An In-depth Analysis of Partnership Working in Health and Social Care

This report provides a comprehensive overview of partnership working in health and social care. It begins by defining the philosophy of such partnerships, emphasizing respect, trust, empowerment, and power-sharing. The report then explores partnership relationships, highlighting the factors driving their importance, such as economic constraints and the need for improved service quality. It further delves into various models of partnership working, including coordinated, unified, hybrid, and coalition models, alongside practical models like strategic partnerships. The report also examines current legislation and organizational practices, such as the Equality Act 2010 and the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and how they impact collaborative working. Finally, it identifies potential barriers to partnership working, such as differences in aims, responsibilities, communication, and culture, while suggesting strategies to overcome these challenges and improve outcomes for service users and providers. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective collaboration for delivering high-quality health and social care services.

Working in partnership

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 The philosophy of working in partnership in 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 Current legislation and organizational practices and policies for partnership working in
health and social care practice................................................................................................4
2.3 Differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working ..................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Possible outcomes of partnership working for the given three areas are as follows........6
3.2 Potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services...................7
3.3 Strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services.
................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References .....................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The term partnership is associated with a single business in which two or more entities
work together by pooling their resources like manpower, capital and skills in an equal manner.
As per the partnership agreement, entities share their profit and loss. The agenda of working in
partnership is an important key part of operations and practices in health and social care (Glasby
and et. al., 2008). The present report includes the philosophy of working in partnership and also
describes the concept of partnership relationship within the health and social care. Further, this
report also explores the models of partnership working and helps to understand that how to
promote positive partnership working with service users, professionals and organizations. The
report describes the outcomes of partnership working in health and social care services. Apart
from this, the report also identifies the potential barriers in partnership working and strategies to
improve outcomes for partnership working.
TASK 1
1.1 The philosophy of working in partnership in health and social care
In health and social care, philosophy of working in partnership means values and beliefs
which are related with working in collaboration with other agencies and organizations of health
care sector. The motive of partnership is to provide better services and support to the service
users. Various types of philosophies are present which associate with working in partnership
(Lloyd, 2010). These philosophies of working in partnership have been stated below as:
Respect and trust
The respect philosophy refers with the way of protecting autonomy of service user by
giving essential information details of care and medical treatments. It helps service users to make
their own decisions. In this sector, it is very essential to treat care takers with the both dignity
and respect (Walsh, 2010). This philosophy describes that during the treatment time period,
values, culture and beliefs of service user should be respected.
Empowerment
Philosophy of empowerment refers to share the power with a person who lacks in it. It helps
to improve the abilities of service users so, they can have own control on their lives and also
solve their own issues. This process helps to improve their satisfaction level by the result of
personal achievements (Sepulveda, Nyst and Hautala, 2012).
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Independence
The philosophy related to independence includes self-autonomy, personal traits, control
and ability. This process relates to the ability of making effective decision on the important
aspects of service users (Johnson and Souza, 2008).
Power sharing
In health and social care settings, the philosophy of power sharing describes that power
sharing is a negotiation process to attain understandings which are related to responsibilities,
roles and ownership. Health care professionals share the common grounds of understanding like
roles and responsibilities to provide support to service users in more efficient and effective way
(Carnwell and Buchanan, 2004). For example, service user is suffering from both bad
neurological condition and heat condition. In this case, service user is treated by both
neurological and cardiology specialities. The health care professionals work in partnership to
provide best services to improve the health of service users.
1.2 Partnership relationships within health and social care services
In health and social care, requirement of partnership working was concluded by various
several factors. These factors are related to high level of economic and fiscal constraints,
increase in the number of vulnerable persons who are suffering from mental and other health
issues, increment in aging population and increase in the cost of health care services (Handy,
2014). Further, poor quality of health care services, low professional health decisions and late
diagnosis practices were analysed by government of UK. Due to all these reasons, government
emphasizes the importance of partnership working. To provide quality services and support to
service users, collaboration partnership working is essentially required in health care sector
(Kingsnorth, 2013). For this purpose, few strategies are developed to formulate partnership
working with NHS (National Health Services), communities and agencies of health care services.
The partnership is developed to provide effective care services in low costs and effective
diagnosis practices on their real time.
For the success of partnership working in health and care sector, its partners such as
health care professionals and care takers are required to co-operate and communicate with each
other and also share the problems and ideas with each other. The partnership process provides
benefits to both health care professionals and service users as well (Lane‐Morton, 2005). The
service users gain benefits by accessing care services in more effective way and training
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programs which helps to improve their awareness about health care importance and its services.
