NO - JOHN CHOWCAT, general secretary, children's professionals' union Aspect
Current thresholds for accepting referrals for assessment and receiving targeted children's social services all too frequently represent an arbitrary cut-off point, unrelated to the actual range of local children's needs.
Children's social workers do their best to identify other available options and resources when thresholds are not met, but we all need to move on to the provision of more sensitive, flexible and needs-related children's services.
NO - CAROL HOMDEN, chief executive, Coram
Teachers may not refer to specialist services knowing they are often overstretched and under-staffed.
While this is a valid concern, there are many agencies they can partner with to devise packages of support for vulnerable children.
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