Silos Cost Children and Families: Why Multi-Professional “Single Points of Access” Must Replace Fragmented Front Doors

When services work in professional or personal silos, families repeat their story, risk falls through the gaps, and decisions slow to a crawl. Twenty-plus years of guidance—from the Victoria Climbié Inquiry onward—has told us to join up. A well-trained, multi-professional Single Point of Access (SPoA) turns that instruction into daily practice.

What goes wrong in silos

- We see slivers, not whole children. Mental health, safeguarding, SEND and attendance teams hold different fragments of the picture. No one owns the full picture, so risk is under- or over-estimated.

- Time is burned on bureaucracy. Referral ping-pong, duplicate assessments and incompatible databases and electronic patient record systems replace timely help.

- My priorities trump the right help: professional identity, team budgets and organisational borders—rather than need—decide who responds.

These are not new observations. Lord Laming’s Victoria Climbié Inquiry warned that cooperation relied too much on personal goodwill, prevention was declining, statutory agencies needed to partner with community groups, and—crucially—services should use a single electronic record for children and families so information is shared appropriately. We were told to work from one set of records in health. Have we fully learned those lessons? Not consistently. 

The policy thread has been clear for two decades

- Every Child Matters and the Children Act 2004 hard-wired a duty to cooperate across agencies (notably Sections 10 and 11). 

- Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) sets out how multi-agency arrangements must function in practice.

- Future in Mind (2015) and the NHS Long Term Plan push early intervention and integrated CYP mental-health pathways.

- The THRIVE Framework reframes support around needs and shared decision-making, not organisational thresholds.

- Schools guidance (e.g., Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools, Whole-School Approach and Attendance) emphasises joined-up working with local partners. 

The direction of travel is unambiguous: work together, earlier, around the child and family.

SPoA: not a call-centre, a clinical gateway

A Single Point of Access (SPoA) simplifies access by receiving all enquiries and referrals through one “front door,” providing advice and clinical triage, and directing people to the right help first time—regardless of where they present (ED, GP, school, self-referral) or whether mental health, social care or Emergency dept. It is explicitly backed by NHS England guidance for 2024/25 as part of winter resilience and urgent care recovery. 

What SPoA changes:

- One route in, one decision made once. Families stop repeating their story; professionals stop re-assessing what’s already known.

- Risk is seen in context. Social care, CAMHS, education and VCS partners triage together, so safeguarding, neurodiversity, attendance and wellbeing are considered at the same time.

- Capacity is visible. The hub books directly into Early Help, community CAMHS, crisis teams, short-term interventions or voluntary-sector offers.

Data drives improvement. A shared dataset across agencies exposes bottlenecks and duplication—fulfilling the spirit of the Climbié recommendations on single records and compatible systems. 

Why this matters for families (and services)

- Faster, safer decisions. A multi-disciplinary triage prevents low-risk cases clogging specialist pathways, while high-risk cases escalate immediately via clear safeguarding thresholds. 

- Earlier help, fewer crises. Aligns with Future in Mind prevention ambitions and LTP access targets. 

- Less waste. Removing duplicate assessments and referral ping-pong releases clinical time and reduces cost per successful referral—benefits repeatedly highlighted in national guidance. NHS England

The catch: technology alone won’t fix silos

A telephone hub or an online form is not a SPoA. You need the people model:

- A trained, multi-professional duty team (e.g., mental-health clinicians, social workers, education/safeguarding leads, VCS navigators) with senior clinical supervision.

- Trusted-assessor arrangements so partner services accept SPoA decisions without re-assessment.

- Interoperable records (or robust data-sharing) that provide a single view of the child and family. That is exactly what the Climbié Inquiry called for. 

- Clear KPIs: referral-to-decision time (e.g., ≤72 hours for routine), answer times, conversion rates, re-referral rates, and outcomes aligned to THRIVE groupings.

From silos to solutions: five practical shifts

- Replace multiple “front doors” with one SPoA for CYP mental health, Early Help and safeguarding advice—co-location optional, co-decision essential.

- Adopt common language and thresholds from Working Together and THRIVE across partner agencies to stop boundary disputes.

- Design for schools and families first. Align with DfE guidance on behaviour, whole-school mental health and attendance so education partners can refer and receive rapid advice.

- Use one shared dataset. If a single EPR isn’t possible, create an agreed minimum dataset and API feeds into a joint dashboard—meeting the Inquiry’s intent on information-sharing.

-  Invest in workforce capability. Triage quality rises or falls on training, supervision and reflective practice; don’t undercook the people element.

Ready to act?

If your system wants to move beyond silos and focus on solutions over boundaries, we help teams stand up SPoAs that work—clinically, operationally and culturally.

Explore our training offers (triage, trusted assessor, risk, data, and supervision): https://www.thrive-connect.uk/courses

See our ThriveCONNECT model for SPOA design, governance and data standards: https://www.thrive-connect.uk/our-model

Let’s make “joined-up” more than a slogan—and finally embed the lessons we’ve been taught since Victoria Climbié.