Outcomes of Partnership Working in Health and Social Care Services

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of partnership working in health and social care (HSC), using the case of Adult A to illustrate key concepts. It begins by explaining the philosophy of working in partnership, emphasizing ethics, empowerment, independence, respect, power sharing, and informed choices. The report evaluates different partnership relationships, such as strategic partnerships, inter-agency working, and inter-professional working, highlighting their importance in achieving seamless service delivery and improved quality. It also analyzes models of partnership working, including unified, coalition, coordinated, and hybrid models, and reviews relevant legislation and organizational practices. Furthermore, the report evaluates the potential outcomes of partnership working for users, professionals, and organizations, while also identifying barriers and suggesting strategies to improve outcomes. The Tameside Adult Safeguarding Partnership's review of Adult A's case is used as a practical example throughout the report.

Working in Partnership in Health and Social Care
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
LO1. Understand partnership philosophies and relationships in health and social care services
....................................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Explain the philosophy of working in partnership in health and social care...................4
1.2 Evaluate partnership relationships within health and social care services.......................5
LO2: Understand how to promote positive partnership working with users of services,
professionals and organisations in health and Social care services...........................................7
2.1 Analyse models of partnership working across the health and social care sector...........7
2.2 Review current legislation and organisational practices and policies for partnership
working in health and social care...........................................................................................8
2.3 Explain how differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working
................................................................................................................................................9
LO3: Be able to evaluate the outcomes of partnership working for users of services,
professionals and organisations in health and social care services..........................................10
3.1 Evaluate possible outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals
and organizations.................................................................................................................10
3.2 Analyse the potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services.
..............................................................................................................................................11
3.3 Devise strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social
care services.........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
This assignment is about partnership in Health and Social Cares. The assignment has been
done with reference to the case of Adult A who was known to be a man of British origin who
had died recently for some reason. The case study illustrates the work of partnership
specifically Tameside Adult Safeguarding partnership to get a better understanding on the
case of Adult A and avoid similar outcome to his. In the first part of the assignment
partnership philosophies and relations with respect to HSC has been provided. The second
part of the assignment contains, different models of partnership have been analyzed in the
HSC sector with reference to the case study. Different organizational practices and
legislations for partnership working in the health and social care has also been explained in
the assignment. Lastly, the outcome of partnership working for professional, organization and
users in the sector of health and social care has been evaluated.
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LO1. Understand partnership philosophies and relationships in health and social care
services
1.1 Explain the philosophy of working in partnership in health and social care.
Working in partnerships in HSC is regarded as one of the key elements in the HSC sector as
there are different departments that needs to unite together for the treatment and development
of a patient (Cameron et al., 2014). In this sector the concept of consultation, sharing of
power and working jointly are very essential and is also effective way of service. It is the
significant duty of the people on health and social care to promote autonomy with
individuals. It is also one of their responsibilities that they be attentive and relate to other
people working within the sector.
Due to reorganizing and commissioning there has been recently seen to urgent demand in
partnership working in HSC. It is essential for the people working to develop a mutual
supportive relationship that would benefit the health and social care but more importantly
balance the power that has been there in the heath sector. To make this effort successful the
health and social care sector needs a philosophy of working partnership and the reasons are
ultimate goal, efficiency, equity and quality (Glasby, 2017).
One of the philosophies required in working in partnership in heath a social care is ethics.
Ethics is known as the branch of philosophy that generally questions about the moral self and
the right courses of action that needs to be taken in any situation that comes ahead
(Runciman, et al., 2017). It is also considered as a complex human activity where all kinds of
dilemmas related to moral arises repeatedly. The ethical issues that arise on a daily basis are
treating people with dignity, supporting the choices of patients, respecting people and treating
people fairly (Bircher and Kuruvilla, 2014).
Out of all these, there are several partnership theories that have been identified in HSC, they
are; autonomy, , power sharing, empowerment, respect, independence and making informed
choices.
