Working in Partnership in Health and Social Care - Essay Example

? Philosophy of Working in Health and Social Care 2319 words SECTION I Introduction Working in healthcare withchildren and young people involves the provision of a range of services that integrate services from both health and social care departments for the target clients (Norman, 2001). Working in healthcare involves undertaking diagnoses, treating and preventing injuries, illnesses and mental impairments in people. These services require the skills of competent professionals; nurses, doctors, psychiatrists and pharmacists. Healthcare may be provided in health facilities or even at home. Working in healthcare usually involves provision of primary, secondary or tertiary care. It may also involve providing healthcare services at home, conducting medical research, formulating health care regulation and administration, financing or improvement of technology used in provision of care to patients such as X-ray machines or CT scans (Norman, 2001). Working in social care on the other hand involves taking measures that will improve the well being and quality of life of an individual or a community. These measures may include intervening whenever there is a crisis, or a social injustice has been meted on individuals that are not empowered enough to fight for their own rights. It also involves research and educating people on their human rights and civil liberties. Research in social care focuses on public administration, counseling, psychotherapy as well as all areas of human development. Most importantly, social care involves organizing communities to work together towards tackling challenges that affect them. Organisations that offer health and social care constitute members drawn from a wide range of professions such as education, medicine, law, philosophy, psychology and theology (Norman, 2001). They also draw members from local, national, regional and inter-continental areas. Effectiveness of Partnership Relationships in Health and Social Care Working in partnership is inevitable in health and social care due to the overlapping nature of some of their roles (Weber, 2001). It helps foster consultation, job sharing and shared ways of working together to solve common problems. However in pursuit of these partnerships, health and social care providers need to clearly identify their roles and responsibilities and how they complement each other so as to avoid conflicts (Weber, 2001). Partnership is essential since it helps in the success of several stages that will ultimately lead to effective service delivery. This section is dedicated to discussing these stages. The first role of partnerships in health and social care is planning. This is the most crucial stage in which health and social care strategies, priorities and objectives are set. Planning is essential since it gives an overall direction of activities that the organisation will have to undertake to meet its goals. The second role of partnerships is shared commissioning and integration of service delivery. Once the need for a service to the people has been established, partnerships come in handy to not only make the commissioning and service delivery swift but also easy. The third role is development of health and Social Care Workforce (Weber, 2001). This is another area in which partnerships are important. They help in the employment, retention. Another area is monitoring, review and regulation. Partnerships also lend a hand in review of services delivered, inspection of registered facilities such as children’s homes and nursing homes for the elderly and making sure that they conform to the set standards. Partnerships also are effective in lobbying and learning. Research and practice has shown that the challenges facing health and social care delivery can be tackled best through joint and collective learning. This is the final and most crucial effectiveness of partnerships. They enable and encourage the participation of all members of the organisation to deliver services so as to meet the requirements se (Weber, 2001)t. It is evident that partnerships play a pivotal role in provision of services in health and social care. This is because partnership helps gather different skills from different professions into a pool of resources that make service delivery in health and social care easier and of better quality. SECTION II Theories of collaborative working and informed decision making support the development of positive partnerships in health and social care as witnessed in different models of partnership working such as multi area agreements (MAAs), local area agreements (LAAs) and joint working agreements (Brock, 2001). In the United Kingdom, an LAA refers to a three year agreement between a local area working in a local strategic partnership and the central government. The agreement contains a set of goals that local organisations are supposed to achieve, and a detailed plan of what each partner will do to achieve those goals. LAAs encourage collaborative working and informed decision making because the goals are settled upon in meetings involving all members and further negotiated with government departments (Brock, 2001). As a way to support positive partnerships in health and social care, the government gives a reward after 3 years if the LAA objectives are met (Brock, 2001). MAAs are voluntary agreements between at least two metropolitan, county councils, local authorities or their partners and the central government to work together so as to improve local economic success. MAA is a UK political structure designed to encourage working together across boundaries to enhance growth. Similar to MAAs, joint working agreements are working partnerships between voluntary or community organisations. The organisations may operate as a single entity or may belong to a bigger conglomerate and may operate permanently or on a temporary basis just to deliver a project (Brock, 2001). These partnerships are in the best interest of all partners since they make work more efficient and effective. As seen from the analysis of the basis of formation of LAAs, MAAs and joint working agreements, they support the development of positive partnerships in health and social care. Legislation, Organisational Practices and Policies of Partnership First, Legislation refers to the laws enacted by the bodies that govern partnership working in health and social care, or the process by which statutes are ratified by a lawmaking body that is established and authorized to do so on behalf of all members of the partnership. Second, Policies are statements the state an organisation’s agreed upon views on a particular issue (Brock, 2001). It is therefore a set of rules that set the direction an organisation will have to follow. Lastly, Organisation practices are the clear step wise procedure of implementation of an organisation’s policies. They describe a chronological sequence of events that must be followed to complete a task in a correct and reliable manner. Currently, there are a number of legislations, organisational practices and policies that affect partnership working in health and social care. Among these are the Equality Act of 2010, the Disability Discrimination Act of 005 and the Care Standard Act of 2000. The Equality Act of 2010 is a law that was ratified to prevent different types of discrimination, both direct and indirect, harassment and victimisation. The Standard Care Act of 2000 on the other hand was an Act passed by the United Kingdom parliament and provides for the management of a variety of care facilities within the UK. These facilities include private hospitals, children’s homes, residential care homes and nursing homes for the elderly. Ratified in April 2002, the Care Standard Act replaced the Registered Homes Act of 1984 and sections of the Children Act of 1989 