The Conduct Of Inter Professional Practice Social Work Essay

This study aims to investigate the conduct of inter-professional practice in areas of social and health care, with specific regard to the involvement of service users in such practice. The case study prepared by the City and Hackney Local Safeguarding Children Board on Child A and Child B is taken up for analysis and review in this context. The case study is taken as read and is not elaborated for the purpose of this essay.

Health and social care in the UK is currently being significantly influenced by a growing commitment towards greater public involvement in the design, delivery and evaluation of services, greater availability and choice of services for all categories of service users, reduction of inequality, greater emphasis on provisioning of services at the local level, (including from the independent and voluntary sectors), the commissioning process, integration of social and health care, and professional roles for delivery of care on the basis of actual needs of service users (Barrett, et al, 2005, p 74).

Such reforms call for the blurring of strict boundaries between the different professionals and agencies working in health and social care (Cowley, et al, 2002, p 32). They also call for greater inter-professional and inter-agency working and for significant alterations in organisational cultures in order to enhance the power base of service users and members of the public in different aspects of social care provision (Cowley, et al, 2002, p 32).

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It is now widely accepted that health and social care professionals need to be more responsive to the rapidly changing needs of service users. Such changes call for the development of health and social care practitioners to improve care for clients and service users (Day, 2006, p 23). Such improvement is required to be brought about by more emphasis on person centred care for clients and service users and the greater involvement of such people in different aspects of planning, delivery and evaluation (Day, 2006, p 23).

The increasing contemporary emphasis on user involvement in the policy and practice of social care is however coming in for increasing questioning from disenchanted service users and service user organisations (Branfield & Beresford, 2006, p 2). Service users, whilst highlighting the benefits of their involvement in the social and health care process, are raising various questions about their actual participation in social and health care and the continuance of various barriers that prevent their genuine contribution to the process (Branfield & Beresford, 2006, p 2).

The case study under question details the results of an enquiry into an episode, wherein a mentally disturbed mother killed her two children after (a) being released from institutional surroundings, and (b) being integrated with her children with the full knowledge and approval of an overseeing group of social, health, nursing and mental health professionals. The enquiry raises disturbing issues about the extent of involvement of service users in social and health care processes and in the decision making of the inter-professional group overseeing the care, treatment and rehabilitation of a mentally disturbed and potentially dangerous individual.

The essay investigates the involvement of service users in inter-professional practice in the UK, with specific regard to the case study and the enquiry report. Whilst doing so it takes cognizance of (a) identification of sources for evidence based social work practice, (b) the use of enquiry reports as sources of evidence, (c) the relevance of themes that emerge from such enquiries, and (d) the implications of evidenced based practice for the development of practice in social work. The essay is analysed vis-a-vis the Every Child Matters programme and makes use of legal, political and ethical frameworks.

Inter-professional Practice

Inter-professional practice and inter-agency collaboration aims to ensure the coming together of service providers, agencies, professionals, carers and service users in order to improve the final level of quality of planning and delivery of services (Mathias & Thompson, 2001, p 39. Whilst partnership and collaboration are often considered to be interchangeable, collaboration is the actual foundation for joint working and the basis for all successful partnerships (Mathias & Thompson, 2001, p 39).

The UK has been enacting legislation and policies for the promotion of Inter-professional and inter-agency collaboration (IPIAC) for the last five decades in order to enhance standards and reduce costs in health and social care (SCIE, 2009, p 1 and 2). The development of IPIAC was shaped by the white paper Caring for People in 1989, followed by the enactment of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990. The government has in recent years issued various policy documents for the promotion of collaboration in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness (SCIE, 2009, p 1).

