Understanding Partnership Working Essay Example for Free

Understanding Partnership Working Essay There are many advantages to partnership working. The main advantage being, that when all partnerships work together it enables the service user to have a better quality of life and sustain authority and freedom over their own lives. Good Partnership working between individuals and health and social care providers will encourage compliance with care as well as promote a positive outlook with a service which people participate in rather than simply receive. Each Health and Social Care provider will have their own expertise in their own line of work. They will also have their own unique relationship with the individual, here are just some for example? The Carer that provide the service user with support with personal care, social visits, making meals and everyday living. The Managers of the carers, that put together care plans, rotas, risk assessments and keep all carers updated on the service user’s needs and most importantly manages the team of carers to make sure there job role is being adhered to. The Social Worker that will ensure that the person in question is safe guarded and supported, they will liaise with the service users families and support with the commencement of care companies for supported living, support with financial needs, living allowances, bills and housing. The Advocate that arranges activities, day centres and liaises with all the service providers, the advocate is solely there to make sure all partnerships are following procedures and looking after the service user’s needs adequately The Family and Friends that will often know an individual’s particular way of communicating their preferences and the best approach to use. Sharing their knowledge, history and understanding of what needs to be in place helps to ensure the best possible care. Working with the professionals as equal partners will lead to tailored person-centred support that will meet the persons needs more effectively. Ultimately when all of these partnerships cooperate and work together great things can be achieved, mutually beneficial relationships will improve the quality of care. All partners involved are in effect â€Å"reading from the same sheet†. Not only is it effective and Informative for all parties involved, but by swapping key  information in each partnership’s experiences with the service user makes for better understanding and equips all parties with the nesseceary tools to be able to provide to right help and support. Establish and maintaining working relationships with colleagues My Own experience of Partnership working is based on my position as a home care support worker. I have been visiting a Lady for a little over a year and I have a close working relationship with my fellow colleagues, my line managers, the ladies family, the social worker, the occupational therapist, the advocate and most of her health care providers including the ladies doctor, optician and dentist. It is my Responsibility as a home care support worker to behave with integrity and strive to establish and maintain the trust and confidence of my service user. I am to promote her independence whilst seeking to ensure that she does not harm herself or others. It is my responsibility to document and record all information deemed relevant to ensuring the safety of my service user. It is within my role to help with Meals, finances, social visits, shopping and emotional support. My contribution to the partnership working surrounding this individual is my understanding and documenting of my service user’s activities, physical needs and emotional needs, whilst the other health and social care team contribute in lots of other ways. I appreciate their professional experience and years of working with my service user, I find their knowledge invaluable and educational which helps me have a better understanding and provide better care, alternatively they gain knowledge on her day to day needs and any fluctuations in behaviour and physical needs. On several occasions all of the service user’s care providers and immediate family will have a meeting. This is to discuss any concerns the service user and care providers may have and to discuss the outcome of new changes from the last meeting. Care providers will also discuss any new idea’s they feel will help to promote a more comfortable living for the service user but ultimately all issues can be addressed and dealt with by being delegated to the appropriate care provider. As a homecare support worker I do not work with colleagues on a day to day basis very often but it is still very much my responsibility to report and communicate effectively with my colleagues to help them and my service user. The more information they have the better equipped they are to deal with any problems that may arrive. I am able to deal constructively with any  conflict that may arise with colleagues, one example of this is; recently it was discussed by my service user’s family and other care providers that the service user had been putting on some weight. This had an effect on her care as her regular carer’s could no longer push her around in her wheel chair due to the increase in weight and difficulty accessing the community, this in turn had an effect on her emotional needs has the service user was having different carer’s that were not familiar with her needs. The service user has difficulty understanding diet and nutritional need’s so it is up to the carer’s to provide a more balanced diet. A new diet plan was put into place. As the service user still wanted to have the old diet plan it was agreed it would be joint effort in encouraging and showing the service user a better way to eat or coming up with healthier alternatives for the foods she didn’t want to go without. But some of the carer’s did not want to participate and we’re stuck in old habits and this became very confusing for the service user as certain carer’s we’re making certain meals. After looking at her f ood diary I brought it to my line managers attention, who has access to all carer’s that attend this service user and it was reiterated back to them the importance of team work and the responsibility of all to maintain a healthy and balanced diet and that it is in the best interest for the service user and her health and wellbeing. Establish and Maintain Working Relationships with other professionals My role and responsibility when working with professionals is to respect their individual skill set and knowledge and communicate effectively with them in the interest of the service user. All professionals and health care providers will ultimately have the service user’s best interest at heart and will have their own ideals on promoting the welfare of the service user. Together it is our Role to identify and challenge any difficulties the service user may face in day to day living, negotiate and