‘Nobody should feel alone.’ Re-introducing socially excluded,cultural and ethnic minority children and young people to educational and vocational opportunity

This article reports on some of the findings from a five-nation study of projects working to re-introduce cultural and ethnic minority children and young people to educational training and work. It focuses upon the work of independent mediators in Anderlecht (Brussels) and Den Helder (Holland) in facilitating communication and collaboration between students, families, welfare and criminal justice agencies, schools and colleges and employers. In particular it considers the mediator's role in bringing together the ‘minimum sufficient network’ of professionals and resources necessary to make an ‘intelligent’ response to a problematic situation and the consequent emergence of new forms of ‘meta-professionalism’.