The Team Around the Child (TAC) has been developed in response to the need for joined up services and the need to provide a more integrated approach within existing resources. The TAC brings together parents and practitioners, regardless of agency boundaries, into a small, individualised team for each particular child who has been identified as having additional needs.
It can be defined as an evolving team of practitioners who have contact with the child/young person and family on a regular basis and who provide practical support and advice with and to those who are able to work directly with the child/young person and family as appropriate.
Parents/carers and young people have a full role in the TAC. Parents/carers needs are recognised and their central role to meet the needs of the child should be acknowledged. The membership of the TAC may change as the needs of the child and family change. The TAC operates as a supportive team; there is direct benefit to parents who have opportunities to discuss their child and family with key practitioners in one place. There is also benefit to practitioners who might otherwise feel isolated and unsupported in their work with the child and family.
It is important that there is always a Lead Professional and an agreed plan of action. A successful TAC meeting will have taken into account the views of the child, young person and parent.
The function of the TAC includes:
- identifying how support can be offered to the child and family to meet those needs, including actions for the family and child to undertake where appropriate
- arranging, as necessary, additional referrals based on a Common Assessment, as a pathway to targeted and specialist services
- reviewing the support given to the child and family
- agreeing the child’s level of need
- agreeing the needs of the family
