Health and Social Care Partnerships

This assignment delves into the complex realm of partnerships between health and social care services. It critically examines various factors that both promote and hinder successful collaborations, drawing upon relevant research studies. The analysis emphasizes the significance of integrated working practices in enhancing patient care and achieving better health outcomes. The document explores the benefits and challenges of such partnerships, providing insights into best practices for effective collaboration.

WORKING IN
PARTNERSHIP IN
HEALTH AND SOCIAL
CARE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Discussing philosophies in working in the health and social care...................................1
1.2 Partnership relationships within health and social care services......................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Models of partnership working across the health and social care sector.........................3
2.2 Legislation and organisational policies and practices for joint venture working in health
and social care........................................................................................................................4
2.3 Differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working...................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals and organisations5
3.2 Barriers to partnership working in health and social care services..................................6
3.3 Strategies to improve partnership working in health and social care services.................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Working in partnership of health and social care is the idea of public importance, where
two organisations group their efforts to serve public services. The collaboration of these
organisations comprises services like, justice, hospital, medication, education and providing
living facilities. The aim of collaboration is to make effort of the improvement of society by
delivering provide care services which are related to health and basic necessity of humans. The
report will evaluate philosophies and partnership relationship of both enterprises. Also, it will
outline models and legislation such Mental Care Act and Children Care Act of partnership of
working in health and social care sector. Thus, the report will determine outcomes, barrier to
outcomes and strategies to improve outcomes for collaboration working in health and social care.
TASK 1
1.1 Discussing philosophies in working in the health and social care
Partnership working is referred to be a key element in health and care sector where it
depicts some well-known concepts of consultation, sharing power and operating jointly in
collaboration. All of these aspects are required to be used with a foremost concern of
provisioning effective services to the users. Although, people working in HSC are responsible to
carry out a duty bound service which is important for recognizing the importance of encouraging
a sense of autonomy in the individuals. As a result, to which, they are responsible for being
cautious towards their job roles by together relating it to other areas. It is with a specific concern
of people operating in a similar sector with distinct set of responsibilities and a distinct different
section of HSC that includes not only the nurses, but other associated professional bodies, such
as doctors, physicians, psychiatrists and other medical practitioners, etc.
This urges the need of working in collaboration to provide the services to the users in the
best possible manner. It is also on considering the given case scenario in which, there exists an
urging demand for NHS to work in partnership with better commissioning of their presently
arranged services (Maller, 2015). This also needs a reorganisation of their current adopted
structure with another consideration of developing a mutual relationship to support one other and
work in a collaborative manner. There together exists another foremost requirement of
addressing an imbalanced state of work that is prevailing in the organisation with a key
agreement of partnership with the patients. However, choice of patients is not only an elementary
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reflection of good practice but also depicts a governmental policy and needs to be abided by
NHS.
Beside this, there together exists several number of reasons for which, it is important for an
HSC to work in partnership with a relevant philosophy of it. This involves the achievement of
their ultimate goal that is to provide effective health related services to the users as per their
distinct needs and requirements. Another is equity that is based on justice and impartiality with 2
other parameters of efficiency and quality. It together involves an instrumental goal of
maintaining a smooth and effective collaborative relationship among the users. It can be done by
considering to resolve the concerning ethical issues by judging effectively between right and
wrong. Also, resolving daily problems like respecting people by treating them impartially and
with dignity is required. Both of these concerns can be addressed by using some suitable theories
of philosophies that will also assist in supporting the choices made by the patients. The theories
are Deontology and Utilitarianism which can be applied to the health and social care.
Deontology theory is concerned with moral duty that is required to be provide by the
NHS trust. This means that health and social care is obliged to perform duty in order to impart
better and effective services to patients. The theory clearly indicates that health and social is
binded to provide quality services to the patients (Rao and Clarke, 2017).
Utilitarianism theory states that best action is that which increases utility. Moreover,
health and social care is required to provide quality services and as such, patients may be treated
with much ease. This theory is based on consequences of actions while selecting one policy over
the other one. Thus, adequate services may be provided to patients that is the main concern of
working in partnership and as such, work with proper collaboration in effective manner.