This partnership process also provides benefits to service providers by enhancing their skills,
knowledge in respect to both personal and professional skills and it also improves the scope of
their care services. The collaboration partnership process is designed to meet the needs and
requirements of service users and it also identifies the barriers and weaknesses of care
organization (Lowes and Hulatt, 2013). In collaboration, people like social workers, health
workers, therapist, support workers and educationalists are involved and worked together to
provide care and support to service users who are suffering from various diseases. In this
community forums, charitable trusts, statutory, independent and private organization provide
services in partnership working in health and social care services.
TASK 2
2.1 Models of partnership working across the health and social care sector
Models of partnership working plays an important role as these are required for the
collaborative approach in health and social care sector. In the execution of working partnership
process, two types models can be implemented which are as follows:
Theoretical models-
The theoretical model includes four sub types of models, which are described below:
 Coordinated models
This model serves collaboration facility among the various care organizations. It allows
partnership agencies to operate and work in an autonomous manner and further it is facilitated by
their other distinct organizational hierarchy. It also helps in co-ordination of management,
training and staffing in providing several health care services to the patients (McCarthy and
Rose, 2010).
 Unified models
According to this model, there is a single financial system and trust system. Their main
motive is to provide better health care services to all the service users. With the help of this
model, integrated system is developed to improve the working of collaboration in care services
(Steiner and et.al., 2014). For the enhancement of integrated working, waiting time is reduced
and access time is improved to provide better services to the service user in more timely manner.
 Hybrid models
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This model provide system in which organization practices are operated under the
combination of different model and in this models are dominated by each other. The hybrid
model is mixture of coordination, coalition and integration models (Donkers, 2008).
 Coalition model
The coalition model enable organizations of health care to work effectively and
corporately which is based on their agreement. It also enables organizations to operate for a
common objective which based on personal self interest. Under this model various entities of
health and social care jointly work together to attain the common objective. According to this
model, organization is operated separately and independently while having the alliances and
association with the several organizational elements.
Practical models-
This model includes strategic partnership and area agreements of local health care. The
local strategic partnership is developed to improve sustainability of care and support services in
particular area (Lloyd, 2010). In this context, the agreements are developed to achieve
objectives, vision and proprieties of health care provision with the help of proper funding and by
applying new innovative methods.
2.2 Current legislation and organizational practices and policies for partnership working in health
and social care practice
To review the current legislation, organizational practices and policies for the partnership
working in health and social care practices, the following points are described which are as
follows:
Legislation for partnership in health care gives impact on the working practises and
policies of health and social care. In this, working practices such as protection, diversity,
disability, equality and health of all service users (Glasby and et. al., 2008). The few legislations
are discussed below which affects the health care partnership:
Equality Act 2010
This act stated that in health and social care all service users are needed to be equally
treated without considering the factors like caste, religion, culture, race and gender etc. This act
is very important for organization who works in partnership (Equality Act 2010, 2015).
The Health and Social Care Act 2012
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The main objective of this act is to improve quality of care services by providing freedom
for National health service providers. This act helps to enhance accountability and also
promotes the effective service provisions. It improves the quality of services to meet the
needs of service users in more effective and efficient way (Sepulveda, Nyst and Hautala,
2012). The organizations of health care who works in partnership adopts this act to deliver
quality care and support services by adopting the approaches like personal care for effective
treatment.
Data Protection Act 1998
This act provides protection and security to personal data of service users. The main
motive of this act is to control the use of personal data by the organizations in health and social
care sector (Dickenson, 2008). With the help of this personal data is handled and saved in lawful
manner, so, no one can misuse that information.
The organizational practices and policies involves operational working, risk assessment
provisions, local and national policies. In this context both local and national policies gives
important and useful documents which helps to set the collaborative working practices. In this
government has power to analyse that health care organizations are following the regulations and
policies or not.
2.3 Differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working
In health and social care sector, the differences in working practices and policies affects
the collaborative working. Due to difference in practices and policies, issues and confusions may
occur which affects the operation and working of partnership. The implementation of various
policies encounters both positive and negative outcomes. The important attribute of working in
partnership involves various factors like trust, respect, mutual understanding and team work
skills etc (Donkers, 2008). Through differences, the raised issues are described as below: Difference in aims and objectives- For the health care agencies, it is very important to
clearly understand the meaning and purpose of the organizational goals. If they do not
understand right meaning then it may arise issues to accomplish that objective. Responsibilities and roles- The lack of understanding the importance of responsibilities
and roles may create the issues and when care workers are not fully aware of their roles
and lack of essentials knowledge and skills in them also arise the issues in partnership
working.
