What is IRT? 

The Identification, Referral and Tracking (IRT) of children and young people at risk is a part of the Government's social inclusion agenda.

It is led by the newly formed Children and Young People's Unit (CYPU), a cross government department agency that leads on strategic developments to improve the lives of children and young people.

The overall aim of IRT is to 'initiate a process of change that will ensure that every child at risk will be identified, referred to appropriate preventative services and that their progress will be tracked to ensure that they do not fall through the net'

IRT is aimed at picking up all children and young people aged 0-19 who are 'at risk'. At risk is very broadly defined as 'social exclusion' and might include educational underachievement, offending behaviour, involvement in drugs or teenage pregnancy. It is a much wider category of children than those placed on the Child Protection register.

In short, any agency (statutory, voluntary or community) that comes into contact with children will become involved in the strategy and have a role to play in ensuring that vulnerable children are identified and supported.

IRT will help to make closer partnership working at grass level more effective and reliable.

There are a number of components that make up a comprehensive IRT strategy.

These include:

This is an ambitious agenda and involves the implementation of new and better ways of working in all agencies that have the capacity to affect the lives of our vulnerable children. It will not be achieved overnight! It is probably best viewed as an evolutionary process that will take a number of years to make the impact that we want to achieve.