which states the rules for accommodation and care of children. The Disability Act of 2005 was enacted to make it unlawful to discriminate against a disabled person in relation to provision of goods, services and facilities and also employment opportunities (Brock, 2001). Work Practice and Policy Differences Affect Collaboration Differences in working practices and policies among different members in an organisation have negative impacts on the organisations, professionals as well as the users of the services (Brock, 2001). This happens because different members will strive to implement their different agenda independently. The first impact will be wastage of resources since no concrete work will be done. The second impact will be wastage of time that could be put to proper use if the efforts were well coordinated. The third effect of this uncoordinated effort is delay in provision of services to the users. On the part of the organisations and professionals, anger and frustrations may set in when deadlines are not met despite massive expenditure of funds. There will also be conflicts resulting from an overlap of roles, job duplication, mismanagement of funds and unhealthy competition further degrading the quality of service provision to the users. These factors may lead to eventual collapse of the partnership. SECTION III Possible Outcomes of Partnership Working Partnership working in health and social care comes with a lot of outcomes for all parties concerned; professionals, organisations and users of service such as children and young people. The outcomes of partnership can either be positive or negative. This section is dedicated to analysing both the positive and negative outcomes for each party of the partnership. Outcomes for Users of Services First among the positive outcomes for the users of services such as children and young people there is improvement of service delivery resulting from efforts put in by service providers consisting of professionals drawn from a wide range of fields such as medics, lawyers and human rights lobby groups (Pellegrino, 2008). Second, they get a sense of empowerment. The education given to them by the service providers makes them aware of their rights and liberties; this gives them a voice of reasoning and an ability to fight fir themselves. They also become autonomous as a result of the empowerment since they become able to make their own decisions. The last outcome is the ability to make informed decisions based on the knowledge given to them by the service providers (Pellegrino, 2008). However, negative outcomes have also been witnessed on the part of the users of services. One of these is information overload. Most of the time users of service are bombarded with so much information that they become overwhelmed and are unable to make proper use of it. At other times, miscommunication between professionals and users of services occur, leading to frustration and confusion (Pellegrino, 2008). This occurs mostly when children and young people feel they are not understood. Also situations may arise where the users of services feel disempowered leading to feelings of anger and neglect. Outcomes for Professionals Partnerships also come with positive outcomes for service providers. First of these is coordinated service provision. This increases the efficiency and quality of health and social services that they provide to the users. The second positive outcome is professional approach in the way they conduct their activities towards provision of services (Pellegrino, 2008). Third, clear definition of roles and responsibilities. This enhances the output of every individual or group since jobs are clearly stated and the overall output therefore is increased. It also improves efficiency and reduces wastages of resources since it eliminates job duplication. The last benefit is organised communication which is important because it minimizes the chances of making mistakes. There are negative effects that come with partnerships as well, the first being professional rivalry. When rivalry sets in it impacts negatively on service provision and users of services suffer as a result. Another negative outcome is miscommunication among professionals leading to a delay in completion of tasks hence time wasting in service delivery to children and young people. Lastly, mismanagement of funds is another problem that has emerged in health and social care partnership (Pellegrino, 2008). This has led to stalling in projects meant to offer services to users. Outcomes for Organisations Among the positive outcomes of partnership in health and social care organisations are the ability to organise and have an articulated approach towards solving problems that afflict children and young people and the ability to pull resources together and offer services comprehensively. The advantage of working together in partnerships is that people from different professions but with a common goal get to share ideas and work practices in an integrated manner to solve problems as efficiently as possible. Like other stake holders in the health and social care field, organisations have also witnessed negative outcomes in the form of communication hitches leading to wastage of time, loss of common goals and unprecedented increase in the cost of service provision. Barriers to Partnership Working in Health and Social Care Services Partnerships working in health and social care services face a lot of obstacles. First is a lack of proper understanding of duties and responsibilities, which leads to a range of tasks left unperformed and others with a scramble of personnel willing to perform, with a result that some tasks lag behind others (Pellegrino, 2008). The second setback is negative attitude in some members of the partnership towards performing certain tasks. This also hinders service delivery. The third challenge to proper functioning of partnerships is withholding of information. Some members knowingly hold onto information that is important to other personnel as well. This is an obstacle to flow of information and delays service delivery. Other factors that hinder efficient operation of partnerships in health and social care services include when professionals and organisations have different attitudes, priorities and values (Pellegrino, 2008). This creates an organisation with people pulling indifferent directions leading to frustrations, wastage of resources and creation of an environment that does not support the fulfillment of any objectives. Strategies to Improve Outcomes for Partnership Because of the barriers discussed above, the following measures are proposed to help improve the outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services. The first measure is consultation. Parties to the partnership should always consult one another instead of withholding useful information from others. The second aspect is communication. Proper channels must be put in place to ensure constant flow of ideas at all times. Partners should also be willing to negotiate and reach a compromise based on any divergent priorities and values they may have. Most importantly, partners must work together so as to realize the common goals of the partnership. Lastly, there must be accepted rules and regulations that govern the partnership, as well as clear guidelines on conflict resolution. References Brock, D. (2001) Quality of life measures in health care and medical ethics. Bioethics Ed. John Harris. New York: Oxford University Press. Norman, D. (2001) Healthcare needs and distributive justice. Bioethics Ed. John Harris. New York: Oxford University Press. Pellegrino, E. D. (2008) The philosophy of medicine reborn. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. Weber, L. J. (2001) Business ethics in healthcare: beyond compliance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Read More