Unit 5 Working in Partnership in Health and Social Care Assignment

Introduction

Partnership in health and social care is all about the working of the two or more people or organisation together so that they can gain maximum advantage of available resources and convert it into the benefits and the welfare of the society. The quality and experience of care that partner organisations are offering to the society are associated with the factors such as the type of the partnership (long term or short term), the attitude and behaviour employees of the organisations and the type of the relationship two organisations have. Good partnership among the organisations of the health and social care are depends on the how is it implemented and maintained. The effective implementation of the partnership brings the additional knowledge, confidence and skills that are essential for the planning of the health care services (Corrigan, 2005). Maintaining of good partnership boosts confidence of user and employees and also increases the chances of their involvement in social activities that helps health and social care service in successful completion of their activities. In follower paper we will discuss various aspects of partnership in health and social care with the explanation of the factors associated with this.

Task 2

2.1 Discuss and write an analysis of the models of partnership applied in the care residence.

The model of the partnership in health and social care describes the structure of the organisation. There are various model of the partnership in the health and social care. The model for the care residence is as follows:

Unified Model: in unified model, the structure of the management includes the management, staffing and training of the employee. There are no separate structures or the area for these activities (Morris, 1997). The main purpose of the structure is to distribute the integrated services to the needy. The residence care may include this model as the organisational structure. The main benefits of this structure are:

• Single system for all the services delivery.
• Includes all the health and care activities.
• Has separate financial system.
• Follows only one strategic approach that carries a set of the well-defined goal and objective.

Coalition Model: In the coalition model, the various activities are associated together but work separately. In the other words, the management, staffing and the training of the staff are associated to each other with the help of the federation but works individually (Rogers and Mead, 2004). There is no involvement of the staffing to the training of the employees. The benefits of adopting the coalition model for care residence are as follows:

• The activities and the services cooperate in the joint actions.
• Works individually so that there is no necessary to have the data of all the activities and the segments.
• The segments only perform the activity that is assigned to them.

Hybrid Model: as the name indicates, this is the combination of the two more model. For the care unit it may be the combination of the unified and coalition modal.

2.2 Review two pieces of current legislation and organisational practices and policies for partnership working in health and social care

The legislations in the health and social care have the set of the rules and regulations that are designed by the government to protect or secure the patient and the employees who are working in the organisation that belong to the health and social care industry (Glasby and Peck, 2003). Two current legislation and the organisational practise and policies for the partnership working in health and social care are as follows:

Mental capacity act 2005: the basic aim of the act is to empower those people who are not able to make the plan or take the decision for them and also make the plan on behalf of them to raise the standard of their life. According to this act, everybody has a right to take the decision on their life to stay happy. Same thing applied on the patients, who are admitted in the mental hospitals. The professional agencies such as mental health services, local authorities, social services, police and the family members all need to assess the mental capacity of the individual before the decision making of the other party that affects the life of the individual. All associated agencies need to work properly who affect the service user to raise the standard of service user’s life (Community Care, 2010).

Children’s act 1989: main aim of this act is to provide the safety and security and fulfil all needs that a child has so that his future could be better and he becomes a good citizen of the country. The authorities that are involved in the betterment of the children’s future take care of their needs, wish and also have the strategy to meet them with their wants and desire. There are five points of focus on the children act. These are as follows:

• Be healthy.
• Stay safe.
• Achieve economic wellbeing.
• Make positive contribution
• And enjoy and achieve.

2.3 Explain how differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working

A policy is course of actions that is designed by the government or the business to influence and determine the decision making. When these policies are in business for the collaborative working of the two or more organisations then it may be positive and negative for the business. The positive in the way, both organisations work together and get influenced and motivated with the other’s policy making. In this, the policy creates the unified way of working. And the policy also put the negative effect when the conflict is arises between the organisation due to the implementation of their own policies is the business Advertisement. Following are the practise and policies used by the different sectors for the collaborative working:   

• NHS: NHS provides the services in the health and care sectors. NHS also support the policies that includes the courses for the patients and their families such as anger management, meditations etc. (NHS, 2014).
• Government:  main aim of the government is to provide the help to different sectors and their collaboration in any form such as financial, resource allocations, arrangements etc.
• Education:  school ad collages are the main organisation of this industry. The main focus is on the right to study, right of knowledge. Their strength must be promoted in every manner.

Task 3

3.1 Evaluate possible outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals and organisations

The possible outcomes of the partnership working for users of services: the outcomes have both the negative and positive aspects of the partnerships. Both are as follows:

Positive outcome:

• The nature of the services is improved in comparison of before.
• The decision making is informed in terms skills of employees.
• Empowerment
• Autonomy

Negative outcome:

• The conflict may arise as a harm or anger etc.
• The level of the miscommunication may be increase.
• The frustration level of the employee will be increased (Seedhouse, 1998).
• Sometimes, clear data can’t be reached at the user. It may create confusion.
• The chance of the delivery of duplicate data or services increases.

The possible outcomes of the partnership working for professionals: this also creates the positive and negative outcomes.