Empowerment: Empowerment is considered as power that is required to be shared among
individuals or groups who in case has lack of power. It is generally people centered and
allows the sense of taking leadership r charge of oneself (Glasby and Dickinson, 2014). It
has also been described as method of enhancing ability of any individual, recognizing and
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promoting to meet he the needs of their own self, solve problems that is related to them, and
in term mobilize the required resources to feel the control of the lives of the individuals
involved. Several effects of empowerment are sense of satisfaction, enriched experience and
smooth partnership relationship.
Independence: Dependency is generally caused due to crisis disablement, cultural or social
expectations, cycle stage and personality (Bailie, et al., 2013). It mainly emphasize on
personal characteristics not at all discussed in definitions dependency that includes self-
regulation, ability to opportunity and control.
Autonomy in this case is known as the freedom to take own judgment to act upon own area
of interest. On the other hand, personal autonomy is generally defined as capability that
enables to manipulate one’s environment with control over information and resources for
interest that is related to oneself.
Respect: With relation to medical ethics, respect is gained by protecting patient autonomy.
For example, information regarding the treatment of the patient and informing them about
making decisions about their care.
Power Sharing: In relation to HSC power sharing generally means coming to mutual or
negotiable terms or shared understanding of different roles and responsibilities in different
disciplinary boundaries also relinquishing the relationship power.
Another philosophy is making informed choices that help the current policy trend to
encourage other greater choices of the welfare of the services. In order to make informed
choices people in this sector need information and has costs for different individuals that is
related to effort, material resources and time.
In the case study of Adult A all these philosophies were seen to be maintained by the groups
or individuals involved in the partnership of reviewing the case of Adult. This partnership
was formed to get a clear understanding of the case of Adult A and avoid such cases in the
future. The philosophies adapted in the partnership enabled smooth working and avoid
conflicts. It is important in a health and social care to work in partnership and hence the
Tameside Adult Safeguarding partnership started to review of the case of Adult A keeping all
these philosophies in mind.
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1.2 Evaluate partnership relationships within health and social care services.
In HSC Practices, there are several methods of partnership relationships. All the methods of
partnership relationship have the goal of prevention, seamless service, efficiency, early
invention, improved quality and meeting the needs of the service users. The different types of
partnership relationships help in working together with different authorities at different
levels. Some of the partnership relationships are:
Strategic partnership: It is a partnership mainly done between the health services and local
authorities (Petch et al., 2013). In this partnership, the health service and local authorities
work together for the betterment of the service users and the society.
Inter-agency working: This partnership is generally formed between organizations in social,
health and housing, for example voluntary organizations and NHS private. In this case, the
bodies help the health service by giving different facilities and working on their behalf for the
betterment of the service users (Baldwin, 2016).
Inter professional working: This partnership involves professional from different
disciplines working with the service users in the same category or health services.
Evaluation of partnership relationship can be simply done in the terms of outcome of service
users and the target of the organization. It is said that a results speak about the effectiveness
and efficiency of activities done. In this case, the activities performed by the partnership in
health and social care are evaluated in the same way where results are seen to give a verdict
on the performance of the partnership. This is the only process that helps in evaluating
partnerships.
In this case study of Adult A it has been seen that Tameside Adult Safeguarding Partnership
is the collaboration of different authorities that would be required in the review system. The
result of the collaborative work in terms of partnership can be said to be successful, as the
result of reviewing the case of Adult A has been effective and reason have been found out.
Proper information has been gathered by the partnership working that would eventually help
in preventing incident of such kinds in the future.
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LO2: Understand how to promote positive partnership working with users of services,
professionals and organisations in health and Social care services.
2.1 Analyse models of partnership working across the health and social care sector
Models of partnership working is important to maintain the decorum of the partnership and
followed particular principles to avoid conflicts due to different interests. It is clear from the
studies to make a partnership model successful it is necessary to develop a common goal and
objective (Cameron et al., 2014). Models of partnership can be categorized on two levels, one
is the practical level and other is the theoretical level. Every theoretical model can be used in
practical or it has not been tried so far in the HSC sector.
