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Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Public health provision in England is undergoing dramatic changes. Currently established partnerships are thus likely to be significantly disrupted by the radical reforms outlined in the Public Health White Paper. We therefore explored the process of partnership working in public health,...

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Autores principales: Taylor-Robinson, David Carlton, Lloyd-Williams, Ffion, Orton, Lois, Moonan, May, O'Flaherty, Martin, Capewell, Simon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3251584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22238619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029536
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author Taylor-Robinson, David Carlton
Lloyd-Williams, Ffion
Orton, Lois
Moonan, May
O'Flaherty, Martin
Capewell, Simon
author_facet Taylor-Robinson, David Carlton
Lloyd-Williams, Ffion
Orton, Lois
Moonan, May
O'Flaherty, Martin
Capewell, Simon
author_sort Taylor-Robinson, David Carlton
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Public health provision in England is undergoing dramatic changes. Currently established partnerships are thus likely to be significantly disrupted by the radical reforms outlined in the Public Health White Paper. We therefore explored the process of partnership working in public health, in order to better understand the potential opportunities and threats associated with the proposed changes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 70 participants took part in an in-depth qualitative study involving 40 semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions. Participants were senior and middle grade public health decision makers working in Primary Care Trusts, Local Authorities, Department of Health, academia, General Practice and Hospital Trusts and the third sector in England. Despite mature arrangements for partnership working in many areas, and much support for joint working in principle, many important barriers exist. These include cultural issues such as a lack of shared values and language, the inherent complexity of intersectoral collaboration for public health, and macro issues including political and resource constraints. There is particular uncertainty and anxiety about the future of joint working relating to the availability and distribution of scarce and diminishing financial resources. There is also the concern that existing effective collaborative networks may be completely disrupted as the proposed changes unfold. The extent to which the proposed reforms might mitigate or potentiate these issues remains unclear. However the threats currently remain more salient than opportunities. CONCLUSIONS: The current re-organisation of public health offers real opportunity to address some of the barriers to partnership working identified in this study. However, significant threats exist. These include the breakup of established networks, and the risk of cost cutting on effective public health interventions.
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spelling pubmed-32515842012-01-11 Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study Taylor-Robinson, David Carlton Lloyd-Williams, Ffion Orton, Lois Moonan, May O'Flaherty, Martin Capewell, Simon PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Public health provision in England is undergoing dramatic changes. Currently established partnerships are thus likely to be significantly disrupted by the radical reforms outlined in the Public Health White Paper. We therefore explored the process of partnership working in public health, in order to better understand the potential opportunities and threats associated with the proposed changes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 70 participants took part in an in-depth qualitative study involving 40 semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions. Participants were senior and middle grade public health decision makers working in Primary Care Trusts, Local Authorities, Department of Health, academia, General Practice and Hospital Trusts and the third sector in England. Despite mature arrangements for partnership working in many areas, and much support for joint working in principle, many important barriers exist. These include cultural issues such as a lack of shared values and language, the inherent complexity of intersectoral collaboration for public health, and macro issues including political and resource constraints. There is particular uncertainty and anxiety about the future of joint working relating to the availability and distribution of scarce and diminishing financial resources. There is also the concern that existing effective collaborative networks may be completely disrupted as the proposed changes unfold. The extent to which the proposed reforms might mitigate or potentiate these issues remains unclear. However the threats currently remain more salient than opportunities. CONCLUSIONS: The current re-organisation of public health offers real opportunity to address some of the barriers to partnership working identified in this study. However, significant threats exist. These include the breakup of established networks, and the risk of cost cutting on effective public health interventions. Public Library of Science 2012-01-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3251584/ /pubmed/22238619 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029536 Text en Taylor-Robinson et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Taylor-Robinson, David Carlton
Lloyd-Williams, Ffion
Orton, Lois
Moonan, May
O'Flaherty, Martin
Capewell, Simon
Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study
title Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study
title_full Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study
title_short Barriers to Partnership Working in Public Health: A Qualitative Study
title_sort barriers to partnership working in public health: a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3251584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22238619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029536
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