Understanding partnership working in services for children and young people
1. Working in partnership with others is important because it can be very positive for the children and young people concerned, it can have a beneficial impact on the children’s and young people’s health, development, learning and relationships. It is important to work with parents, carers and guardians because these are the primary carers for children which means that they understand the children’s needs the most as they know them best. It is also important to work in partnership with professionals as they are qualified in what they do and will know more about their aspect of work such as a speech therapist. Multi disciplinary teams are important to work with as they know how to handle situations such as a child showing signs of autism.
2. Relevant partners in own work setting or authority would be:
* Mentors
* Monitoring groups such as Ofsted
* Parents/carers
* Health visitors
* Health workers such as speech or language therapists
* Educational psychologists
* Social workers
* Play specialists
3. Characteristics of effective partnership working are:
* Clear lines of communication
* Listening to each other
* Treat each other as equals
* Have access to information as agreed
* Confidentiality
* Respect others opinions
4. Barriers in partnership working can be:
* People involved may not be used to sharing knowledge
* Each profession may use their own language often called ‘jargon’
* People involved may resent having to work with others outside their chosen profession
* Could be managed by person with a different set of skills
Some barriers in partnership working may include the speaking of different languages this can be resolved by using an interpreter to help the communication flow more easily. Some parents or carers may not wish to work in partnership, if this happens it is important to find...