Analysis of Health and Social Care Partnership Working: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of partnership working in the health and social care sector. It begins by outlining the philosophies underpinning partnerships, including empowerment, autonomy, independence, respect, sharing of power, and informed decision-making. The report then evaluates the effectiveness of partnership relationships, discussing both their strengths and weaknesses, as well as challenges such as complexity and cultural differences. Various partnership models are explored, including formal and informal partnerships, multi-agency working, joint funding, and networking. A review of current legislation, particularly the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 and the Care Standards Act of 2000, highlights their impact on partnership development. The report also addresses differences in work practices and policies between health and social care organizations. Finally, it examines potential outcomes, barriers, and strategies for improving partnership outcomes, offering insights into enhancing service delivery and patient care within integrated healthcare systems.

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Health and Social Care
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Philosophy of partnership work.................................................................................................2
1.2 Effectiveness of partnership relationship...................................................................................4
2.1 Models of partnership................................................................................................................5
2.2 Review of current legislation.....................................................................................................7
2.3 Differences in work practice and policies.................................................................................8
3.1 Possible outcomes......................................................................................................................9
3.2 Barriers of partnership.............................................................................................................10
3.3 Strategies for improving the outcomes....................................................................................11
Reference List................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The health and social care organizations work in partnership so that the various processes
can be combined with the purpose of providing better services to the direct and indirect users of
these services. The assignment will comprise of the various aspects that are present in
partnership working and provide a proper understanding of the philosophies in partnership along
with the costs and benefits of working in partnership. The impact of the rules that are legal in
nature will help in understanding the relationship of the partnership process. It will also consist
of the barriers that hinder the partnership process (Howard and barrel 2016).
1.1 Philosophy of partnership work
The merging between more than two heath care organizations that provides service to the
customers by providing them with an efficient and effective service through the service users is
known as partnerships. There are various philosophies that will help in understanding the various
concepts that are present in partnership working within the healthcare industry. The partnership
philosophies that are present in the health and social care industry is inclusive of empowerment,
autonomy, independence, sharing of power, informed choices and respect (Miller and Wilkes
2015).
Empowerment is one of the first philosophies that needs to be identified in a partnership
with respect to health and social care industry. It can be defined as an activity that allows the
users of the services and the receivers of the service to control the systems and the services that
will act as a medical support for them. In simple words, an environment that is empowered will
help in selecting the services of medical intervention. When the health care organizations go in to

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partnership; one of the organizations need to be provided with empowerment so that they can
make the choices on behalf of the other organization. This mode of philosophy will help in
reducing the level of dependency among the participants during the making of decisions. An
example of this would be that when one of the organizations needs to alter the record of the
patients in the system; the other organization will have the power to make the changes for the
other organization. This can be done with the help of better decision and collaboration between
the organizations (Warner-gale, Walker and Tuffrey 2016).
Independence is being free from the orders and controls along with the influences and
threats from other organizations or individuals on an everyday basis. With respect to the
partnership in the health and social care organizations, the independence level will depend on the
freedom of choices and the independent operations that can be taken up by the organizations.
This simply implies that the partnership within the health care organizations will not be
dependent on the other services of the organization. However, it can be seen that sometimes the
service organizations need to rely on each other so that the organization can provide quality
service to the users of the service. The philosophy of working in partnership states that the
organizations that are going in to a partnership needs to be independent among themselves
(Howard and Barrell 2016).
Another type of philosophy is autonomy, which helps the organizations to be self-
governanced within the form of partnership between the organizations. The identification of self-
governance can be done through the freedom that the health care organizations enjoy. It helps
them to control the daily along with the governance activities by themselves (Miller and Wilkes
2015).

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The fourth type of philosophy is known as respect. It can be defined, as a feeling of
admiration towards the groups or persons for their respective performances, achievements and
qualities. The participants of the health care organizations that are in to partnerships needs to
respect each other so that it can help in developing mutual feelings and understanding. It will
also help in decreasing the conflicts so that partnership can be enjoyed to the fullest (Khandanga
et al. 2015).
The fifth type of philosophy is known as sharing of power, which helps the organizations
in becoming partners, which will help in taking decisions and make changes. The organizations
need to share the information in a fair and mutual manner. The highest power cannot be enjoyed
by one organization only, which may lead to frustration of the employees whenever the health
organizations may try to exercise the power (Howard and barrel 2016).
Decision-making in an informed manner is another kind of philosophy that is present for
the working of the partnership. The informed decisions can be defined as the partnership
between the organizations, which has to inform the others before making any decisions, which
may create an impact on the other organization as well.
1.2 Effectiveness of partnership relationship
The strengths and weaknesses are one of the primary advantages that help in the
identification of the health and social care so that the users of the service can be able to receive a
better service from the organizations. For example, in the case study the patients are likely to
suffer from the social care and health issues respectively. In these cases, it can be seen that the
partnerships will be helpful for the development of the health along with the convenience that
will help in saving the time of the users of the service (Khadanga et al. 2015).

