Partnership Working Essay

I will be evaluating the role of multi-agency working, its strengths and weaknesses and how it is used to reduce the risk of abuse imposed on adults; I will also be referring to legal frameworks, regulations, working strategies and procedures.

All aspects of Mrs A’s personal care will be met whilst in hospital this is something that that Mrs A has in place in her home life with the support of a home care team. The White Paper caring for people (DoH 1989b, paragraph 11), placed as a priority: “the promotion and development of domiciliary, day and respite services to enable sick and dependant people to continue living in their own homes wherever possible and sensible” (Kenworthy,Snowley,Gilling,p244.) After having a chat with Mrs A she has told me that the hours she receives are being cut due to socio economic factors with funding within her community this is something that upsets her.

The report made 108 ‘sweeping recommendations’ (Laming, 2003) about modifications that were needed in the child protection system as a response to the errors made by professionals who had accountability for Victoria’s care. These involved the creation of a children and families board, a children’s commissioner, new local authorities management boards and the creation of a national children’s database. The thrust of the report was to address the integration of children’s services, bringing the relevant sections of the professional sector together to improve co-ordination and communication as that would directly lead to effective collaboration.

Integrated working is achieved through effective collaboration and co-ordination across all services and sectors including voluntary who work with children, young people and their families. These sectors could be housing, police, health, child-minders, community groups or early year’s workers. The above services are a fundamental role for both children, families and carers who may need the support of these agencies .Multi- agency Collaboration is crucial in partnership working, to support better outcomes for children and their families. Integrated working brings many benefits to delivering a more improved service by:

I deal with conflict constructively should it arise with colleagues by listening to their point of view and respecting them as I would

As a support worker, it is imperative that we look at all aspects of health and social care with a holistic approach when planning and provision is concerned. Holistic means looking at a situation as a whole and not just part of it.

Multi-Agency working is carried out by health professionals from different sectors and professions such as nurses, social workers and mid wives working together to achieve a common goal. Multi-Agency working ensures additional support is provided for service users and that they have the correct professionals working to support

The Social Care Institute for Excellence aims to improve the lives of people who use care services by sharing knowledge about what works. They provide practical resources including learning materials and offer training and consultancy services for people who plan, deliver and use adults, children’s and families services.

I find that the challenges of working together in an established team can be that everyone can become quite self absorbed in their own workload and this can result in conflict when the team sent work together as a whole or lose sight of their shared objectives and goals. It can be difficult to maintain motivation and enthusiasm and not everyone may be on the same page at the same time. I genuinely believe that I am lucky as I work in a team where we are open and honest enough to thrash out any issues quickly and as they arise. We also recognise each other’s own skills and abilities and use each other’s strengths to ensure that our team performs to a high standard.

This enables different services and professionals to join together to prevent problems happening. It is used to support children, young people and families to help secure improved outcomes.

Partnership is driven by a desire for collaborative advantage and can offer many positive outcomes, like benefits for staff and services such as less replication between different service providers. It helps them see others point of view and it keeps them from being selfish, it helps young people interact with others to achieve a goal, and it helps them develop socially. It’s important to work in partnership with others so that all agencies can share information and concerns about children and young people in their care, it also helps to keep the children safe and away from harm.

The Community Care and Health Act 2002 brought this about; the Act stipulates that local authorities must make available direct payment to those who utilise community care services. Riddell, Ahlgren, Pearson, Watson, MacFarlane, no date).This is money which is paid directly to a person in need of care to employ someone of their own choice to support them in their daily living (Age Concern, no date). The negative factor of this payment is that it is not regulated. It is difficult therefore to monitor and asses if the person is receiving the care they require (Somerset City Council, 2011).

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 came into force with crucial principles including new structures and arrangements in health care services to safeguard and strengthen the future of NHS and maintain the modernisation plan. In this Act, many new changes has been made to a number of existing Acts, National Health Services Act (NHS 2006), in order to enable health care system to tackle the existing challenges and also avoid any potential crisis in future. It has also introduced the proper allocation of NHS fund and budget, and improved the integrated care between NHS and social care services to promote patients’ choice in terms of delivering quality care.

The Department of Healthy formed a National Service Frame for Older People (2001) which was established to look at the problems for the elderly people so they get the best quality of care. This helps to minimise age discrimination in elderly people and it promotes independence and provides person centred care. The framework has four underlying principles which are; respecting the individual, intermediate care, providing evidence based specialist care and promoting an active healthy life. There is also National Care Standards which aims to improve the quality of life of the patients by the level of care and support provided. The frameworks and legislations help to guide Alice’s care.

Today’s session was conducted by second year placement social work students and service users. The issue they covered was about the relevance of working in partnership within the social care profession.