Application process

If you are a practitioner and you think you are working with a client with high and complex needs, the first step is to talk with your line manager about whether, from your agency's perspective, the child or young person has high and complex needs.

If you'd like to know more about the kind of children and young people we fund, take a look at our client information report and our case studies.

To access HCN funding, two or more agencies need to be involved and agree that they cannot meet the needs of the child within local services. Talk to your colleagues in other agencies who are involved with the young person and see if they agree to present the case to the Interagency Management Group.

Once you have agreed to progress, you need to complete a case presentation template for your Interagency Management Group.

The Interagency Management Group has a role to confirm the complexity of the case, to ensure there is up-to-date assessment information and to identify the shortfalls in meeting the young person's needs. Once the case has been presented to the Interagency Management Group, they will provide guidance and agree that an application for HCN funding should be made.

If the Interagency Management Group agrees an application should be made, a services coordinator will be contracted to compile the application information. The services coordinator compiles the application using information from the case presentation template and the Interagency Management Group minutes.

Practitoners need to review the application to check it makes sense from their agency's perspective, and managers need to sign it before it is submitted to the Application Panel for consideration.

Applications must be signed and received in hardcopy by 5 p.m. on the Tuesday before the Application Panel meets. The Application Panel calendar lists all the relevant dates.