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 Communication difference- The difference in communication among service users and
service providers gives the negative impact on the working and practices. When the
communication gap increases, the quality of care services decreases as well because
workers and professionals are not communicating with each other (Dickenson, 2008). Cultural difference- In the partnership working, worker jointly work together and these
workers are related to different religion and culture, so, they have different values, beliefs
and philosophies. This type of difference may arise the issues and barriers which affects
the working process.
 Structural difference- In the partnership working it is very important to have single
strategic direction and the allocation of all resources has to done effectively (Johnson and
Souza, 2008). This process is very difficult to convert all diverse objectives of
organization into only one objective.
TASK 3
3.1 Possible outcomes of partnership working for the given three areas are as follows
For service users
 It helps in providing individual point of contact to the service users which results in better
responsiveness and recovery
 It enhances the communication level between healthcare professionals and the service
users making them feeling safe (Lloyd, 2010).
 Partnership working for patient also helps in providing them optimistic care and attention
which assures quality life to them.
 It renders special and non discriminative attention to patients thereby increasing their way
of living. Outcome of working in partnership further guides patient to deal with traumas and
suffering effectively.
For Healthcare professionals
 Partnership working has different outcomes on healthcare professional. It helps in
choosing the type and limit of care they wish to supply to the service users. This helps in
identifying valuing and respecting their talents and proficiency.
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 It further distributes work among other healthcare professionals so that a quality service
is delivered effectively (Donkers, 2008).
 It also benefits them by rendering freedom from financial hardships and struggles
 Partnership working aids in building better and positive relationships between other
healthcare practitioners so that they always remain skills equipped.
 As equal amount of work is distributed among all the healthcare professionals, they are
ready approachable and free at any point of need by patients.
For the organization
 Partnership working for an organization results in increasing high quality peer-review so
that patients and doctors gets encouraged to fund in healthcare projects and plans.
 It also helps in boosting healthcare services by establishing different sectors and care centres
for different chronic diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, dementia and AIDS etc. which is
very remote for a single organization to establish due to requirement of huge capital
(Sepulveda, Nyst and Hautala, 2012).
 It aids in building ties with different healthcare agencies and organization which helps in
integrating funds promote training and bring about necessary revolutionary changes.
3.2 Potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services.
Partnership working in healthcare sectors can experience many potential obstructions
which hinders growth, development and working of a working partnership Below discussed are
the points which leads to potential barriers in an healthcare organization. Power and hierarchy in professional managerial relationships: These attributes of
power and hierarchy can have a negative affect on a working partnership, as dominating
advanced medical professionals or higher level doctors tends to silent other lower level
practitioners which risk the outcomes of their efforts. Behaviour: The professional individuality, liberty and inter-professional distrust in any
profession or organization leads to development of possible obstructions which further
leads to develop partiality to treat the patients in the best possible manner (Donkers,
2008). Poor staff morale and poor morale from other partners: Generally the patients and the
other medical representatives who are not being paid on timely basis, and who are poorly
organized will develop an effect on the quality of partnership to set up and continue.
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 Lack of Agreed Outcomes: This can be a major issue which leads to failure of existing
partnerships because targets are controlled by service orientation rather than citizens and
patients orientation. Decision-Making Mechanisms: Partnership resolves if there is no legal authority
assigned for handling decisions based on organization development and progress. One
has to consult the parent authority being senior management of hospital for
implementing smaller decisions. Poor Communication: Not supporting few doctors and nurse in a working partnership
leads to fissures and conflicts between the members which results in poor and
miscommunication issues (Dickenson, 2008). Extrinsic and ethnic influences: Sometimes extrinsic and ethnic influences also plays a
role in causing potential barriers in an effective leadership. These involves funding
issues by doctors and medical practitioners, policy implementation on patients and poor
organization of services to be provided to the patients.
 A lack of formal structure, accountability and clear roles: It is necessary for every
partnership to sign the agreement deeds with all the medical practitioners so that a clear
objective of what goals and target are to be performed by various doctors and nurses
becomes clear. But due to lack in partnership agreement healthcare professionals remain
unaware of duties and activities to be performed (Lloyd, 2010).
