why children and young people’s development may not follow the expected pattern. Some of these reasons are children with some kind of disability whether physical or mental, may find it harder to learn than other children of the same age, and may need extra support such as a different method of learning. If a child has an emotional problem they may also have difficulty learning, concentrating or interacting with others in such a way that it prevents their development along expected patterns as they may isolated themselves from others. For example if a child has depression they may not want to attend school which will result in their cognitive development being slower than the norm.
When children become ill it may mean that they develop slower than others, if a child is ill for a long period of time then they will not be able to exercise frequently so they will not be able to extend their gross motor skills and their physical development. e.g if a child has not started to walk yet and they became ill they may take longer to learn how to walk as they won’t be able to practice and attempt to walk due to being too ill. This will differ their development from the expected pattern as they will develop a lot slower than others. If a child is physically limited through disability this could prevent them from reaching certain physical milestones, such as being able to walk, run, or jump when other children at their age can do so. So there are many reasons/explanations of why children and young people’s development may not follow the expected pattern of development.
Practitioners and multi-agency services must work together to ensure that the help benefit the child who has a disability as much as they can, also they must work together to try and aim for and encourage the child to meet their developmental milestones (if possible.
Integrated working practices and multi-agency working in partnership deliver better outcomes for children and young people as they work together in order to find the best outcome for children and young people. They will combine their skills and knowledge and work together in the aim of creating the best outcome for the child.
Professionals and the child’s parents can work together. This can be very beneficial to the child as the parent can provide information to the professional and they can share information and decide upon what actions to take. The parent can provide information about the child such as their likes/dislikes, their behaviour and many other information that only the parents may know. By doing this the professional will have a better understanding of the child and will be able to get to know the child better which will help when they are working with the child.
Multi agencies should make the child the main focus. They should communicate regularly and share as much relevant information with each other as possible.  They should support early intervention as this can sometimes prevent the problem from occurring in the first place. They should also work in an inclusive way so that the child’s need are met in all parts/areas of the setting.
Children can have a variety of different types of disabilities. They can have learning disabilities such as dyspraxia, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia and more. When children and young people suffer from these disabilities then partnership working may take place in order to benefit the child. Speech and language therapists can come into the setting in order to help/support children who have difficulties with their speech and language. They will try and help the child overcome their difficulty by having sessions with that child and depending on their difficulty they will do activities with them such as if the child has a speech difficulty then they might conduct an activity that includes the child using their speech such as asking a child to read for them. That way they can see how the child performs and how they can improve the difficulty for the child. They will try and get the best outcome for that child by helping that child frequently (if needed).
Other examples support systems that are put into place to benefit children with disabilities include, support workers and LSA’s can sometimes come into the setting if a child is struggling with school and the work. Although some LSA’s will already be in the school. But some may still come into the setting, they will help the child and provide support for the child.
Professionals that may come into the setting so that they can monitor certain children to see if they believe they have an special needs or difficulties. They will monitor that child and maybe even do some activities with the child to see how the child performs. They will talk to the practitioner and find out how the child regularly acts within the setting and maybe ask the teacher questions about the child.
Also, NHS & Health Services This service will provide us with up to date information about any illnesses  medical history and medical outbreaks such as measles, mumps etc. They are there for information, help and support and they can be very useful when needing to find out information about a child’s medical history. If a practitioner needs to find out if the child has any allergies and they haven’t already been informed of the allergies by the parents then they can contact the health service in order to find out this information.