Managing the development of partnerships in Health Action Zones

Abstract

Within Britain the Blair Government has committed itself to a modernisation process within the public sector. This process involves rethinking how to organise services internally and how to integrate services across government. Policy makers are talking about “joined‐up” government, innovation and partnerships. In the UK there are now a plethora of partnerships and initiatives. The Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the first of such initiatives and as such present fertile ground for analysis of the modernisation process. This paper draws on the experience of those engaged in the HAZ partnerships and also on research conducted by the author on “conditions for partnership”. It appears that the conditions in the UK are not conducive for partnerships when national frameworks are focused on monitoring rather than on development, and when the measurement of partnership success is short term. Although the partnership and modernisation policy encourages innovation, the development of partnerships is hampered by internal blame cultures, poor change management and a development gap in thinking among policy makers.

Citation

Maddock, S. (2000), "Managing the development of partnerships in Health Action Zones", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 65-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860010319514