Training needs to include partnerships

Social work, health and education professionals should be made to
study joint working as part of their training, the incoming chief
inspector of the new Commission for Social Care Inspection said
last week.

David Behan told a conference on practising partnership working:
“They [professionals] shouldn’t be allowed to pass their
professional qualification without a module on joint
working.”

Behan, who will leave his post as director of social services in
Greenwich, London, in November, said: “Partnership working
shouldn’t be seen as something else to do once you have done
everything else.”

Shane Giles, director of the Integrated Care Network, which was set
up by the government to encourage and support the uptake of care
trusts, said: “It’s not just about ticking the box because there’s
a Social Services Inspectorate inspection. You have to really want
to do it.”