Behaviour and Education Support Teams (BESTs) were developed as a significant element of the Every Child Matters programme. Although varying in composition, they were generally designed to provide support for groups of schools in relation to behavioural, emotional and educational issues. They have not been subject, however, to a great deal of published research and their development, furthermore, raised significant issues about prevention and the preventive process, in particular the capacity to reach vulnerable children and families where thresholds for mainstream services were high. This paper, comparing a BEST with a children’s services team, examines the nature of work undertaken. It shows the ‘service on offer’ from the two agencies differed markedly, with BESTs undertaking a more child-focused approach. The implications of the development of additional services for prevention and the preventive process are discussed Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
‘Designed to provide support for groups of schools in relation to behavioural, emotional and educational issues’