Evaluation of Partnership Working in Health and Social Care

This assignment provides a comprehensive evaluation of partnership working in the health and social care sector. It discusses various philosophies of organizations working together, including multi-agency partnerships. The document also examines different legislations, acts, practices, and policies used in this context. Additionally, it highlights differences in working practices and policies that affect collaborative working. The potential outcomes for professionals, users, and organizations are discussed, as well as strategies to improve these outcomes.

Working in Partnership in
Health and Social Care

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Philosophy of working in partnership in health and social care...........................................3
1.2 Evaluation of partnership relationship within health and social care services......................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Models of partnership working across the health and social care sector..............................5
2.2 Current legislation and organizational practices and policies for partnership working in
health and social care..................................................................................................................6
2.3 Differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working.......................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Possible outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals and
organizations...............................................................................................................................8
3.2 Potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services.......................8
3.3 Strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Health and social care organizations are organizations of people that deliver health care
services to needful persons. Today many organizations in this sector are working in partnership
in order to increase their facilities and quality of service to serve their customers and patients.
Organizations working in partnership should develop their ways of communicating with each
other, should coordinate their activities accordingly so that they can improve their services (Marx
and Jones, 2017). This assignment is about NHS foundations trust and other local organizations
who failed to provide quality service to their patients, failed to address and resolve complaints
and issues of their patients. So, this assignment will lay emphasis on partnership philosophies
and relationship in health and social care services, model of partnership, current legislation,
standards, policies and differences in working practices and policies that affect collaborative
working and at last evaluation of outcomes of partnership working for service users and
organizations in health and social care services.
LO 1
1.1 Philosophy of working in partnership in health and social care
There are different philosophies that are formed for working in partnership in health and
social care sectors. Few of these include interdependence, partnership organizations
empowerment, power sharing, respect and autonomy and informed decision making. Firstly both
the organizations working in partnership should take a charge on each others with proper
coordination and cooperation. This helps both the organizations in achieving the objectives and
goals that are to be targeted. Another both the organizations always depend upon social, financial
and economic support provided by each other. This interdependences help both the organizations
in decision making, exchange of needful information, coordination in resources and activities
etc.
However, this interdependence helps both the organizations but the level of
interdependence should be less, till a certain extent i.e. both the organizations should be able to
stand and run on their own which should depend upon their working in partnership. For example
NHS trust and healthcare professionals and training representative organizations can work
together in collaboration to serve their patients (Hutchinson and Jackson, 2015). However, both
the organizations should know both the positive as well as negative influence of their decisions
on the other. Both the organizations should have mutual understanding and respect for each other

which will eventually help in coordinated activities and strong relationship between them. If both
the organizations want their partnership to be more effective than they should share
responsibilities and duties equally. Both the organizations must have specific understanding and
obligations for each others work as well as for their patients.
Both the organizations working together in this sector should be able to work together in such a
way that any decision made by them should not only benefit them but it should benefit the other
organization as well as their patients and for this decision making both the organizations should
share a common and strong communication system through which they share important useful
information between them which eventually benefits their patients as well as them. For example
in this case study both NHS and the other organization failed to protect their patients and
uncover lack of professionalism because they didn't have proper communication system at every
level, take proper decision to protect their patients well-being and safety and from all the other
risks. They also failed to understand obligations towards each other and in coordinating their
activities according to the other organization.
1.2 Evaluation of partnership relationship within health and social care services
Generally according to the history organizations in this health and social care sectors has
not always been strong (Kaehne and et.al, 2017). For example in this case study due to this poor
relationship between organizations patients suffered in many ways like medicines were
prescribed but weren't given, patients who couldn't eat or drink without someone's help didn't
receive any help, vulnerable patients were left unattended and many other factors are given that
shows poor relationship between all the organizations involved. People with disabilities weren't
attended properly, cleanliness in the words were horrible, emergency wards didn't have sufficient
staff to attend and treatment of patients, patients were discharged without proper regards for their
welfare. Many patients weren't given chance to make important decision regarding their
treatment like receiving any surgeries or operations etc.
Patients were sidelined with respect to provision of health and social care services. There was a
research conducted to determine number of patients who were able to access proper facilities
provided by health and social care services, according to that research many patients faces
difficulties in their admission within the organizations. NHS and all the other organizations are
facing various difficulties in coordination of their activities, in forming proper communication

