Purpose of this assignment:

The purpose of this assignment is to enable you to develop an understanding of the importance of working positively in partnership with others in health and social care.

Breakdown of assignment:

Write a 3000-word essay consisting of three main sections addressing the learning outcomes above. In this assignment students must demonstrate their understanding on "Working in Partnership".

This report should be 3,000 words in total length (excluding references). You should apply either case study on "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death". Both report is available in the ‘your College Moodle'.

Case Study:

Health services in the UK are increasingly focused on partnership, respect and helping people take control and responsibility for their health. This rapid review describes how shared decision making can improve people's engagement in healthcare and help build patient-centred services. Partnership working is all about developing inclusive, mutually beneficial relationships between individuals with long term conditions, their careers and service providers with an aim in improving the quality and experience of care. It also involves in planning and delivering health and social care in the community, voluntary, statutory and independent sectors. Good quality care and support for people with long term conditions and their carers is general resulted with effective partnership working as this identify the respective roles and responsibilities of all parties that need to be conducted.

Partnership working mainly aim and is central to the person with the long term condition and should possess knowledge on how their condition affects them physically, emotionally and socially and how to plan on delivery care to meet their needs to the highest points.

Good partnership working also encourages compliance with care and treatment as well as in promoting a positive outlook on a service between individuals and health and social care providers. Building strong, effective relationships within and across organisations is important and critical in Good partnership working and hence it need a joined-up approach in designing and delivering integrated services for the benefit of service users. Multi-disciplinary team working and effective & excellent communication is also needed in making a successful partnership working

within an organisation. However, every individual got their own roles and responsibilities to perform in the development of high quality, co-ordinated services across different care settings and sectors. In this collaboration, many barriers do arise such as lack of understanding in roles, lack of communication, negative attitudes, not sharing information, different priorities, etc which need to overcome as a whole team.

However appropriate strategies like communication, information sharing; consultation; negotiation; collective multi-agency working; dealing with conflict; stakeholder analysis; training, meeting and inter organisation working relationship can help to overcome the barriers.

Thus, in view of a recent climate of unrest and cynicism that exists in the National Health Service (NHS) there is an urgent demand to work in partnership across the health and social care sector particularly as reorganisation and commissioning are taking place. It is vital for all those concerned to be committed to developing mutually supportive relationships for the good of the health service and health social care sector in general. Also more importantly there is a need to address the imbalance of power which predominantly has rested in the health and social care sector.

Therefore, alliances for key partnerships with patients are essential. Patient choice is not simply a reflection of good practice; it is a government policy.

Write a report based on the following 3 Task:

Task 1

Explain the philosophy of working in partnership.

Evaluate the effectiveness of partnership relationships within Health and Social care (You can either relate to case study of "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death")

The first part of the assignment addresses learning outcomes: 1.1 & 1.2. This section of the essay should consist of 1000 words.

Hint: The answers would be around:
- For AC 1.1, you can cover Partnership philosophies covering empowerment; independence; autonomy; respect; power sharing; making informed choices.

- For AC 1.2, you can evaluate effectiveness of partnership relationships with users of services like children, elderly, people with disabilities, learning difficulties, mental health issues, health workers and other organisations on quality of services, effectiveness, efficiency, improved communication, improved decision making, coherent approach, comprehensive service provision, common working practices, integrated services, etc.

- The focus must be related to any one of the 2 case study.

Task 2
Analyse models of partnership working across the health and social care sector (You can either relate to case study of "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death") (AC 2.1, M2).

Review current legislation and organisational practices and policies for partnership working in health and social care (You can either relate to case study of "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death") (AC 2.2, D2)

Explain how differences in working practices and policies affect collaborative working (You can either relate to case study of "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death") (AC 2.3, M3).

The second part of the assignment addresses learning outcomes: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3. This section of the essay should consist of 1000 words.

Hint: The answers would be around:

- For AC 2.1, try to cover some models like Unified, coordinated, coalition and hybrid models; and analyse points on management structures and along with their communication methods; current inter-disciplinary and inter-agency working eg Multi-Area Agreements (MAA), Local Area Agreements (LAA); joint working agreements, informed decision making; information sharing; confidentiality; professional roles and responsibilities.

- For AC 2.2, you can list and explain on any legislation eg relating to health, social care, safeguarding children and young people, mental health, disability, data protection, diversity, equality and inclusion

- For AC 2.3, you can review on current and relevant practices related to any case study given in this assignment and relating to agreed ways of working; statutory, voluntary and private agency practices; local, regional and national policy documents produced by eg government departments, risk assessment procedures; employment practices; service planning procedures.

-  Make sure that the focus must be related to any one of the 2 case study.

Task 3

Evaluate possible outcomes of partnership working for users of services, professionals and organisations (You can either relate to case study of "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death") (AC 3.1, M1)

Analyse the potential barriers to partnership working in health and social care services (You can either relate to case study of "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death") (AC 3.2, D3)

Devise strategies to improve outcomes for partnership working in health and social care services (You can also give examples from different case study) (You can either relate to case study of "Adult A" or "A toddler bled to death") (AC 3.3, M1)

The above assignment addresses learning outcomes: 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3. This section of the essay should consist of 1000 words.

Hint: The answers would be around:

- For AC 3.1, you need to cover 3 outcomes, one for servive user, second for professionals and lastly for organisations.
- In relation to services users try to cover some positive outcomes eg improved services, empowerment, autonomy, informed decision making; and some negative outcomes eg neglect, abuse, harm, anger, miscommunication, information overload, confusion, frustration, duplication of service provision, disempowerment.
- In relation to professionals try to come some positive outcomes eg coordinated service provision, professional approach, clear roles and responsibilities, organised communication, avoidance of duplication, preventing mistakes, efficient use of resources; and some negative outcomes eg professional rivalry, miscommunication, time wasting, mismanagement of funding.
- In relation to organisations try to cover positive outcomes eg coherent approach, shared principles, comprehensive service provision, common working practices, integrated services; and some negative outcomes eg communication breakdown, disjointed service provision, increased costs, loss of shared purpose
- For AC 3.2, try to analyse some barriers to partnership working and apply to case study like lack of understanding of roles and responsibilities; negative attitudes; lack of communication, not sharing information; different priorities; different attitudes and values;
- For AC 3.3, try to suggest strategies to improve outcomes like communication, information sharing; consultation; negotiation; models of empowerment; collective multi-agency working; dealing with conflict; stakeholder analysis but make sure its need to be related to any one of your case study.

Attachment:- Assignment Brief.rar