Devon AXS Pathway
What is it?
The AXS Pathway is the conceptual framework through which the AXS Programme on behalf of the Children's Trust will bring together the whole spectrum of children’s services into a single system. The key principles embodied in the AXS Pathway are to identify needs at an early stage, to prevent the escalation of difficulty by providing a timely and preventative response, either by providing early intervention through multi agency co-ordination of services or by identifying the need for specialist services. The pathway provides an identifiable route through a range of services to ensure that a variety of needs at the range of levels can be identified, tracked and supported.
In summary this integrated service approach will have the following common features:
- There will be a single assessment used by all agencies at Level 1, supported by common information sharing protocols and processes.
- Multi-agency arrangements will be established to address needs at Level 2. including the support to deliver the lead professional functions
- Practitioners working at Level 3 will work in a more formally integrated way.
Devon AXS Pathway Notes
- All children and young people are receiving services somewhere on the AXS Pathway. All practitioners who work with children, young people and their families are also on the AXS Pathway.
- There is a fine blue line on the diagram, which encompasses all the available services from Statutory and Voluntary agencies across the spectrum of need. It is also recognised that support for children and young people may come from the wider community or from extended family and friends networks.
- Most children and young people will have their needs met by universal services, like schools, playgroups, health centres. Infact about 70% of children in Devon will most probably have their needs met at Level U.
- Level 1 Services are those which are offered to children and young people where an additional need is identified but can be met easily and the situation can be improved without the need for further intervention.
Example – A child generally doing well at school and at home, but has a stutter requiring a referral to speech and language therapy. There would be no other needs to be met. - Level 3 Services are for those children and young people who have complex additional needs and require support from specialist services like: Social Care, Youth Offending Team, Joint Agency Services and Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
- Level 2 of the AXS Pathway is where changes have been made to the way people have worked up till now. Children and young people who have been identified as having additional needs, but not serious enough for specialist services, may now have their needs met by practitioners and families working in a multi agency coordinated way. This level is where the processes and tools of Integrated Working will be most used – Common Assessment Framework, Team Around Child, Lead Professional.
- On the diagram there are arrows denoting movement between the different levels of the AXS Pathway, showing how children and young people may move up and down the AXS Pathway. It is hoped that they will have their needs met at the top end of the Pathway before they reach crises requiring level 3 services. It is important to note that communication between practitioners and families is key in order to ensure that children and young people have their needs met and that they can accordingly receive the right support when needed.
