Health and Social Care Policy and the Interprofessional ... - CAIPE

must be able to justify their actions and if they are unable to do so
satisfactorily, their registration with the GDC will be at risk (ibid: 5).
The GDC, in their publication ‘Principles of dental team working’ state that
‘good dental care is delivered by a dental team. The quality of teamwork is
closely linked to the quality of care the team provides’ (GDC, 2006: 3). The
GDC includes receptionists and practice managers as essential team
members. Teamwork means working together to provide good-quality dental
care (ibid: Para 1.1). Para 1.3 makes reference to ‘the wider healthcare team’
an acknowledgement of the fact that dental teams cannot work in isolation
from other professions. In the GDCs opinion ‘a good team will have: good
leadership; clear, shared aims, and work together to achieve them; and
different roles and responsibilities, and understand those roles and
responsibilities’ (ibid: Para 5.1).
The General Social Care Council (previously CCETSW)
Social Cares commitment to interagency working has been evident for a
number of years. Benchmark statements for Social Work acknowledge that
‘contemporary social work commonly takes place in an inter-agency context,
and social workers habitually work collaboratively with others towards interdisciplinary
and cross-professional objectives’ (QAA 2000: 11)
In their Code of Practice social workers must be able to demonstrate that they
are ‘working and respecting the roles and expertise of workers from other
agencies and working in partnership with them’ (GSCC 2002: 6:7). However,
in the National Occupational Standards for social work the concept of
partnership is embedded rather than used explicitly. Although one of the key
roles relates to ‘plan, carry out, review and evaluate social work practice, with
individuals, families, carers, groups, communities and other professionals’
inter-agency working is not mentioned specifically (see TOPSS England,
2005).
It appears that social services in each of the four home countries adopt a
similar approach to partnership working with England stating that ‘all social
workers will learn and be assessed on partnership working’ (DH 2003b: 8). In
Wales, based on the NOS and the QAA Benchmark Statement, ‘partnership’
in terms of shared skills and knowledge is implicit throughout (NAW, 2003).
Scotland mentioned partnership specifically throughout their Framework in
terms of underpinning knowledge, transferable skills and competence. They
give as examples the need to work in partnership with service users, carers,
partner organisations and colleagues in other organisations. The whole of
Standard 6 involves working in partnership to help individuals achieve and
maintain greater independence (Scottish Executive, 2003). In Northern Ireland
partnership is mentioned both in relation to pre registration and post
qualification. Knowledge of inter-professional working and the requirement to
work in partnership with colleagues, provider organisations and with service
users is evident throughout their Framework (DHSSPS and NISCC, 2003).
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