Greater emphasis on IPIAC is expected to improve care because different professional groups like social workers, physicians, teachers and police officers will during the course of such working bring their individual perspectives to the collaborative process (SCIE, 2009, p 1and 2). The IPIAC process will aim to ensure the best ways in which such individual and sometimes differing perspectives can be made to come together, as also the ways whereby respective contributions of different professionals and agencies can be utilised to enhance standards of service and experiences of service users and carers (Freeth, 2001, p 38). Consideration requires to be given to collaboration between organisations, as well as professionals, in the course of IPIAC working. It is also important to consider the differences in the working practices and cultures of the various organisations that are required to work together and to take appropriate action to minimise the impact of such differences in order to make inter-professional practice effective (Freeth, 2001, p 38).

Policy makers and practitioners agree that adoption of IPIAC will result in greater service delivery despite the existence of various personal, individual and organisational barriers that can practically hinder its efficiency and effectiveness (Day, 2006, p 23). It is however also widely accepted that effective IPIAC working cannot take place in the absence of deliberate involvement of service users and clients in all stages of planning, delivery and evaluation processes (Day, 2006, p 23). The white paper Modernising Social Services, published in 1998 clearly states that people cannot be placed in neat service categories and users will inevitably suffer if partner agencies do not work together (SCIE, 2009, p 1).It is now mandatory that social work programmes, as well as nursing and midwifery, embrace the involvement of patients and service users. Contemporary government reforms are based on public involvement in different aspects of service delivery (SCIE, 2009, p 2). Person centred approaches in health and social care recognise the need for valuing the opinions and experiences of patients and service users and the adoption of person centred approaches by social work practitioners (SCIE, 2009, p 2).

Current research however reveals that service users often feel left out of the process of social care, despite the progressive implementation of IPIAC concepts and approaches (Branfield & Beresford, 2006, p 2). Service user organisations state that the knowledge of service users is by and large not taken seriously or valued by professionals and service agencies. Many service users find such attitudes from professionals and agencies to be intensely disappointing and disempowering (Branfield & Beresford, 2006, p 3). Agencies and practitioners do not appear to be interested in the information provided by service users and do not accord the respect to such knowledge that they otherwise provide to professional knowledge and expertise. Service users also feel that the cultures of social and health care organisations continue to be closed to service user knowledge and reluctant to change (Branfield & Beresford, 2006, p 3).

The study of the case review of the episode involving the deaths of child A and child B appears to reinforce the impression of service users about their continued exclusion from the working and decisions of different agencies and professionals involved in delivery of social and health care (Henderson, p 261). The Every Child Matters Programme requires social work agencies and professionals like social workers, health care specialists, teachers, nurses, doctors and mental health professionals to constantly ensure the safety, security and protection of children wherever they can. Extant legislation and policies like The Children Act 2004 and the Every Child Matters Programme clarify that it is everyone’s job to ensure the safety of children (Henderson, p 261).

The report clarifies that various agencies were involved in the assessment and treatment of Ms. C, the wife of Mr. D and the mother of the two children, child A and child B. The report further reveals that agencies, as well as individual practitioners, failed to consider the views, opinions, and experiences of service users, even as it also contains a number of examples of sound agency and inter-agency practice. There is limited evidence of professional contact with Mr. D, the father of the children, after the contact session in October 2006, and it appears likely that professional networks assumed the agreement of Mr. D with arrangements for Ms. C. Professionals also paid inadequate attention during their provisioning of support to Ms. C, in response to her request for re-housing, and did not communicate with Mr. D to ensure that future arrangements would serve the best interests of the children. Interviews conducted with Mr. D and his parents also revealed significant differences between their expectations of the roles of social workers roles and what was implied by the records kept in the agency. Mr. D’s family members, it appears, were clearly under the impression that they had little choice in the rehabilitation process and were furthermore required to facilitate the contact of the children with their mother.

Whilst the report elaborates the role and sincerity of various agencies and professionals in assessing Ms. C’s condition and her rehabilitation in society, it specifically refers to (a) the under involvement of Mr. D in the process, (b) the lack of communication with him (Mr D) by social workers and agencies, (c) the differences in perceptions about the role of social workers between Mr. D and his family and the agency, (d) the poor communication of agencies with the parents, (e) the absence of school records of children, and (e) the scope for improvement of involvement of GPs and the police in the social care process.

