Developing Interprofessional Education in health and social care ...

PrefaceThe turn of the Century was a watershed in the short history of interprofessionaleducation (IPE) in the United Kingdom (UK) when the Labour government promoted“common learning” to be built in to the mainstream of pre-registration professionaleducation for all the health and social care professions to help implement itsmodernisation strategy (Secretary of State for Health, 2000; Department of Health,2004). The proposition was as seductive as it was simple: learning together woulddeliver not only a more collaborative but also a more flexible and more mobileworkforce responsive to the exigencies of practice and the expectations ofmanagement. Reference to 30 years of IPE experience was conspicuous by itsabsence. The past was and past. New wine was not to be put in old bottles.Interprofessional activists responded with difficulty as they struggled to reconcilegovernment‟s expectations with the interprofessional antecedents and searched forconsensus between educational, professional and political perspectives within acoherent and credible framework. That is the story which we tell. It picks up wherethe previous historical review left off (Barr, 2007a) and revisits many of the issuesraised as interprofessional activists engage with the changes ahead (Barr, 2002).The outcome is, however, more than a historical record of events during the past 15years. It paves the way for another „chapter‟ in the ongoing saga of IPE in the UK asnewfound policies shape education and practice following a change of government.It is addressed to policy makers, managers, teachers and researchers who havetravelled all or some of the same road to help them reappraise their experience,review the evidence, revisit the arguments and refocus; also to their colleagues whoare relatively new to IPE to learn from others, obviate the need to reinvent the wheeland avoid some of the pitfalls.Hugh BarrMarion HelmeLynda D‟AvrayAugust 20115