3.3 Strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services.
It is very essential to eradicate the potential barriers prevailing in partnership working as
a single department is incapable of handling various issues based on health and social care, hence
different strategies have been implemented to improve the outcomes of partnership working
which are discussed below. Proper and healthy communication among partners: Through proper communication
and bonding between doctors and patients trust develops eventually which is very
necessary for a partnership to be under execution. Structural organization: If authorities for decision making are assigned at primary level
then decision-making criteria. This in turn is significant for effective management and
working. It also helps every doctor and medical representative to perform their task
efficiently (Johnson and Souza, 2008).
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 Focus on outcomes: The other way of making a working partnership successful is to
focus on all the possible outcomes an organization can face in order to maintain the
working partnership active and operative. Lack of outcomes or delayed outcome can lead
to partnership fatigue which gradually decreases the performance of the partnership
(Glasby and et. al., 2008). Clarify responsibilities: It is very important for healthcare department to be responsible
and accountable for everything that takes place in an outside the organization. Proper
documentation and amendments are required so that goals and objectives to be met by
health care professionals do not remain unclear and unfocussed.
Give partnerships time to yield results. Establishing partnership takes time. Same applies to the
concept of yielding positive outcome. Hence, it is necessary for a partnership to give time to
its doctors and other medical professionals to produce its results by working jointly with
other doctors and nurses (Sepulveda, Nyst and Hautala, 2012).
CONCLUSION
With the help of this report it is articulated that in health and social care there are various
types of philosophies are present which are related to partnership working. This report concluded
that partnership working improves the quality of possible outcomes which are beneficial for both
service user and service provider in health and social care. The main motive of partnership is to
improve the skills of health care professionals. This model also evaluated the various models of
partnership which helps to effectively work in collaboration process. Further this report helps to
understand the effect of government laws, policies, legislations on the working practices of
health care organizations. With the help of this report it is several benefits are identified such as
social exclusion can be effectively managed and organization attains the inter personal
environment of working. Further the present report also help to understand the reason and impact
of difference in the partnership working.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Glasby, J., and et. al., 2008. Partnership working in health and social care. Policy Press
Lloyd, M., 2010. A Practical Guide to Care Planning in Health and Social Care. McGraw-Hill
International.
Walsh, T., 2010. The Solution -Focused Helper: Ethics and Practice in Health and Social Care.
McGraw-Hill International.
Carnwell, R. and Buchanan, J. (2004), Effective practice in Health and Social Care,
England: Open University press, P.265-269.
Handy, C., 2014. Housing, health and social care – an introduction. Journal of Integrated Care.
22(1). pp.4 – 9.
Johnson, J. and Souza, D. C., 2008. Understanding Health and Social Care: An Introductory
Reader. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Kingsnorth, R., 2013. Partnerships for health and wellbeing: Transferring public health
responsibilities to Local Authorities. Journal of Integrated Care. 21(2). pp.64 – 76.
Lane‐Morton, T., 2005. What health partnerships should seek to provide for offenders. The
British Journal of Forensic Practice. 7(4). pp.3 – 7.
Lowes, L. and Hulatt, I., 2013. Involving Service Users in Health and Social Care Research.
Routledge.
McCarthy, J. and Rose, P., 2010. Values-Based Health & Social Care: Beyond Evidence-Based
Practice. SAGE.
Anning, A. and Ball, M., 2008. Improving services for young children: from Sure Start to
children's centres. Sage.
Richards, C., 2014. Safeguarding and Protecting Children. Foundations of Early Childhood:
Principles and Practice. London: Sage Publications, pp.265-282.
Sepulveda, M., Nyst, C. and Hautala, H., 2012. The human rights approach to social protection.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Steiner, J.L. and et.al., 2014. Preventive health care for mentally III women. Psychiatric services.
Task, S. and et.al., 2013. Guidance for safeguarding children & vulnerable adults in community
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Online
Equality Act 2010, 2015. [Online]. Available through
:<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents>. [Accessed on 19th January 2016].
Dickenson, H., 2008. Partnership working: evaluation. [Online]. Available
Through:<http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2008/09/05/partnership-working-evaluation-by-
helen-dickinson-and-jon-glasby>. [Accessed on 19th January 2016].
Donkers, L., 2008. Evaluating outcomes in health and social care for Better partnership
working. [Online]. Available
Through:<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2581668>. [Accessed on 19th January
2016].
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