A model of practice in which a team of health professionals, coordinated by a personal provider

What are MDTs and why are they important to integration?

Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are the mechanism for organising and coordinating health and care services to meet the needs of individuals with complex care needs.

The teams bring together the expertise and skills of different professionals to assess, plan and manage care jointly. Based in the community, and networked with primary care, MDTs are expected to work proactively to support individuals’ care goals.

Through accessing a range of health, social care and other community services, MDTs focus on keeping people well and independent, delivering the right care at home or in the community to prevent unnecessary hospital care.

• Video transcript Open

  A multidisciplinary team or MDT for short is simply a diverse group of professionals working together. The MDT would aim to deliver person-centred and coordinated care and support for the person with care needs. it could include a doctor, a social worker, a physiotherapist, and/or staff from local authority, housing and voluntary organisations.

  These professionals can work together to deliver person centred and coordinated care and sup-port for the person with care needs.

  Holistic and integrated – or to put it another way – seeing the big picture and working together for the benefit of the service user or person with care and support needs. Like anyone they have complex lives, needs and situations. They may have many interventions in addition to having some great personal strengths.

  An effective MDT can bridge professional and organisational specialisms and use the best of the knowledge and skills on hand to deliver great outcomes.

  Who are MDTs aimed at?

  The simple answer is anyone who can benefit from comprehensive, continuous and seamless care. This includes:

  • adults
  • children
  • people with mental health problems
  • older people.

  While suitable for people with single conditions, evidence indicates that integrated care is especially effective for people with complex needs. Improved outcomes include treatment planning, patient experience, and continuity of care.

  Building a successful MDT.

  The MDT needs to embrace some important factors to succeed in delivering good outcomes. These may include:

  • shared vision
  • informal opportunities to chat
  • trusting relationships
  • good professional development
  • dedicated case managers.

  Person-centred, collaborative and integrated, a multidisciplinary team working together can deliver excellent results for a wide range of people with diverse needs and desired outcomes.

  Comprehensive, continuous and seamless care can be the result.

Explore multidisciplinary teams

• Guidance Open

  • Delivering integrated care: the role of the multidisciplinary team (SCIE, 2018)
  • What are the key factors for successful multidisciplinary team working? (Cordis Bright, 2018)
  • Integration and the development of the workforce (Skills for Health, 2017)
  • Assessing the facilitators and barriers of interdisciplinary team working in primary care using normalisation process theory: an integrative review (PLOS ONE, 2017)
  • From "silo" to "network" profession: a multi-professional future for social work (Journal of Children's Services, 2017)
  • Allied health professions into action: using allied health professionals to transform health, care and wellbeing (NHS England, 2017)
  • Supporting integration through new roles and working across boundaries (King's Fund, 2016)
  • MDT development: working toward an effective multidisciplinary/multiagency team (NHS England, 2015)
  • The principles of workforce integration (Skills for Health, 2014)
  • Improving the effectiveness of multidisciplinary team meetings for patients with chronic diseases: a prospective observational study (Health Services and Delivery Research, 2014)
  • Building collaborative teams: a workshop guide for service managers and facilitators (NHS Improving Quality, 2014)
  • Ten principles of good interdisciplinary team work (Human Resources for Health, 2013)
  • Think integration, think workforce: three steps to workforce integration (Centre for Workforce Intelligence, Institute of Public Care, 2013)

  More guidance from Social Care Online

• Practice examples Open

  • Effective staffing case studies (CQC, 2019)
  • Depression among older people living in care homes: collaborative approaches to treatment (British Geriatrics Society, 2018)
  • Delivering integrated care: the role of the multidisciplinary team (SCIE, 2018)
  • Learning from the vanguards: staff at the heart of new care models (NHS Confederation, 2018)
  • Case studies (Multidisciplinary teams) (Local Government Association, 2018)
  • Reducing hospital admissions through proactive care planning and integrated working. (Confederation NHS, 2017)
  • Integrated care for older people with frailty: innovative approaches in practice (Royal College of General Practitioners, & British Geriatrics Society, 2016.)
  • The journey to integration: learning from seven leading localities (LGA, 2016).
  • Shires Community Support Team: Shirebrook, Derbyshire. 5 minutes 57 seconds. (Department of Health, 2015)
  • GPs and social workers: partners for better care: delivering health and social care integration together (College of Social Work, & Practitioners Royal College of General, 2014)