1.2 Partnership relationships within health and social care services
Effectiveness of partnership relationship is seen with the type of partnership. Deriving
type of partnership among social and health care services plays a crucial role which is as follows:
Strategic Partnership: It is relationship between health care services and local authorities
who willing to contribute in health care (Cameron, Lart and Coomber, 2014). The partnership of
these authorities is based on one common goal which is prevented and serves quality of life to
public.
Inter agency working: This reflects relationship of social care, heath and housing
authorities. All these administrative units are focused on meeting actual health care and social
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needs of public. The common objective if theses authorities help them in working and
coordinating their efforts.
Inter professional working: It is the relationship between professional of different care
units. The goals of these professionals are based on partnership of health and social care. Further,
these workers are focused on serving quality and healthy living to public.
The effectiveness if partnership of health and social care is demonstrated by their
partnership benchmarks which are based on practice methods and Qualifications. Moreover the
benchmarking is set to analyse working patterns of both the authorities in certain situation. It is
the practice which helps in developing trust on work and services which ultimately aid in
managing effectiveness of collaborative Working as a whole of health and social care (Ferlie,
Crilly and Peckham, 2012). Apart from this, white paper is the proposal for enhancing
partnership and serving better services together to deliver effectiveness in collaborative services.
It is the format which enables guidelines for practicising with a motive of Our Health, Our Care,
Our Say.
TASK 2
2.1 Models of partnership working across the health and social care sector
There are different types of model in health and social care that are described below-
Unified model: This model of partnership states that there is a management structure and
as such, it includes staffing and providing training of workers. No separate structure prevails in
this aspect. There are certain benefits for Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust for
implementing this as an organisation structure. This includes single system for delivering
services to patients; just one strategic approach is followed to achieve stated targets in the best
possible manner. Thus, better services may be provided to the service users (Bryson, 2016).
Coalition model: The coalition model is quite useful in health and social care as several
activities are effectively associated with each other but separate work is accomplished by the
workers. This means that the elements such as management, staffing and training are associated
with each other but carry out tasks separately. The model also implies that no training is
provided to workers. In simple words, no staffing is involved to impart training of health care
workers in Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. This model also has several advantages
such as activities are coordinated and associated with each other and as such, joint actions are
done. The segments work independently which carries out tasks assigned to them with much
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ease (Dickinson and O'Flynn, 2016). Segments work individually and as such, it is not required
to collect data of all tasks and other units.
Hybrid model: This model is a combination of above two models discussed. This means
that Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust may easily take advantages of coalition and
unified model in the organisation structure and extract out benefits in effective manner. The main
advantage of such type of model is that disadvantages of earlier models can be removed.
2.2 Legislation and organisational policies and practices for joint venture working in health and
social care
Complying with regulations and legislation is mandatory thing which helps the health and
social care partnership firm in enhancing their public services. It offers set of rules and
regulations which helps in protecting interest of public and employees who are concerned with
collaboration. The acts are enforced by government to develop care practices when in
collaboration. Further, it aims at improving voices of service uses and accountability of medical
practitioners. It assists in improvising level of care services with regard to patient satisfaction.
Some legislation which plays an essential role in collaboration of health and social care services
are as follows:
 The care Standard Act 2000: This act is enforced to manage powers management and
staff. Further, the act ensures appropriate care premises and care services independently
of health care and social care. It is focused on inspection of nursing homes, boarding
schools, hospitals, children care homes etc.
 Mental Capacity Act 2005: The act is enforced to provide power to people who are
unable to make decisions. It aims at developing standard of people who are unable to
make decisions for themselves. It is basically focused on patients in hospitals who are
suffering from mental disability (Wallcraft and et.al., 2011). Hence, it is implemented in
partnership firm which are providing medication and social care services to mentally
challenged people. Under this the motive of firm is to provide clinical and basic living
sense to people who are unaware of their surroundings.
