Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!80 | Chapter 11Generally, the organisations were very positive aboutworking with other sectors and were able to relate anumber of success stories.“Some of the groups have only been possiblethrough joint working with other agencies. The selfharmgroup, ‘Release’, is run in conjunction with localmental health services.”Project worker, Support @ The Junction,The Junction, ColchesterHowever, staff also mentioned a number of culturaland organisational differences, particularly in thegoals the organisations in the different sectors wereworking towards, that led to problems.“Despite strong working relationships with externalpartners, often there can be a conflict of interest withagencies presenting different agendas which can bedifficult to manage.”Project worker, Community Links, Canning TownAll the organisations stated that the way to resolvesuch issues was through good communicationand taking a transparent and consistent approachwhile being flexible where possible. However, it wasnoted that where issues were overcome betweenindividuals, they still needed to be filtered throughthe organisations:“It is often difficult to translate the goodcommunication and relationships that the managersof different agencies have with each other intogood communication with the staff members ofthe organisations – they are more remote from thepartnerships.”Project worker, Support @ The Junction,The Junction, ColchesterAll the organisations participating in this projecthave undertaken joint working with a variety oforganisations which includes a range of publicservices: children and adolescent mental healthservices (CAMHS); social services; schools andcolleges; Connexions; other voluntary sectororganisations; youth offending teams; probationservices; drug and alcohol teams etc. All the projectworkers stated the importance of working to buildand sustain those relationships.“We recognise it is important not to becomecomplacent, and we are constantly reviewing theservice and exploring ways to improve partnershipsworking. This includes regular reviews of partnershipagreements.”Project worker, Sorted Not Screwed Up,Aberdeen Foyer, AberdeenThere was a consensus amongst the organisationsthat working with other agencies can add value tothe organisations and the services they offer. Theydefined this value of working with others as:• provides a more holistic approach: a broader rangeof people have input, and the work can improvecross-agency referral• improves access: young people can access awider range of help, and both statutory sector andvoluntary sector organisations can access a greaternumber of young people ie. those in statutoryservices will see young people usually only seen bythe voluntary sector and vice versa• shares learning: there is the opportunity to learnfrom each other, support and advise each other,share information and positive practice• promotes services: meetings and networkingprovide opportunities for organisations to hearabout what other services are doing and topromote their own work• reduces the costs of projects: by working withother organisations, there are opportunities todivide costs and pool resources• provides a network of support: can increase thesupport from a range of different professional groups.