(CAMHS) and Schools - London Health Programmes

• being friendly and approachable;
• being self motivated and tenacious;
• not being arrogant and willing to listen to other ideas;
• experience and commitment to working in a multi-disciplinary way.
‘Being open to resolve barriers and struggles, not being too precious, being
sympathetic and not arrogant or fixed on what you are offering but being confident,
professional but friendly.’ (Mental health worker)
It clearly is not an easy task:
‘Tolerate being treated badly. It takes a long time to build up relationships. You need
to realise that experience and training should inform that’. (Mental health worker)
Both sets of professionals, health workers and education staff, need to feel that their
work is respected and valued, and where it works successfully this clearly has been
the case. Many interviewees discussed their co-workers by their first name and talked
about their approaches as personal attributes.
‘She’s the right kind of person. She’s very skilled working with young people, not all
cpns are like her. They (children) all like her… I considered getting counsellors but
I'd rather have her.’. (Head teacher talking about mental health worker)
Some interviewees compared the current working relationships they had to poor
working relationships they had in the past. In these examples, they are talking about
poor approaches from health staff working with schools.
‘Working with(cpn) is best. S/he’s got good links into the medical side. 5 yrs ago I'd
given up on every psychiatrist I know. Health whisk a child away and do something
confidential, no information comes back as to what is happening. But the (cpn) is not
like talking to a brick wall. Two psychiatrist now ask me how it’s going and ask me to
monitor rhetolin and actually listen to me if I make suggestions. The cpn is part of
that process - halfway house fast route for me - an open door to the services.’
(SENCO)
‘Schools have a history of professionals coming in arrogantly and feeling they know it
all. All schools want services like us but maybe too many problems to have the time to
allow us to come and meet.’ (Mental health worker)
Knowing individuals
In addition to staff skills and methods of working by staff, knowing the relevant
person by name was important. Building up relationships with individuals across
departments seems very important. Teachers and SENCOs lamented frequent
changes of support staff (this was particularly aimed at social workers with whom
there seemed to be a fast turnover). Some interviewees emphasised the importance of
social contact in non-work time to allow people to get to know each other. The
importance of staff continuity has significant implications for retention and
recruitment of staff and of short term funding.