 Children Act 1989: This act aims at security and safety of children by full fillings their
basic needs and to make them learn about good living habits. The individuals of health
and social care who are involved with child services involves in basic practices of serving
better living environment, serving their needs and meeting their desires (McKeown,
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Malihi-Shoja and Downe, 2011). The children act for collaboration is based on staying
safe, healthy, attaining economic well-being, enabling positive contribution and
achieving and enjoying.
2.3 Differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working
Working practices and policies making at the time of collaboration is complicated
because both the organisations have their own opinion and way of practicing. However,
collaboration of health care and social services is the most critical process because working
pattern of both the firm is completely different (Cameron, Lart and Coomber, 2014). Like the
working practices of health care are based on providing medication and care services but on the
other hand social care services are focused on developing sense of living among people who are
unable to make decision for own. Therefore, when these two different organisations work in
partnership faces positive and negative aspects of decision making but at the end ut is effective
as it helps in formulating new and different working practices and policies keeping in mind
interest of stakeholders. In this the policies and practices of enterprises are based on unified way
of working and serving satisfaction to public. Like, this collaboration will comprise proper
medication to service users in Hospital, education, justice, medication, decision making etc.
Apparently, from Francis case report it has been determined that collaborative working is the
opportunity which helps in analysing working spirit of professional in diverse environment.
Further, it assisted in determining that when working in partnership the firms are able to analyse
improvement needs in skills and care practices (Dickinson and Glasby, 2010). Thus, as per the
case analysis it can stated that collaborative working is the idea which helps in identifying
improvement and in sharing knowledge of common work practices. Hence, it is the practice
where a different person works together as per their skills and knowledge for further
improvements.
TASK 3
3.1 Outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals and organisations
When working in partnership there both positive and negative outcomes to collaboration
of health and social care. Like the positive outcomes of collaboration are, innovation in decision
making and skills of managing patients. Further, it leads to empowerment of employees and
organisation. Working in partnership is the plan which helps the firm in attaining trust of
stakeholders. Apart from this working together of health care and social care team will assist in
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developing autonomy and will promote the sense of self dependency in working practices. The
positivity of working in team lies in professionalism among employees (Gardiner, Gott and
Ingleton, 2012). Moreover, it is the strategy which helps in developing coordination and
cooperation in working practices. Like from Francis Case report it has been analysed that it is the
approach which helps in improving communication and making optimum utilisation of
resources. The study of report states that it is a coherent approach and involves work practices
which are common for all that leads to integration services.
However, the most common problem of working in partnership is difference in opinion
which leads to conflicts between employees and sometimes in management. Moreover,
collaboration working increases the risk of miscommunication and duplicacy of work which can
be risky for health care and social care services. In addition, it increases the risk of rivalry among
people working together due to miscommunication or difference in thinking and decision making
(Ferlie, Crilly and Peckham, 2012). Similarly, working in collaboration also involves the risk of
mismanagement of funding and work. Thus, according to case report the major negative
outcomes to collaborative working can be increase in cost, breakdown in communication and
lack of shared purpose which may hinder goals and objective of partnership of health and social
care services.
3.2 Barriers to partnership working in health and social care services
Barriers to partnership working in social and health services can be:
 Procedural Barriers: Every organisation has one specific procedure to handle its
functions. Moreover health care and social care are two different terms which have
completely way of handling service users. Like the first procedure of heath care is to
make service user fill firm and fees but on the hand social workers serves their services
for free and first focuses on understanding needs of person. Therefore, collaborating
procedure according to both care services can be major barrier to working in partnership.
 Professional Barriers: Every firm has its own business ethics and professional values
therefore mixing values and ethics of two business together is the most complex process
because it sometimes leads different in opinion in working practices of employee which
is the major cause of miscommunication and conflicts.
 Financial barriers: The most common barrier of collaboration is financial because it is
not at all possible that if any organisations are planning to involve in business have equal
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financial status (McKeown, Malihi-Shoja and Downe, 2011). However, the collaboration
of health care and social care services can be hindered by financial barriers because
hospital are based on delivering services on money but on the other hand social service
providers delivers services without any motive of earning and based on charity and
donation based funding. Hence, partnership of health and social care services can come
across major financial barriers.
