Partnership Working: Policy and Practice

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.