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Complexity is considered one of the barriers that hinder the operations of the partnership
working. With the combined work of the organizations, it can be seen that the employees and the
users of the service along with the other employees will help in increasing the level of
complexity. To prevent this, the employees at some point of time are given power to control the
operations so that the services can be performed. Additionally, it requires the collaboration and
administration at a high scale so that the employees can be managed in a better way (Jonsdottir
2015).
The issues in culture can be seen as another barrier within the organizations, which
prevents in working in partnership. The objectives and the goals of the organizations are known
as culture in this regard. An example of this would be, the institution in the provided case study
have to form partnership with the local authorities so that it can provide better support to the
patients. The local authorities can help in becoming focused on the outcomes of the society so
that it will help in the health outcomes on a shorter run (Dickinson 2014).
2.1 Models of partnership
There are various models that help in describing the partnership working in the health and
social care industry. The models that help in the management of the health and social care sector
are multi-agency working, informal and formal partnerships, networking and joint funding.
The formal partnerships are those partnerships that helps in building the bond between
two or more than two organizations that are associated with the health care sector. it is that kind
of partnership where the agreement is signed between both the parties and the announcement of
the partnership will be made public. The formal partnership method will help in increasing the
control and the management of the organizations in a sharing basis, which will help in increasing

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the effectiveness of the management of the health organizations. The informal partnerships is
quite the opposite of partnerships that are formal in nature, as there is an absence of the written
agreements and no announcements are made through a public forum. The control and the
management of these organizations will not be the same between the two or more organizations
that are sharing an informal partnership (Cameron et al. 2014).
The organizations that are based on multi-agency help in supporting the patients and their
families with the additional needs so that the improvements can be done in a secured manner,
which will help in changing the outcomes based on real lives. This form of partnership model
helps in providing contribution so that the services can be preventive through an early
intervention. The issues and the services that contribute to outcomes, which are poorer will be
achieved through an effective manner by understanding the risk factors pertaining to the services
and preventing it. This partnership consists of a panel that helps the experts to be retained by the
service provider where they discuss about the issues on a regular manner so that the additional
needs can be provided o the users of the services. A multi-agency team will help the experts to
be employed within a particular team where the leader will help in the formulation of the ideas,
which will help them in achieving the goals and the objectives of the organizations (Glasby
2017).
Joint funding is a partnership model that helps the organizations in organizing the funds
from the same sources. A thorough example of this would be National Health Services, which
helps in funding the authorities that are associated with local care along with the services that
help in providing acute care services (Dickinson and O’Flynn 2016).

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Another form of partnership model is known as networking in which the various health
and social care organizations will be able to connect or establish themselves with respect to
operations so that the users of the services can receive a wide variety of care services from a
particular network of the organization (Cameron et al. 2014).
2.2 Review of current legislation
The Health and Social Care Act of 2012 is one of the primary legislator bodies that has
helped in the development of the partnership within the health and social care sector. this act has
led to the establishment of different agencies and boards, which has taken up the responsibilities
for managing the partnership working in an efficient manner. The Care Quality Commission
(CQC), regulations related to economy along with the systems in health care and the well-being
boards have been established with the help of this act. The organizations have helped in the
promotion of partnerships in the health care sector so that the quality of services can be
maintained by the organizations that are in partnership. The commissioning group has been
established so that the audits of these organizations can be done with respect to the quality of
service provided by them, the rates of infection and the effectiveness in the market with respect
to the services offered by them (Grajales et al. 2014).
The Act of Care Standards, 2000 has helped in establishing the standards that are present
in services by provisioning the health and social care sector. prior to the introduction of this Act,
the commission for health care, the social care inspections commission along with the
commission for mental health has helped the organizations in maintaining a proper quality of
service. With the introduction of the Act, the organizations were able to form partnerships, which

