3rd Croatian Symposium on Early Childhood Intervention
.
Zadar - September 2013
TEAM AROUND THE CHILD
AND THE KEYWORKER
- for babies and young children who have
‘multiple’ needs
1
teamaroundthechild.com
Information service with e-bulletin
Discussions welcomed after today
[email protected]
An Introduction to Keyworking & TAC
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How we developed the Keyworker role
How TAC developed from Keyworking
TAC
TAC and Systems Thinking
The Keyworker
How TAC and Keyworking fit together
TOPICS 1 AND 2
The evolution of TAC in the 1990s
1. One Hundred Hours
2. The Keyworker
3. Getting the child’s parents, teachers and
therapists together to make a shared
plan = TAC
TOPIC 3 – TAC
TAC is an agreement by people working
with the same baby or young child to
meet and talk
- to share views, agree needs, and make a
coherent shared plan of action to support
child and family
- to consider the wellbeing of the child
TAC aspires to involve only those people
offering the child regular interventions for
development and learning - whoever they
are
The parents must be invited to be present
and given an equal voice
Other people are ‘peripheral’ providing and
receiving information as necessary
TOPIC 4 - TAC & SYSTEMS THINKING
The infant is an interconnected whole
- within the larger system of the family.
Impairments interact with each other and
cannot be thought of as separate entities
In my view, therefore, babies and young
children cannot have ‘multiple disabilities’
Each has a single, unique ‘multifaceted
condition’
- that requires a multifaceted intervention
system
- in which practitioners are interconnected
and cannot think of themselves as separate
entities.
This is the TAC approach
When TAC members integrate their
intervention programmes together they
can act as consultants to each other
- and can agree a primary interventionist .
This approximates to transdisciplinary
education
- and is recommended for the first months
of life.
TOPIC 5 – THE KEYWORKER
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Gives emotional support
Is an ‘active listener’ and negotiator
Provides information
Helps parents get services
Can help parents join intervention
programmes together into a whole-child
approach – by learning from the separate
interventionists.
Challenges in Keyworking
Practitioners who are asked to be
keyworkers in addition to their other work
can be overloaded.
It is expensive to employ a new team of
keyworkers.
The advantages of TAC
Practitioners and parents meet together to
create a whole approach
This is a collective effort and tries not to
overload one person
There is collective concern for the child and
family
TAC brings collective knowledge, experience
and skill
- and collective wisdom for the difficult
decisions
TOPIC 6 - TAC & KEYWORKING
TOGETHER
A keyworker can bring people together to
make the child’s TAC – if necessary
The TAC has one person who acts as
‘facilitator’ or ‘keyworker’ or ‘lead
professional / practitioner’
Thank you
www.teamaroundthechild.com
[email protected]