How can we create and grow ‘holistic practitioners’?

In this article Shirley Young affirms the need for integrated support for children and young people with disabilities and their families, and welcomes such initiatives as Early Support, Team Around the Child, Care Co-ordination and Keyworking. But she is disappointed in their slow implementation. She develops the argument that a large part of the problem is the lack of ‘holistic practitioners’ and that we should not be surprised to find there are significant challenges in asking non-holistic practitioners to behave as though they were holistic. Shirley shows us what a holistic practitioner looks like and then outlines the need for training to produce them and effective organisational systems to support them in their work.