In the practical level the model of partnership that is generally implemented in the local area
agreements and local strategic partnerships. Local Strategic Partnership was developed
around the year 2000 (Benington and Geddes, 2013). It has been developed for the most
deprived local authority areas that used to receive renewal-funding form Deputy Prime
Minister of England. Later the department of communities and the local government came up
with local strategic partnership in the condition to receive funding. The aim objective of most
of the LSP has been on renewal and regeneration. The LSP generally brings representatives
from voluntary community, local statutory, private sectors to find a solution to the local
problems, discuss strategies, and initiatives and most importantly allocate funding. Similarly,
Local Area Agreements are deal between central government and the local partners. The
main aim of this coalition is to improve the outcomes of the fund linkage to innovate and
improve delivery of services.
The theoretical models of partnership working are; unified model, coalition model,
coordinated model and hybrid model.
The Unified model: This model has the trend to amalgamate training, management and
staffing structures for different services, which in turn is said get delivered by various sectors
but also are united in close terms in operations (Chen et al., 2014). This model is known to
provide a particular unified trust to all health, social care, the trust is said to have a financial
system, and the formed trust is said to have a significant approach in terms of strategy with a
particular set of objectives and aims.
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The Coalition Model: In coalition model there is an expression of association and alliance
including the different elements and they are said to operate separately. The coalition model
is also said to be a pact between professionals and HSC organizations where both cooperate
and initiate joint actions or activities for common or self-interest.
The Coordinated Model: In the coordinated model the management, staffs and training
structure are all synchronized in order to make different service works distinct individually.
In this model there is no such single integrated system (Sallis et al., 2015). Different
specialized organizations work in harmony and in coordination with each other in this model.
The Hybrid Model: The Hybrid Model is referred to as the working with adaptation of
different models and not any particular model in order to achieve the full range of services.
This model is generally based on coordination, unification and coalition (Moorhead et al.,
2013).
In the case of Adult A that there was no hybrid model of partnership followed in order to
retrieve all information and conduct a review on case of Adult A. The adaptation of the
hybrid model has been evident to be successful and helped TASP in gathering the required
information that would help vulnerable adults in the future.
2.2 Review current legislation and organisational practices and policies for partnership
working in health and social care.
There are different legislations and organizational practices and policies in the health and
social care that have to keep in mind by all the parties involved in the partnership working.
There are some legislations that affect partnership working and they are; children, adults and
young people safeguarding, data protection, equality, disability, diversity and inclusion.
There are certain organizational practices that have also some impacts on the partnership
working. Those are; employment practices, risk assessment and service planning procedures.
The Health and Social care Act 2012: This has the widest range of reforms of the NHS and
was founded in the year 1948. The four recent aspects of NHS are health and wellbeing
board, clinical commission groups, providers and economic regulators (Davies, 2013).
Children Act 1989: This act has been brought to terms by the British parliament and has
been introduced as a notion for parental responsibility (Eekelaar and Dingwall, 2013).
There are different criteria under this act and they are:
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 To be stated as child an individual must be under the age of 18 years.
 Parental responsibility in this act is defined as powers, rights and duties which a
parent must have in relation to the child and the property of the child.
 The local authority has the authorization to acquire parental responsibility to grant
care order.
2.3 Explain how differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative
working
While working collaboratively in partnership it is very important to have common goal and
objectives and same thinking. In order to make the coalition successful it is vital to keep in
mind the impacts that are going to come of different aspects in terms of the HSC. There must
be same working practices and policies. Working together with same practices and policies
increases efficiency in work and make the collaboration effective.
When the parties involved in the collaboration have different practices the result is as obvious
will not come out to be on the positive side. There would be conflicts among the parties
involved in the collaboration and ultimately even the goal that was supposed to be common
would not be achieved.
In the case study, it has been seen that the collaborative work was carried out efficiently as
the practices and policies that the concerned parties followed has same path hence success
was at the end of the road. If there were no similar practices and policies then it was the
objective of retrieving information on the case Adult A would not have been possible.