Although the report makes several recommendations, the specific references to involvement of service users calls for detailed and greater involvement of parents and carers of children in planning of discharge and assessment of risk in order to ensure that actions are based on full information. One of the agencies, the East London and the City Mental Trust has been asked to involve family members and carers of children in all processes, even as the Hackney Children and Young People’s Service has been directed to ensure that decisions are not taken on issues that can affect children without communicating carefully and appropriately with current carers.

Emerging Themes and Evidenced Based Practice

The revelations of the enquiry into the report reveal a number of themes in different areas of inter-professional practice, inter-agency working and the involvement of service users in planning, delivery, and evaluation of health and social care, which can be beneficially used to inform future social work practice.

The report specifically refers to (a) the lack of participation of services users in social and health care processes, and (b) the involvement of different agencies in their exclusion, thereby reinforcing the need for greater emphasis by agencies and practitioners on involvement of service users in their care plans. It also becomes obvious that much of the sentiments and ideas about involvement of service users in social care processes continues to remain in the realm of rhetoric and that it will need determined and deliberate effort by practitioners to truly bring services users into the actual planning, intervention and evaluation functions of social work practice.

Enquiry reports serve as important sources of evidence for development of future social work practice. The impact of the enquiry conducted by Lord Laming into the death of Victoria Climbie led to the revelation of evidence on gross inadequacies in the social care system for children and widespread organisational malaise (Roberts & Yeager, 2006, p 19). The publication of the report led to radical changes in governmental policy on social care for children and to the introduction of the Every Child Matters Programme and other important policies for the physical and mental welfare of children (Roberts & Yeager, 2006, p 19).

The utilisation of research evidence for guidance of practice and development of policies in the area of social services and health care is becoming increasingly important for enhancing the effectiveness of social and health care interventions, especially so because of the limited available resources with the government and the pressures to achieve positive outcomes (Johnson & Austin, 2005, p 5). Scholars however feel that much of research based evidence is not absorbed by practitioners and have identified five important requirements for research evidence to practically influence practice and policy, namely (a) concurrence on nature of evidence, (b) a strategic approach to the conception of evidence and the progression of an increasing knowledge base, (c) effective distribution of knowledge along with development of useful means for accessing knowledge, (d) initiatives for increasing use of evidence in policy and practice, and (5) a range of actions at organisational level to increase use of evidence (Johnson & Austin, 2005, p 5).

Conclusions

This study investigates the conduct of inter-professional practice in areas of social and health care, with specific regard to the involvement of service users in such practice. The case study prepared by the City and Hackney Local Safeguarding Children Board on Child A and Child B is specifically taken up contextual review.

Inter-professional practice aims to ensure the collaborative working of service providers, agencies, professionals, carers and service users in order to improve the planning and delivery of services. Policy makers and practitioners also agree that whilst adoption of inter-professional working is likely to lead to improved care, it cannot occur without the involvement of service users in all stages of the care process. Person centred approaches also recognise the importance of considering the opinions and experiences of service users in planning, intervention and evaluation of care. Contemporary research however reveals that service users feel that their knowledge is not valued by professionals and agencies.

The results of the enquiry reinforce the possibility of service users being excluded from the working of agencies and professionals and refer to a number of instances, where the opinions of the service users were not considered for taking of practice and intervention decisions. The report reveals a number of themes in different areas of inter-professional practice that can be beneficially used to inform future social work practice. The use of research evidence for guidance of practice in social work is becoming increasingly important for improving the effectiveness of social and health care interventions.

Enquiry reports serve as important sources of evidence for development of future social work practice. Scholars however feel that much of research based evidence is used by practitioners and that certain specific conditions, which have been elaborated in the last section, need to be met for the improvement and application of evidence based practice.

Word Count: 2530, apart from bibliography