Developing multi-agency teams: implications of a national programme evaluation

This paper explores the factors which influence the effectiveness of formal development programmes targeted at multi-agency teams in children’s services. It draws on two studies of the National College for School Leadership’s Multi-Agency Teams Development programme, reporting key characteristics of the programme, short-term outcomes in terms of learning and longer-term outcomes in relation to team performance and the factors that seemed to influence programme success. Locating the programme initially in relation to concepts of teams and team learning which implicitly underpin work in this area, it concludes that in current multi-agency contexts the conditions necessary for developing ‘true’ teams often do not exist and therefore development programmes need to take account of the specific contexts within which inter-agency work takes place.