What Is Partnership Working in Social Care

If explicitly and implicitly these framework conditions require that partnership work be at the centre of social work practice. There are three main reasons for teaching partnership work, although the rationale for this is rarely explicitly stated in the program documentation. Cultural differences – In most cases, there are cultural differences between partners. For example, in the case of Adult A, the organizational cultures of police, local authorities, and health and social services differ from those of others. It is obvious that the working practice of each institution is strongly determined by its cultures. In total, this book, just under 100 pages long, provides the reader with a foundation on how integrated care has been idealized and implemented. It examines the different topics of integrated care or partnership work, such as structures, policy, context, people, needs and interests. It also shows how the process of integrating care is seen as more important than outcomes. The authors disclose assumptions about health and social services cooperation, the positive effects of integrated care and partnership cooperation and, in particular, assumptions that there are consensus definitions for both. This definition can be misleading in that it implies shared power and “community,” which may not be the experience of all stakeholders. There must be a recognition of differences in power. However, the advantage of this definition is that it could be applied to partnerships with a range of stakeholders, including users and other professionals.

Chapter 2 examines the evidence for the effectiveness of partnerships. The results are regularly ignored in partnership studies through four different literature reviews and local examples in which processes and structures are at the forefront. The authors argue that descriptions of the ideal situational conditions for partnerships are widely used in the literature, but that the “way to manage” is not studied. Two useful frameworks, which the authors say can oversimplify reality, are provided as partnership assessment tools for practitioners and/or stakeholders. Moreover, in this chapter, Glasby and Dickinson highlight the growing evidence that structural changes are not directly correlated with better outcomes for service users or more functional partnerships. The authors suggest that research focuses on what doesn`t work as evidence of practice. As Sullivan and Skelcher (2002) have pointed out, partnership works best when partners have some similarity in their work practices and policies. However, it is not always possible to find partners with similar working practices and policies.

As a result, most health and social services work with partners with different labour practices and policies. These differences in work practices and policies are worrisome as they have a negative impact on all collaborative work and in most cases. For example, as noted in the JIT (2009), when partners` working practices are different, there may be disagreements about how best to achieve common objectives. Even in some cases, when work practices and policies vary significantly from one potential partner to another, it may become impossible to enter into the much-needed partnership work arrangement if the partners withdraw into their comfort zone. This is exactly what happens in the adult A case scenario. The partners who were supposed to work together to protect adults, including local authorities, politics, and health and social services, all had different working practices. Local authorities work according to the mandate entrusted to them by the various legislations. On the other hand, the Police Department operates in accordance with the guidelines and requirements contained in the Police Legislation, including the Police Act of 1964. Similarly, the working practices of health and social welfare services are governed by very different pieces of legislation, including the Health and Social Welfare Act 2014 and the Care Act 2002, among others. This leads to different work practices that have prevented these potential partners from coming together to plan how to work together to protect and meet all the needs of the adult.

The essence of partnership is sharing. It is characterized by mutual respect, division of roles, information rights, responsibility, competence and value attached to individual contribution. In short, each partner is perceived as having something to contribute, power is shared, decisions are made together, and roles are not only respected, but also supported by legal and moral rights. The following presentation from the College of Social Work (currently known as the British Association of Social Workers or BASW) discusses how the law affects integration, collaboration and partnerships in the UK, including: There are several laws, organisational practices and guidelines for partnership cooperation in health and social services. Legislation requiring the use of partnerships in the areas of health and social services includes the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the NHS Care and Community Act 1990 and the Children Act 2004. Another important outcome of the partnership is empowerment. When different professionals work together, they are able to reinforce each other (SCIE 2016). Unfortunately, this did not happen in the case of Adult A. The police, local authorities and health and social services have never worked together and have deprived each partner of the opportunity to be strengthened by the others.

If there had been a partnership between these three parties, there could have been empowerment that would have helped each of them improve the way they fulfill their commitment. There are several potential barriers to partnership. These include cultural differences, time and resources, and funding issues This issue was discussed very usefully by the research team, including project stakeholders, whose members were undergraduate and graduate social work students, users and caregivers, practitioners and employers. Therefore, the research team identified the following good practice criteria and agreed that to determine best practices, criteria 1 to 4 must be met and criteria 5 to 7 are desirable. This report discusses the concept of partnership as used in health and social services. The report found that to achieve better results through collaborative work, employees need to put into practice the philosophies of partnership work. In addition, the reports identified a number of laws and policies that affect partnership in cooperation with the health sector. Finally, the report also noted that partnership work can have a wide range of positive outcomes when applied in the delivery of health and social services A single and unambiguous definition of partnership work did not emerge from the research review. Most respondents (students, tutors, teachers, users and caregivers) had difficulty defining the partnership. In the field survey, universities and practitioners identified the partnership as follows: Government policy on public sector services strongly confirms the importance of partnership work within and between services, as well as with users and caregivers. In the early years of New Labour, the focus was on interprofessional practice in partnership with health professionals. .