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LO3: Be able to evaluate the outcomes of partnership working for users of services,
professionals and organisations in health and social care services
3.1 Evaluate possible outcomes of partnership working for users of services,
professionals and organizations.
Outcomes in relation to partnership working can be of two types for the serviced users,
organizations and professionals; those are positive outcomes and negative outcomes
(Dickinson and O'Flynn, 2016). Firstly, the outcomes in relation to partnership working for
the service users have been discussed and they are:
Positive outcomes:
Improved Services: Partnership working helps the service users get improved services as
both parties work for the benefit of the service users
Empowerment allows the service users to bring up their point of view in any process that
helps in making the processes in health care better and improved.
Autonomy and Informed Decision making
Negative Outcomes:
Service users in partnership working face various negative outcomes like, abusiveness, anger,
negligence, lack of communication or miscommunication, confusion, overload of
information, disempowerment, harm and duplication of service provision.
The outcomes in relation to partnership working for the professional have been discussed and
they are:
Positive Outcomes:
Coordinated service provision, better understanding of roles and responsibilities, prevention
of mistakes, professional approach, organized and proper communication, efficiency in the
use of resources and avoidance of duplication are some of the positive outcomes for the
professionals in partnership working.
Negative Outcome:
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Negative outcome for professional in relation to partnership working are: professional rivalry,
wastage of time, lack of communication or miscommunication and mismanagement for
funding.
The outcomes in relation to partnership working for the organizations have been discussed
and they are:
Positive Outcomes
Positive Outcomes in relation to partnership working for the organizations are; coherent
approach, availability of comprehensive approach, shared principles, integrated services and
working practices that are relatively same.
Negative Outcome
Breakdown of communication, increment in costs, disjointed service provision and loss pf
shared purposes are some identified negative outcomes of partnership working for
organizations.
3.2 Analyse the potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care
services.
The barriers that have been identified while working in partnership in HSC have been
discussed referring to the case study.
No initiative to work with service user
In Adult A case study, he was only allowed to access community instead of justice system in
which he was supposed to have access. Adult A was not given support to have control over
his own life.
Lack of monitoring
In the partnership working in the case of Adult A it was found that in spite of knowing about
the learning disability of Adult A only his brother name was mentioned or recorded in the
disability register of practice’s learning. Gain despite of knowing of his learning disability
and in fact about his age turning over 60 he was never screened for any kind of health risk.
Different goals and attitudes
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Several bodies or agencies involved in the partnership process have given equipment such as
CCTV cameras and fencing to aid the family but that did not certainly fit for the purpose and
brought consequences that was not suitable for the family.
Incompatible Systems
Many agencies were involved in collecting data of the case of Adult A and his family but
there was no significant electronic system that would have analyzed the data.
There were meetings held to share plans and analyze the issues but the intention involved
were lacking in the process.
3.3 Devise strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social
care services.
With reference to the case study of Adult, the failures in the case study are analysed and
looked upon then a proper strategy has been developed for future reference. The strategies
that have been developed to improve future cases are
Empowerment: Power must be provided to the organizations involved in the process so that
they are able to make decisions on changes that would have required (Lupton, 2013).
Shared Awareness and decision-making: The agencies need to take active participation in
creating awareness and get involved in the decision making process. Communication must be
proper in order to share the awareness.
Shared Responsibility: Responsibilities must be shared among the parties involved. In spite
of seeing learning disability of GP still his brother’s name was recorded. In this case other
party involved must have gone through and checked the mistake.
These are some of the strategies that could be implemented in relation to partnership working
in HSC to make it fruitful and successful.
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Conclusion
The assignment has enlightened about working partnerships in Health and Social care
Services. In the first part of the assignment, an outline of the philosophies and relationships in
relation to the health and social care services has been provided with reference to the Adult A
case study. Secondly, process of promotion of partnership working with professional, service
users and organizations has been discussed. Lastly, outcomes related to the partnership
working of organizations, service users and professional in relation to HSC have been
discussed in the assignment.
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