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have led to the establishment of the CQC so that the auditing can be done based on the service
quality that is being provided by the health care industries (Holloway and Galvin 2016).
2.3 Differences in work practice and policies
There are various types of differences in the partnership of health and social care
organizations along with the policies and practices of these organizations. The differences
between the organizations help in creating an impact on the partnership work so that the
collaboration between the organizations can be done within the partnership (Martinez et al.
2015).
The organizational type is one of the primary factors that act as a barrier in the
collaborative work space. An example of this would be the various organizations that specializes
in health care and the ones that are managed by the governmental bodies. The organizations that
are managed by private owners will have many differences in their collaborative work with
respect to the management of the governmental organizations. The schemes of funding can be
different for the organizations that are being controlled by separate bodies along with the
technological advances that are being used in these organizations can differ. These reasons
suggest that the organizations cannot work in a collaborative manner with each other (Netting et
al. 2016).
The variations in the policies and the practices also act as a discouragement for the
partnerships to be collaborative in nature. For instance, the health care organizations that are
providing voluntary services along with the organizations that have a statutory working culture
are examples of this type. The practice methods of the employees, qualifications of the
employees and the level of knowledge can be different among the employees (Huxham and

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Vangen 2013). The voluntary organizations that are present on an international level will face
other barriers such as language problem as well. The differences like these can lead to the
discouragement in the informational flow within the health care organizations along with the
important communications that can be missed. These can lead to poor coordination and
collaboration within the organizations that are into partnerships (Reed et al. 2014).
3.1 Possible outcomes
There is a wide range of strengths, weaknesses, benefits and barriers, which can be
evaluated as outcomes in the partnership working within the health and social care organizations.
The outcomes can be positive or negative to the users of the service, providers of service, and
health care organizations along with the parties that are involved in the partnership working.
The primary advantage of working in a partnership is that the level of efficiency can be
increased. Efficiency is the measurement of the quickness and the agility at which the service is
being provided to the users and the effectiveness of the users in adapting themselves for the
development of this health status. The partnership between the health care services helps the
users in receiving the services on an effective manner from the organizations. This helps the
users to limit their time so that it can result in medical interventions. An example of this would
be the elder people who can receive the social care services along with health services at one
place, which helps in saving their time (Varvarigou, Creech and Hallam 2014).
The other outcome is that the partnership process will help in reducing the operational
costs. When the organizations work together as partners, the operation cost is divided and shared
between the organizations, which help them in sharing the medical tools along with the available
space, which results in reduction of cost. This turns out to be beneficial for the organizations

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along with the employees, as they get more benefits by operating in this manner (petch, Cook
and Miller 2013).
Another outcome is the standardization of the procedures and the service, which can be
expected for the organizations that are working in partnerships. The practices and the policies are
implemented and taught within the organizations so that the standardized methods can help in
maintaining reliability and the training process can be organized in an easy manner. The
employees working in this partnership will be able to work with any other organizations, as they
know how to perform in a standard manner (Millar and Hall 2013).
There is however barriers as well such as the process of miscommunication amongst the
parties that are involve in the process of partnership. The coordination and the collaboration
between the workers in these organizations will be required in a better manner so that better
quality of service can be provided to the users. The use of high number of employees will help in
handling the heavy pressure of the customers in an efficient manner, which may hamper the
process of communication and the operational process may suffer. The other barrier is the high
cost with respect to the supervision by the management teams. When the employees are more, it
will increase the pressure of work, which in turn will result in higher cost of supervision
(Varvarigou, Creech and Hallam 2014).
3.2 Barriers of partnership
There are a number of barriers in the partnership of these organizations such as the work
that needs to be carried out within the professional boundary. This barrier is inclusive of the need
to keep contacts with the workers and the relationships that they have with the users of the

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service so that they know how the information and the services need to be provided to the users
(Millar and Hall 2013).
Another barrier is the policies that are conflicting in nature within the organizations.
When the organizations those are in partnership, they devise their own practices and policies,
which may differ from the other organization. This will lead to confusion between the employees
of which policy to be used in the service. Thus the employees will face dilemmas in taking
decisions about the system that help in controlling the quality within the workplace. Attitudes
and the values of the workers is another barrier that helps in discouraging to work in partnership.
There are employees that are present in the organizations who would not like to share their
experience with the other organizations, as they have different standards and values. This leads
to problems in the attitude, which may affect working in partnership (Nelson and Staggers 2016).
3.3 Strategies for improving the outcomes
The setup of communication systems that are standard in nature is one of the effective
methods that will help in the development of the process of communication amongst the
employees in the partnership organizations. The communication pattern needs to be
synchronized with the personal records of the users of service so that it helps in tracking the
issues that are related to health of the patients. This will help the organizations in getting the
information of particular customers from a single source and maintain the updates for the
services that will be provided in the future. The use of internal communication will help in
developing the communication system in a proper manner, which will help in getting rid of the
misunderstandings and the confusions that takes place in these organizations (Cobum et al.
2013).