Study title

When young people are at risk from being excluded from society this is usually caused by a number of factors. It requires that a number of different agencies work together in 'joined up' practice because different agencies have different areas of expertise. However, experience suggests that this is rarely done as effectively as possible. A reason for this is that effective co-operation between agencies is not simply a matter of people meeting together they need to learn new ways of working that deal with the fact that while they all have expertise over some of the issues no one has expertise over the entire situation. Therefore the aim of this project is to enhance the interaction between agencies dealing with young people at risk of exclusion from school. It builds on and extends an existing TLRP (Teaching and Learning Research Programme) project on interagency working based in the University of Bath/Birmingham. The rationale for a Northern Ireland extension is that problems in interagency working are as relevant to Northern Ireland as other parts of the UK and that it provides a different framework in terms of the range and responsibilities of agencies, and greater community sector involvement. The project will involve two main stages involving the collection of background information followed by workshops aimed at developing and testing ways of enhancing professional learning and practice in interagency contexts. All this work will be closely linked to the project in England and we will both benefit from and add to the emerging evidence from that study.