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Edited by Susan Balloch and Marilyn Taylor.
Policy Press
ISBN 1 86134 220 9
£17.99

There is an important book to be written about partnership working. Partnership has replaced community as the word beloved of politicians to cast a rosy hue over all with which it is associated. Making partnerships work is far more difficult.

This book has all the virtues and the weaknesses of most multi-author publications. It has 13 individual chapters and an introduction and conclusion by the joint editors. The chapters are grouped into three sections dealing respectively with regeneration and social exclusion, social care and health, and power participation. The chapters on mental health and housing partnership working by Simon Northmore and on community support for older people by Helen Charnley do offer practical advice towards successful joint working.

The conclusions are familiar. Put not your trust in structures. Clarity about objectives, realism in expectations, skills in working across the boundaries, and an inclusive approach to service users are some of the characteristics of successful partnerships. Those discussed in the book show modest gains. Setting modest objectives may be the key for the raft of partnerships now required of all major public sector agencies.

Terry Bamford is a member of the General Social Care Council and chairperson-designate of Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust.