Patnership in Health and Social Care (Coursework Sample)

Partnership in Health and Social Care
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Partnership in Health Social Care Services
Partnership in health and social care services is the need for the agencies within the two departments to work together in collaboration in bringing to light the wider determinants of health among them being: poor housing, poverty, unemployment and poor educational attainment (Carnwell & Carson). According to the Joint Improvement Team (2009), health social care partnership is the collective working mechanisms put together for the two independent bodies (Health and Social care) to realize greater, tangible and effective results than they could have achieved when working in separation. Carnwell and Carson further define health and social partnership as: "a shared commitment, where all partners have a right and an obligation to participate and will be affected equally by the benefits and disadvantages arising from the partnership”. This implies that the agencies within the health and social care departments when entering into a partnership must commit to share, obliged to participate and be affected equally by the resultant outcome of the partnership.
The two parties must jointly agree what and whom to provide certain services in the partnership and jointly carry out community development and employment of the partnership workers and professionals in a move directed at responding to local needs and breaking professional barriers between the two parties ( Carnwell & Carson). The social workers, as early as from the 1990s, through the Community Health and Social care commissioning and delivery services through UK’s Community Care policy have sought the collaboration of diverse professions from varies organizations for the overall well being of their clients and families (Taylor 2011 p. 1294). According to Ham et al (2013), the health social care in the UK includes: primary health and adult community, acute services, maternity and child health, family and child care, elderly care, mental health, physical and sensory disability, health promotion and disease prevention and learning disability.
Philosophy of Working Partnership in Health Social Care
In the past, there was separation of working areas for the Health and Social care departments where the health department concentrated on delivering only health ‘issues’ while on the other hand the Social Care department on social care ‘issues’ (Carnwell & Carson p. 2). However, this approach is so simplistic in solving complex, interactive and interrelated social/health problems. There was need for the Health and social care services to allow consumers, who are the active service users and not passive recipients of services, to be more involved and have more say in the way this health social care services are designed and delivered since health/social problems have become multi-dimensional and more complex for the older more static models of welfare to solve (Carnwell & Carson p. 2). This has necessitated the collaboration of the two departments in delivering these complex, multi-dimensional, interrelated and interactive social/health problems. A Carnwell and Carson further argue that, illness and poverty is undoubtedly closely interrelated. Therefore, in order to tackle illness which is an health problem, poverty must be fought first which is a social problem.
According to Fife’s Service Delivery Plan (2012 through 2015), the health social care partnership should envision delivery of quality and accessible services in a seamless, responsive personalized way tailored to the ever changing needs of an individual in specific and the general public in general (p. 3). The recent UK policy is aimed at giving the public greater flexibility and choice through emphasize on personalization of services only feasible through joint partnership of the Health and Social Care departments (Taylor 2012). The partnership should address the following priorities: maximization of support to the most needy through use of available resources while maintaining the focus on prevention and the resultant outcomes within the integrated framework, achieve best value through maximization of opportunities by utilizing the available resources within the joint framework, involving the public in designing the service delivery framework, independently maximize and support people in making decisions and choices through personalized and shared assessment of services, enhance service accessibility, empowering and equipping the service, carers, families and staff in developing localized individual solutions and finally to support people within their homes within the available budgeted resources (Fife 2012).
Evaluation of Partnership within Health and Social Care Services
In the last two decades, health and social integration has been an openly discussed objective of each of the successive governments in the UK resulting to the introduction and facilitation of partnerships, integrated working, pooled budgets, structural integration and joint working among agencies within the two departments (Ham et al. 2013).
An increasing demand for health/social care from people with disabilities and elderly people, need to develop responsive individual-centeredness service, static and/or diminishing funding and workforce pressures has necessitated the need for Health and Social Care partnership to better respond to the evolving issues (Robertson 2011). According to the UK’s department of Health, Social Services and Public Healthy (2009), All Health and Social care professionals, carers and family members of those with incurable, progressive, advanced and death-threatening conditions must come together in delivering an active and holistic individual-centered care to the ailing (p. 6).
Although health and social care has been in place in Northern Ireland as early as from 1973, the volatile and uncertain political landscape since the withdrawal of direct rule in 2007 has posed a great challenge to the modernization of health and social care integration the country ( Ham et al. 2013). However, as of present (post-2007), Northern Ireland has one health and social care board with five local commissioning groups directly below the department of Health, Social services and Public Health in hierarchy. At the middle of the hierarchy, there are five health and social care trusts and one ambulance trust while at the bottom we have eight special bodies, Public Health Agency and one patient and client council (Ham et al.2013).
In Scotland, care homes and home care is provided by independent sector and social work related departments in the local authorities while community services and community pharmacist and dentists is provided by community health partnerships in both the local authorities and Territorial NHS boards. Hospitals, hospices and clinics falling under the independent sector are controlled by the National Health bodies. On the other hand hospitals which fall under Operating divisions are controlled by the Territorial NHS boards. The local authorities, National Health bodies and Territorial NHS boards all fall under Health and social care Directories of the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretaries and ministries (Ham et al. 2013).
In the Welsh government, health and social care partnership is achieved through the ministry of Health and Social Services. Social service local authority, one among the twenty local authorities falls under the deputy minister while the seven health boards and three NHS trust: ambulance, cancer, public health fall under the director general under the ministry of health and social services. The primary social care and secondary health services falls under the seven health boards. At a slightly higher level than these two, lie the tertiary services under the Welsh Health Specialized services in the seven local health boards. At the same level there is the Community Services under the seven health boards and the eighty community health councils (Ham et al. 2013).
Promoting Partnership Working With User of Services, Professionals and Organization in Health and Social Care Services
The user of health and social services are those under the care workers and carers who act as the consumer of these services. Professionals include all the trained and skilled workers whose skills and expertise is of paramount importance in delivering health and social care services. They may include specialized doctors, clinicians, psychiatrists, nurses, care workers among others. On the other hand organizations refer to the institutions set in place in various agencies within the two departments.
First and foremost, in order to promote partnership working with user of services, professionals and organizations, the carers (who are the immediate caretakers of the service users and who represents the service user) must be trained. The necessary training skills required include: committee skills, moving and handling and assertiveness to enable the carer to take part in process of planning, reviewing and commissioning of services since they involve practical tasks of the carer group development (Department of Health, Social Services and Public Health 2007). In promoting carer involvement, those professionals in the larger Consultation Panels with certain areas of interest or expertise related carers should be consulted in the processes and issues pertinent practice and development of policy regarding the carers (Department of Health, Social Services and Public Health 2007). The organizations (voluntary) with carer support and interests according to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Health (2007) include: Senior Citizen group, Age Concern NI, Alzheimer’s So...