  More practice examples from Social Care Online

• Measuring success Open

• Tools Open

• Research Open

  • Successful strategies in implementing a multidisciplinary team working in the care of patients with cancer: an overview and synthesis of the available literature (Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 2018)
  • Development of a customizable programme for improving interprofessional team meetings: an action research approach (International Journal of Integrated Care, 2018)
  • Successful strategies in implementing a multidisciplinary team working in the care of patients with cancer: an overview and synthesis of the available literature (Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 2018)
  • Leadership in interprofessional health and social care teams: a literature review (Leadership in Health Services, 2018)
  • From programme theory to logic models for multispecialty community providers: a realist evidence synthesis (Health Services and Delivery Research, 2018)
  • Advancing a systemic perspective on multidisciplinary teams: a comparative case study of work organisation in four multiple sclerosis hospitals (International Journal of Integrated Care, 2018)
  • Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes (review) (The Cochrane Collaboration / John Wiley & Sons, 2018)
  • Emergency and acute medical care in over 16s: service delivery and organisation (Vol. 94) (NICE, 2018)
  • Elements of integrated care approaches for older people: a review of reviews (BMJ open, 2018)
  • What works in implementation of integrated care programs for older adults with complex needs? A realist review (International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 2017)
  • Integrated care at home reduces unnecessary hospitalizations of community-dwelling frail older adults: a prospective controlled trial (BMC Geriatrics, 2017)
  • Effectiveness of multidisciplinary team case management: difference-in-differences analysis (BMJ open, 2016)
  • Does integrated care reduce hospital activity for patients with chronic diseases? An umbrella review of systematic reviews (BMJ open, 2016)
  • The effectiveness of inter-professional working for older people living in the community: a systematic review (Health and Social Care in the Community, 2013)

  More policy documents from Social Care Online

• Latest evidence Open

  These are the latest resources from Social Care Online, the UK’s largest database of care knowledge and research.

  • 'They don't want them to have capacity': multi-agency operationalisation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England with adults who self-neglect
    - Wiley, 2022
  • An evaluation of the Stratford multiagency, multidisciplinary, assessment clinic
    - Emerald, 2021
  • The right to choose: multi-agency statutory guidance for dealing with forced marriage and multi-agency practice guidelines: handling cases of forced marriage
    - Great Britain. Her Majesty's Government, 2022
  • Bairns' Hoose: project plan
    - Scotland. Scottish Government, 2022
  • Community-based multi-professional child protection decision making: systematic narrative review
    - Elsevier, 2022
  • Co-location, an enabler for service integration? Lessons from an evaluation of integrated community care teams in East London
    - Wiley, 2022
  • Casting light on the distinctive contribution of social work in multidisciplinary teams for older people
    - Oxford University Press, 2022
  • Impact of ‘enhanced’ intermediate care integrating acute, primary and community care and the voluntary sector in Torbay and South Devon, UK
    - International Foundation for Integrated Care, 2022
  • ‘You just really have to assert yourself:’ social work, nursing, and rehabilitation counseling student experiences of providing integrated behavioral health services before and after the immediate start of COVID-19
    - BioMed Central Ltd, 2022
  • Safeguarding responses to homelessness and self-neglect communities of practice report: key messages emerging from conversations in research study sites
    - NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, The Policy Institute, King's College London, 2022

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How do MDTs support integration?

MDTs consist of practitioners and professionals from health, care and allied disciplines and sectors that work together to provide holistic, person-centred and coordinated care and support.

The composition of MDTs varies depending on delivery models and settings but it may include: GPs, specialist doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, social workers and, increasingly, representatives of the housing and voluntary sectors. MDTs also often include link workers or care navigators, who can support social prescribing by connecting individuals with local groups and community support services.

A holistic and integrated approach to care and support requires the coordination of multiple interventions and services, built around the complex continuum of people’s needs, personal strengths and desirable outcomes.

MDTs play an important role, bridging professional boundaries and breaking down the barriers of competing cultural and organisational differences. When successful, they enable comprehensive, continuous and seamless care services to be delivered.

Led by a nominated care coordinator or lead, MDTs can ensure significant benefits for service users:

• joint assessments and care planning, informed by service users’ own goals and decisions
• better communication and information-sharing across the team and with the service user
• greater involvement of the service user, or their carers, in decisions about care
• a single point of access through a key worker or named coordinator
• rapid access to specialist expertise in the community, including urgent care in a crisis and at transitions of care (e.g. hospital discharge)
• access to a range of community services that support wellbeing, self-management and prevention (e.g. falls prevention services or home adaptations

Which service users will benefit from an MDT’s care coordination?

Research evidence indicates that integrated care, and MDTs in particular, are especially suitable for people with complex needs and long term-conditions, who benefit most from a holistic provision of care.

MDTs and inter-professional collaboration is a flexible and adaptable approach, shown to be effective for a whole range of populations, including older people, children and people with mental health problems.

What support and conditions do MDTs need to fulfil their role?

For MDTs to succeed with care coordination and management, a number of enablers and contextual factors need to be in place. The evidence indicates that these include:

• trusting relationships within the team
• a shared vision of integrated care and clear goals
• strong system and team leadership, accompanied by consistent working practices and protocols
• good access to shared resources across partner organisations
• a broad range of community-based services from which to provide proactive care management
• opportunities for informal communication and reflective team learning
• dedicated case managers taking responsibility for individual service users
• shared access to the care records of service users
• specific training and professional development, especially joint training within the team
• a good mix of professional backgrounds and boundary-spanning roles, and
• involvement of service users or their carers in care planning and decision-making.

What is the evidence for outcomes and impact?

The evidence suggests that MDT approaches are associated with improved outcomes for people who use services, including:

• better treatment planning and compliance
• more services provided at home or close to home
• reduction in service utilisation (hospital admission, A&E attendance, readmission and length of stay)
• greater self-management and better preventative care to stay well
• improved service user experience
• people’s engagement and activation through social prescribing and shared decision-making
• greater continuity of care across different care settings.