within them, providing better facilities to the patients, provision of all the resources such as
doctors, nurses etc.
There is a need of improvement in all the organizations in partnership with NHS trust. They need
to improve their working, organizing, their collaborative working with each other so that they
can improve their activities and provide an improved quality of service they will offer to their
patients. For example all the doctors can collaboratively work with the chemists so that all the
medicines proscribed to the patients can be given to them on time. NHS trust can collaborate
with many other government, public or private organizations in order to improve their service
quality that they would provide to their customers. They can even update their policies, acts,
rules and regulations in such a way that other organizations working in collaboration with then
can also be benefited so that they will get inspired to bring some changes in their chain of
activities to serve their patients. This will help them to remove all the negative impact from their
organizations. They should focus on effective and efficient service quality provided to the
patients rather than benefiting their organizations working within the partnership (Levin, 2016).
They also need to focus on finding solutions to all the things done wrong by reorganizing and
making some changes in their working within NHS trust. They need to make all the changes
within their trust according to patient centred culture i.e. safety of patients should be their first
priority. They should also try to provide proper professional training to their professionals
practising poor practise on their patients. In this training they should also teach their
professionals as well as all the staff involved ways to commit themselves towards their
professional work.
LO 2
2.1 Models of partnership working across the health and social care sector
In this case study all the organizations involved with NHS trust should use a model
(Multi-agencies working model) , so that all the partnership organizations working in health and
social care sector can improve themselves: Separating all the organizations involved according to
their legal identities, allocating all the staff members from all the involved organizations with
NHS trust, creation of groups that can work to deliver proper services to their organizations and
at last policing all the fundamental standards with care quality commission.
First of all the organizations that intend to work with NHS trust must be legal and should
be separate from each other. Then they should collaborate together in order to create a platform

where communication between all the organizations is proper and can interact with each other
properly. After this all the professionals and staff members should be partnered in such a way
that they can work effectively by utilizing all the available resources properly which can be
beneficial to the patients(Glasby, 2017).
For this they can create a structure by understanding all the standards and compliance
acceptable by their professionals. All the fundamental standards must be policed by care quality
commission. Then by bringing openness and transparency in their complete system. Then by
improving their commitment and support to the caring and nursing. Then by developing a strong
patient centred healthy leadership. At last by utilizing all the required, accurate, relevant and
necessary information in a proper manner. This will help them to effectively develop and
improve their partnership with each other and improve their working system. This model of
partnership across health and social care sector will help them improvement of their overall
system which will be beneficial for them as well as for their patients and will also help them in
achieving goals and desired objectives.
2.2 Current legislation and organizational practices and policies for partnership working in
health and social care
There are much legislation for working in partnership in health and social care sectors
such as: need of patients permission before performing life threatening medical treatments like
surgeries etc., users permission on other health and social care services provided by the
government agencies, local authorities and all the other organizations involved (Villatoro, Dixon
and Mays, 2016). The health, well being and social care regulations (2003) authorize local
authorities for implementation of various policies and strategies which aims on improving the
quality of social and health care services provided to the patients.
Community Act (1990) and health care act (1999) regulates all the service provision of
health and social care. These acts helps all the organizations involved in partnership working in
health and social care sectors. Updated health Act (2013) amends all nursing home support
scheme act (2009) in order to amend health Act (1999). Some current organizational policies and
practises that many organizations working in partnership have adopted are creation of learning
environment for implementation of few government policies to ensure complete compliance with
regulations. Many professionals in health care sectors have joined bodies such as ADSS i.e.