organise skills that enable good team work and deal with difficult situations and manage conflict in a professional and open minded way. Having been present at a meeting with all care providers I found it helped to listen and observe the skills and understanding that each professional brought to the table. I could really understand where they were coming from, seeing things from a different prospective helped me in my role and improved my knowledge and education. Building Relationships with a strong bond and trust will help develop great effective working with other  professionals. To listen to each other, respect each other and consider the interests of all partnerships will help with cooperation and collaboration. Each Partnership will have their own protocols to follow it is imperative that from the start all partnerships share information on policies and procedures, available resources, service users’ needs and standard levels. The better equipped with knowledge each partnership is, the more tools each care provider will have access to. Agreeing common objectives when working with professionals and within the boundaries of my own role and responsibility involves the effective organising of each partners specialist skills. All objectives need to be agreed in an inclusive and specific way. The careful processing and clarifying of the objectives will help for a successful outcome. Goal objectives should address the five Ws†¦ who, what, when, where, and why. The goal needs to specify what needs to be done with a timeframe for completion. Goal objectives should include numeric or descriptive measures that define quantity, quality, cost, etc. How will partners know when the goal has been successfully met? Is the goal achievable with the available resources? Is the goal achievable within the timeframe originally outlined? Why is the goal important? Goal objectives should identify a definite target date for completion and/or frequencies for specific action steps that are important for achieving the goal. By when should this goal be accomplished? Incorporate specific dates, calendar milestones, or timeframes that are relative to the achievement of another result. Once objectives are agreed it is crucial that all professionals address how their partnership actions will be measured and specifically how information on those actions will be collected and organised. Appropriate governance structures need to cover issues such as: Management of risk and the audit of accidents and incidents, professional regulation and accountability, supervision and performance appraisal, complaints and compliments and the organisation of learning and continuing of professional development, These evaluations should help keep professionals focused on the outcomes of their joint actions. With Partnership working every Care provider may have their own ideals on what they think is best for the individual, they will have their own interests related to their job position and requirements that they have to for fill in the line of work they are in. There may be conflicting interests on how best to get things done. But  professional diversity can be a partnerships greatest strength. The difference between a good working relationship and bad working relationship is the understanding of control and influence. In an honest and trusting partnership relationship no professional will have full control even if they have the authority to exercise more power than others. Being able to put your point across and enable people to understand your reasoning, objectives and opinion will have a lot more influence than trying to force your way of thinking. It is very important that all parties agree priorities, express their different values, delegate roles and try to listen and understand each other the best they can. Lack of planning and communication will cause the breakdown of the effective partnership working. Be able to work with Partnerships and Others There are many different types of partnerships, and many different reasons that you might want to develop them. Some partners will help you generate ideas and provide knowledge and advise, Some care providers may spend more time with the person on a day to day basis, some will have years of knowledge on the individual but on a more spaced out time scale and others will have years of training and expertise in their profession. But it is key that everybody respects and acknowledges all the individual partnerships input and take note of all their concerns and intentions ending with mutual and clear objective for all. Not all service users will want to have an active role in the care they receive, in order for service users to be more involved with their care services, users need to have more understanding and be confident in making decisions for themselves. Advocates and other similar roles are there to help a user become all those things but this can take time because they need to build up trust and a solid relationships. Development procedures for effective working have been put in place, The Government introduced the new ‘Outcomes Framework for Adult Social Services (Department of Health 2011)’ which involve; Enhancing quality of life for people with care and support needs D elaying and reducing the need for care and support Ensuring that people have a positive experience of care and support Safeguarding people whose circumstances make them vulnerable and protecting  them from Avoidable harm.  Whilst working in partnership you must agree common objectives when working with others within the boundaries of your own roles and responsibilities, partnerships should share information on policies and procedures, available resources, agreed boundaries, accountability in respect to commissioning, purchasing and providing, identify agreed staff, times, finances, agreeing leadership, providing specific training and development needs. The procedures put in place for working with others means all partnerships are well-equipped to strategically plan and monitor the service user’s level of care in all aspects of their life. It makes partners accountable for their decisions own responsibilities and makes room for adjustments and improvement. By tackling any issues and problems and evaluating the outcome to identify what new measures need to be put in place and what plans have worked. To deal constructively with any conflict that may arise with others you must be willing to look closer at yourself, what is it I don’t know yet? The more you listen, the more you will understand, take on conflict situations with an intention to understand more of what’s going on. You must make a distinction between the problem and care provider’s views, you should be straight forward and concrete in your communication and develop your ability to look at an issue from the outside. Sharing your differences honestly, openly and none defensive will enable for positive solutions.