The role of the Lead Professional

What is a Lead Professional?

A Lead Professional is someone employed by one of the services involved in supporting the child and family.  If the child's needs are assessed as more complex and require considerable help from specialist services or there is a legal duty to work with the child and family, a lead professional will be identified.  

The Lead Professional will be chosen because they can meet the more complex needs of the child, have the right skills and experience to ensure the Child's Plan is managed properly, and can work with the child, their parent(s), their Named Person and the other services that support the child. If the person with the most skills and experience is the Named Person, they will become the Lead Professional.

Information about a child's needs, specific circumstances and the help they have already received may be shared with the Lead Professional and other services involved in the Child's Plan.

In most circumstances, the child and parent(s) will know what information is being shared, with whom and for what purpose, and their views will be taken into account. This may not happen in exceptional cases, such as where there is a concern for the safety of a child or someone else.

The Lead Professional will:

• make sure that the child and their parent(s) understand what is happening at each point so that they can be involved in the decisions that affect them
• ensure the Child's Plan is accurate, up-to-date, implemented and reviewed regularly
• consult and work with the child's Named Person.

This new approach does not change the way you would report child protection concerns.