Lead Professional (LP)

The lead professional (LP) is the practitioner who takes a ‘lead role’ to make sure that front-line services are co-ordinated, coherent and achieving intended outcomes. The lead professional role is intended to improve the co-ordination of multi-agency activity after a common assessment.

The role should reduce families’ experience of repeated lengthy meetings, conflicting or confusing advice and uncertainty about who to approach for information.

Lead professional is not a job title, but a set of functions to be carried out as part of the delivery of effective integrated support. This should not be considered as a new role; in many cases practitioners are already delivering the three core functions:

• act as a single point of contact for the child or family
• co-ordinate the delivery of the actions agreed
• reduce overlap and inconsistency in the services received.

A lead professional is accountable to their home agency for delivering the lead professional functions. They are not responsible or accountable for the actions of others. (CWDC, 2008)

For more information on national and local guidance please click on the documents below

For more information contact Irene Greaves, available on irene.greaves@nhs.net or 01271 386230.

Further reading

• Budget holding lead professional

Associated documents

Format	Title	Date
	Lead professional guidance	March 2009
	CWDC lead professional and schools	September 2008
	CWDC lead professional factsheet	December 2008
	CWDC lead professional managers and practitioners' guides	N/A