Understanding boundaries in inter-professional work

In this paper, a keynote address at the 2008 SERA conference in Perth, I draw on three recent studies of inter-professional work and examine what is happening at the boundaries of schools and other children's services, as practitioners attempt to collaborate to disrupt the trajectories of children who are vulnerable to social exclusion. The rationale for inter-professional work is outlined and the demands to be made on practitioners indicated. These demands involve them in working within systems of distributed expertise, exercising relational agency and negotiating their identities with other professionals and with clients. The boundary work that occurs to enable the initiation and support of inter-professional collaborations is discussed and the nature of the boundaries studied outlined. Here particular attention is paid to a new space of action that appears to be emerging at the boundaries of secondary schools, where preventative work is undertaken by a new role of 'welfare manager'. The implications of this new and demanding work for the professional development of welfare managers are also indicated.