associations of directors of social services in order to learn all the emerging trends and issues in
their field (Kennedy and Wood, 2016).
There have been many inflows of professional volunteers that willingly offer their
services free of cost in this health and service care sector. These king of professionals aim is to
help and improve others lives in a better way. Another practise going on in this sector is to
provide emergency services to the needful and required patients. Many NGO's are also working
which provide financial help to needful patients in this health and social care sector.
2.3 Differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working
Differences in working practices and policies has affected not only the collaborative
working of all the other organizations working with NHS trust but has also enlightened their
poor standards. It has also affected their health care services that they provide to their patients.
This caused the senior clinical staff to distract from their managerial and leadership
responsibilities. Conflict among the organizations resulted in failure to reach target and achieve
perfect financial balance. All these problems also caused inter-organizational conflicts and
raised a question for trust that why these problems were not identified or discovered earlier. The
inter-communication between the local organizations as well as trust was so poor that they failed
to listen or hear their patients voice. The complain department of the trust was also not working
accordingly and didn't respond to the complaints made by the staff members or the patients.
Management of the trust with the other local organizations was so poor that they didn't
even check the local medical community was not raising any concerns till it was too late, local
security groups were not given enough equipments to represent or understand patients concerns.
Complete NHS system failed to detect, resolve or take actions of any problem or complained
raised at every level of their system (Sullivan and Skelcher, 2017). Lack of proper standards
resulted in unclear roles and responsibilities of all the staff members or senior clinical staff or
professionals. All these problems forced the trust to focus on their corporate governance and
financial control in such a way that all the issues of patients and poor care were resolved and
patients safety was also kept in mind. Healthcare commission accessed trust standards to check
the quality of the care provided to their patients, after the complete investigation truth about all
the issues came into light.

LO 3
3.1 Possible outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals and
organizations
Most common possible outcome for all the organizations working in partnership, service
users and professionals is to increase their health and social care organizations ability to serve
their patients with better quality of service, coordination among staff members to serve their
patients which in return satisfies the users. Partnership working among all the organizations also
increases the employment and training opportunity for staff member or professionals such as
doctors, nurses, clinical staff, social workers etc. Partnership working might also increase the
quality of services provided to the patients' en every way, resolve of all their issues within time
and take proper actions for their complaints.
All the involved organizations in the partnership would be able to resolve all the
problems related to poor standards and meet all the other needs and requirements of their
patients, doctors, staff members etc. If proper policies, standards, procedures and agreements are
made and followed then organizations can improve, manage and increase their range of services
that they can provide in this health and social care sector to their patients as well as customers
and improve their standards (Baldwin, 2016). Partnership working will also help the
organizations to develop deep understanding and learning about each other and will help them to
develop new skills, experts and inherit and use new technology that might be useful for their
customers as well as patients. It will also help them to understand information and resource
sharing that might be useful for all the organizations in partnership especially in health and social
care sector. All these things will help organizations to provide quality service to their customers
and patients.
3.2 Potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services
Many people think that partnership working helps both the organizations and individuals
to grow and increase their ability of providing better services to their customers especially in
health and social care sector but the reality is that there are numerous challenges faced by the
organizations for smooth running and communications among them. These challenges work as a
barrier and hinder the performance the organizations involved in partnership. One of the most
common problem that many organizations is that they suffer from lack of communication and
understanding which creates misunderstandings and misconceptions that eventually leads in

