Introduction

The Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) is a joint forum comprising representatives of a wide range of agencies and professional groups working together in child protection. Its central role is to underpin interagency collaboration by developing, monitoring and reviewing local policies and procedures. Functioning as a middle layer between the broad frameworks of central government policy and the specific protocols of local level practice, the ACPC has been described as a ‘system within a system’: “… the co-ordinating body of the local child protection system … operating within the external ‘system’ of government child protection policy” (Sanders, 1999, p 264). As such it can be seen as a central mechanism for delivering the mandated coordination of local child protection networks.

As we have argued, the achievement of ideological/domain consensus, effective work coordination and mutual positive evaluation between participants are important prerequisites of effective interagency cooperation. We have seen in earlier chapters how these ‘superstructural’ attributes can be affected by different organisational imperatives surrounding network participants (sub-structural factors). Threats to collaboration on the above dimensions may arise from tensions deriving from any or all of four central aspects of those agencies’ wider objectives: fulfilment of central service delivery requirements; maximisation of public support/legitimacy for the service agenda; achievement of orderly and reliable patterns of key resources; and defence of operational paradigms (the ‘technological–ideological commitment’ to certain ways of working). As Benson argues: “Consensus between agencies on matters of domain and ideology can … only occur within limits set by their market positions” (1975, p 237). Within a multiagency forum like the ACPC, the wider interests of participating organisations may constrain not only the representatives’ ability to make certain decisions (especially if they carry financial implications) within the ACPC, but may also affect the implementation of any ACPC decisions at operational level.

The following section will describe the composition of the ACPC, exploring in particular the extent and nature of participation by health managers and professionals. After examining changing government expectations surrounding ACPC operation, the chapter will assess the extent to which it is able effectively to operate as a mechanism for mandated coordination within the local child protection process.