Positive outcome:

• The partnership working for professional creates the professional approach that includes the impeccable outcomes.
• The coordination may be seen between the partnerships as they are trained and educated professional and know how to maintain the relationship (Sussex, Herne and Scourfield, 2008).
• Roles and the responsibility of each and every member would be clearly mentioned.
• Effective and organised communication takes place.
• The duplicity could be minimising.
• Includes the effective usage of resources.

Negative outcome:

• The rivalry between the professional could be increased in Partnership for the professional.
• There may be chances of the miscommunication that arises because of the rivalry.
• The mismanagement of the funding could be raised.

The possible outcomes of the partnership working for organisations:

Positive outcomes:

• The partnership for organisation may provide the comprehensive service provision.
• Works on the principle sharing.
• Provides the integrated services.
• Working practises are common.
• Coherent approach

Negative outcomes:

• The cost may be increased.
• Loss of shared purpose.
• Communication breakdown.

3.2 Analyse potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services

The various barriers to the partnership working in the health and social are mentioned below:

1. Structural barriers: Different organisations in health and social care services differ in their structures and this structural difference sometimes cause troubles while establishing the partnerships in health and social care. The services are divided among the organisations in partnership, but sometimes, a particular organisation might not be ready to take up the task and provide the specific service to the users.
2. Procedural barriers: Organisations have a particular procedure to handle a specific demand of the services and most of the procedures are customised as per the structure of these organisations. This kind of procedural difference could make things worse than making them better as the whole policy of working needs to be changed sometimes when a partnership is established (Watt, 2000).
3. Financial barriers: It is not necessary that the organisations who are involved in the partnership have the same mechanism for the financial resources. For example, the financial resources for a government organisation such as NHS are too different than any private organisation and this type of difference in the sources and also in the amount could create some problems in the partnership.
4. Professional barriers: Every organisation has its own values and the processes and policies are set as per these values. When organisations which have different values and professional interests involve in the partnership, they have to understand and respect the values personal and professional interests of each other else there could be chaos in the partnership.

3.3 Device strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services

We have discussed the various barriers and outcomes of the partnership working in health and social care service. There are ways in which some of the negative outcomes could be converted into positive and the overall outcomes could be improved. Some of them are mentioned below:

1. When it comes to the health and social care services, it is the responsibility of the organisations to make sure that not only the patients but also the staff is empowered to make the quick decisions if necessary and no one else is there to help them.
2. It could be very beneficial if the awareness is shared among the involved parties in the partnership. Shared awareness would enlighten the people with the knowledge about health and social care policies (Baxter, Glendinning and Clarke, 2008).
3. Along with the knowledge and awareness, it is necessary that the actual responsibility is given to the people whether they are the nurses or the doctors.
4. Assigning the goals and objectives according to the qualification of the people and if they are not qualified, proper training should be arranged. In this manner, the people could be trained to handle the specific situations and then they could be used in an appropriate way to resolve the issues related to health and social care (NHS, 2014). Talent of this type could be borrowed among the organisations in partnership.
5. A Risk Assessment System is necessary to be implemented in working in partnership which would minimise the issues and organisations could face the difficulties in a strategic way (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001).

Conclusion

When working in partnership in health and social care are established, many challenges arise and it is necessary to face these challenges and resolve them instead of avoiding. A damage control system needs to be in place when the structural and procedural changes happen during the partnership among the health organisations and it is also necessary to match the activities among the staff so that they do not feel alienated in the new structure.

References

Baxter, K., Glendinning, C. and Clarke, S. (2008) Making informed choices in social care: the importance of accessible information, Health and Social Care in the Community, 16, 2, 197-207.
Beauchamp T. and Childress, J. (2001).Principles of Biomedical Ethics.5^th Edition.  Oxford University Press
Communities and Local Government (2013). Research into multi-area agreements: Long-term evaluation of LAAs and LSPs [online]. Available at http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/EIUA/EIUA_Docs/Research_into_Multi_Area_Agreements.pdf. Accessed 01/09/2013
Corrigan P. (2005) Registering Choice: How Primary Care Should Change to Meet Patient Needs. The Social Market Foundation, London.
Glasby, J, and Peck, E. (2003). (Eds).  Care Trusts: Partnership Working in Action Radcliffe Medical Press, 2003) ISBN: 1857758218
Morris, J. (1997). Community Care, Working In Partnership with Service Users Venture Press 1997) ISBN: 1873878915
NHS Code of Practice Confidentiality [online].  Available at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4069254.pdf. Accessed 01/07/2014
Rogers A. & Mead N. (2004) More than technology and access: primary care patients' views on the use and non-use of health information in the Internet age. Health and Social Care in the Community 12, 102-110.
Seedhouse D (1998). Ethics the heart of Health Care.  Winchester: Wiley.
Sussex, Fr., Herne, D. and Scourfield, P. (2008).  Advance health and social care for NVQ? SVQ level 4 and foundation degrees.  Harlow, Essex: Heinemann.
Watt, H. (2000). Life and Death in Health Care Ethics.  London: Routledge