creation of problems among them. All the organizations have different policies and standards
which sometimes create conflicts and degrade the overall standard of the organizations working
together in partnership (Mason and et.al, 2015). When all the organizations involved does not
create some boundaries in their working with mutual understanding then it also becomes one of
the reason of conflict creation among them this also creates problems in their fulfilment of their
responsibilities towards their patients and customers.
These challenges also reduce their chances of achieving goals and objectives for example
in this case study problems and poor standards in NHS trust created problems and as a result they
failed to achieve their desired goals and objectives. All these issues not only results in poor
partnership among organizations but also results in poor service provided to their patients, poor
management, non-response of issues created among staff members or customers or patients etc.
this also creates trust issues among organizations which leads to unwillingness to share any
important desired information, knowledge, ideas and skills or any other resources among their
partners. This also results in poor coordination and cooperation's among organizations. These are
the most common potential barriers faced by organizations in partnership in health and social
care sector.
3.3 Strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services
It is important for the organizations to develop some strategies and implement them
appropriately in order to overcome all the potential barriers or problems discussed above.
Strategies such as: through proper management of their people and staff use all the available
resources appropriately, utilize all the available resources or staff or their any other strength in an
adequate manner with all the other organizations involved in the partnership, improve their
management in such a way that management of their operations, professionals, staff members,
activities appropriately with effective cost operation methods (Keleher and MacDougall, 2015).
Organizations in partnership should develop appropriate number of professionals and staff
members so that they are capable of attending all the patients or customers in all the departments
on time effectively. Proper training and development activities should be given to the staff
members and employees so that they can know their responsibilities, improve their skills,
abilities, help the organization in achieving goals and at last can provide quality service to their
patients and customers.

Organizations in partnership should lay clear and common policies, procedures,
standards, protocols, system for sharing information, knowledge, ideas etc. so that their
management, communications and working among them can be improved and they can improve
the quality of their services. They should also work on improving their ways of monitoring all
their partnership activities. These strategies should be set according to all the organizations.
These strategies should also help partnership organizations in effective and efficient delivery of
quality service. These health and social care organizations should focus on their patients and
customers needs and satisfaction and should develop their strategies in such a way that they not
only benefit themselves but they also benefit their customers and patients.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has been summarized that, there are different philosophies
of organizations working in partnership, then relationship between NHS trust and other
organizations have been evaluated, model of partnership that is used is multi-agencies working
model, there are many legislations, acts, practices and policies for partnership that has been used
and applied here are explained, differences in working practises and policies are also explained
that affect the collaborative working. After this possible outcomes of partnership working for
professionals users and organizations has also been explained, potential barriers to partnership
working are also explained and lastly all the strategies to improve the outcomes of partnership
are explained.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baldwin, M., 2016. Critical reflection: Opportunities and threats to professional learning and
service development in social work organizations. In Social work, critical reflection and
the learning organization (pp. 51-66). Routledge.
Glasby, J., 2017. Understanding health and social care. Policy Press.
Hutchinson, M. and Jackson, D., 2015. The construction and legitimation of workplace bullying
in the public sector: insight into power dynamics and organisational failures in health
and social care. Nursing inquiry. 22(1). pp.13-26.
Kaehne, A., and et.al., 2017. Bringing integration home: Policy on health and social care
integration in the four nations of the UK. Journal of Integrated Care. 25(2). pp.84-98.
Keleher, H. and MacDougall, C., 2015. Understanding health(No. Ed. 4). Oxford University
Press.
Kennedy, J. and Wood, E.G., 2016. Medication costs and adherence of treatment before and
after the Affordable Care Act: 1999–2015. American journal of public health. 106(10).
pp.1804-1807.
Levin, J., 2016. Partnerships between the faith-based and medical sectors: Implications for
preventive medicine and public health. Preventive Medicine Reports. 4. pp.344-350.
Marx, R. and Jones, F.W., 2017. The path of mindfulness: an NHS case example. Healthcare
Counselling & Psychotherapy Journal, pp.18-21.
Mason, A., and et.al., 2015. Integrating funds for health and social care: an evidence
review. Journal of health services research & policy. 20(3). pp.177-188.
Sullivan, H. and Skelcher, C., 2017. Working across boundaries: collaboration in public
services. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Villatoro, A.P., Dixon, E. and Mays, V.M., 2016. Faith-based organizations and the Affordable
Care Act: Reducing Latino mental health care disparities. Psychological services. 13(1).
p.92.
Online
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