3.3 Strategies to improve partnership working in health and social care services
Evaluation of positive and negative outcomes for collaboration working and barriers over
it helps the firm in formulating effective strategies of overcoming shortcomings and setting
improvement measures. The foremost strategy in collaboration can be empowerment were the
firms can focus on enhancing skills and working spirit of workers. In this, health and social care
providers can focus on developing relationship among employees and setting common standards
of working. This is strategy which can help the enterprises in managing working and positive
relationship among workers at the time of collaboration (Gilburt and et.al., 2013). Apart form
this, the organisation can implement shared awareness where the goal of all workers will be to
focus on one target with one technique. Sharing awareness for one specific target is the strategy
which can helps in managing coordination and cooperation among employees that will minimize
the risk of conflicts and delay in work. In addition, the most important and essential strategy
which needs to be implemented at the time of collaboration of health and social care services is
risk assessment. IT will help in minimizing chance of loses and will enable prior security to
situation as it assist at identifying and managing hazards before it occurs (Pavlish, Noor and
Brandt, 2010). Thus, in accordance to these strategies it can be stated that it is important for the
organisation to have prior collaboration plans and strategies in order to manage successful
business operations.
CONCLUSION
Working in partnership in health and social care services is most critical process as it is
the involvement of two businesses which are completely different from each other. In health care
the organisation are focused on providing medication to the patients whereas social care
providers support people with basic daily needs which can be education, justice or can be living.
Further, the report identified models such as Hybrid model, Coalition model and Unified model
which help in managing collaboration working of social and health care services. Also, it
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outlined various regulations which assist in managing successful partnership of these two
organisations like Standard Care Act 2000, Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Children Act 1989.
Thus, the report concluded with analysis of positive and negative outcomes of working in
partnership such as mis-communication but optimum utilisation of resources duplicacy of work
but innovation in working practices etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Maller, C. J., 2015. Understanding health through social practices: performance and materiality
in everyday life.Sociology of health & illness. 37(1). pp .52-66.
Rao, A. R. and Clarke, D., 2017. An open-source framework for the interactive exploration of
Big Data: Applications in understanding health care. In Neural Networks (IJCNN), 2017
International Joint Conference on (pp. 1641-1648). IEEE.
Cameron, A., Lart, R., Bostock, L. and Coomber, C., 2014. Factors that promote and hinder joint
and integrated working between health and social care services: a review of research
literature. Health & social care in the community. 22(3). pp.225-233.
Ferlie, E., Crilly, T. and Peckham, A., 2012. Knowledge mobilisation in healthcare: a critical
review of health sector and generic management literature. Social science & medicine.
74(8). pp.1297-1304.
Wallcraft, J.A.N. and et.al., 2011. Partnerships for better mental health worldwide: WPA
recommendations on best practices in working with service users and family carers. World
psychiatry. 10(3). pp.229-236.
McKeown, M., Malihi-Shoja, L. and Downe, S., 2011. Service user and carer involvement in
education for health and social care: Promoting partnership for health (Vol. 9). John
Wiley & Sons.
Dickinson, H. and Glasby, J., 2010. ‘Why Partnership Working Doesn't Work’ Pitfalls, problems
and possibilities in English health and social care. Public Management Review. 12(6).
pp.811-828
Gardiner, C., Gott, M. and Ingleton, C., 2012. Factors supporting good partnership working
between generalist and specialist palliative care services: a systematic review. Br J Gen
Pract. 62(598). pp.e353-e362.
Gilburt, H. and et.al., 2013. Promoting recovery-oriented practice in mental health services: a
quasi-experimental mixed-methods study. BMC psychiatry. 13(1). p.167.
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Pavlish, C.L., Noor, S. and Brandt, J., 2010. Somali immigrant women and the American health
care system: discordant beliefs, divergent expectations, and silent worries. Social Science
& Medicine. 71(2). pp.353-361.
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