Standard Ways To Improve Partnership Working

A large body of experience and research provides clear evidence about many of the key determinants of successful partnerships. The focus is to achieve better outcomes through improved service delivery. Partnership working has come a long way in recent years. There is now a consensus that effective partnership working is essential in order to design, develop and deliver personal services for those requiring support and assistance to optimise their independence and happiness. The most important features of an effective partnership are engaging the right people and ensuring they function as a genuine team.

The government frame work, Every Child Matters (ECM) places great importance on partnership working. The five outcomes for ECM are

Ways of working that can help improve partnership working is careful listening, reporting all feedback, negotiate and compromise. Be clear on what you want and aspect from situations. Be mutual and fair. To resolve conflicts communication is the most important key. People may not be aware of the reasons for you feeling so telling people in an open and calm manner and letting it be discussed with the appropriate people. Having a mutual person there to help mediate the situation may help.

| Describe how to apply principles of equality and diversity when communicating and working with others.

The features of effective partnership working are to ensure there is good communication between all parties that ensure a high standard of care is delivered to the individual involved at all times. It ensures each party is covering all area’s and that all needs are met and that all partys have a good knowledge of who is delivering what to the individual and the contacts they have if other issues may arise and the access they have to these.

It is very important that you work in partnership with your colleagues and all other people. This will include carers, families, advocates, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, other health professionals, social workers, voluntary organisations and other people.

The essence of a partnership is that it is collaboration amongst equals, with the recognition that by working

We can improve partnership working through effective communication and information sharing. By working as a team and having regular staff meetings, with colleagues and other health care professionals.

Some practitioners’ attitudes may present challenges if they see themselves working in teams, as opposed to working as teams. Employees might simply work alongside others, sharing a common work experience but not truly engaging in the give-and-take of working as teams. It is working as a team that brings the full range of motivational benefits.

Having good communication systems in place can help to improve partnership working. Having policies and procedures in place to ensure that all persons involved in the care of an individual are informed of changes to care plans, the persons health etc.

Partnership is when two or more organisations work together, showing cooperation and collaboration. This can provide better care and support for service users. For example, different funds working together, instead of working individually and stressing. Another example, a social worker and the health visitor will need to work together, share ideas and use different skills to develop a support plan that will benefit children and families. This also promotes multi-disciplinary working. Partnership thus can reduce conflicts and enhance team working skills as professionals can work together, sharing responsibilities and ensuring need led approaches are met and set. This can be done by reviewing care plans and offering support.

The most common reason why partnership fails is lack of communication. This is why it is important for partners to have effective communication skills to achieve positive outcomes. Example is Baby ‘P’s case, his death was also caused by lack of communication between professionals who were in contact with him. Effective communication is also very important when a child attends more than

Team work and open communication is, as I have said and will say numerous times, vital to achieving organisational objectives and creating a positive working environment and a ‘can-do’ attitude.

In order to collaborate successfully with the other members of the team, they have to ‘work together’. Collaboration implies “working together to achieve something that neither agency could achieve alone” (cited by Biggs in Day, 2006, p9). It involves effective communication and contribution to a common goal – and the health and wellbeing of the patient and shared responsibility of the outcome. Each team requires a quality leader, regular meetings attended by all members, joint assessment, regular reviews of patient records which should include ‘shared care plans’; joint decisions following consultation and task delegation to individual team members with the outcome being that “care must be structured, organised and systematically provided to each person in a variety of ways” (Creating an Interprofessional Workforce, 2007, p10).

For instance, when two different professionals, such as carers and nurses, work together in a team as a form of partnership work, certain responsibilities in professional conduct or perspectives could differ from each other. In this case, these two different parties should reach to an agreement of shared objectives within the team in relation to work delegation balancing the possession of power, and be open to constructive feedback and ideas through developing a frank partnership relationship (Department of Health (DH), 2004).