1 Understanding partnerships and collaboration

Literature in health and social care is replete with synonyms referring to the need for health and social care agencies to ‘work together’ more effectively in ‘partnership’ and in ‘collaboration’. These words are frequently used interchangeably, often within the same paragraph or even sentence. Much of the use of terminology is policy driven, promoting terms such as ‘joined-up thinking’ and ‘joined-up working’, so that services can be delivered ‘seamlessly’ (NHS Executive 1998). As a preliminary, we think it worthwhile to distinguish broadly between what something is, that is a partnership, and what one does, that is collaborate or work together. This chapter will initially identify the different models of partnership currently in use, and then look at the way these different partnerships actually operate. One thing that emerges from this discussion is the way that theory (what a partnership is) and practice (what it does) can often drift apart. Sometimes partnership may be little more than rhetoric or an end in itself, with limited evidence that theoretical partners are genuinely working together. Equally, it is possible for different agencies This chapter will: