Partnership working

Susan Balloch is Reader in Health and Social Care in the Health and Social Policy Research Centre at the University of Brighton, UK. She is a co-editor of Social services: Working under pressure (The Policy Press, 1999). Previously she worked as Policy Director for the National Institute for Social Work.Marilyn Taylor is Professor of Social Policy at the Health and Social Policy Research Centre, University of Brighton, UK. She has written widely for policy and practice audiences on community development, community involvement in partnerships, user involvement and relationships between government and the voluntary sector.

• Contents: Introduction Susan Balloch and Marilyn Taylor; Part One: Regeneration and social exclusion: 'Holism' and urban regeneration Peter Ambrose; Partnerships and power in community regeneration Marjorie Mayo and Marilyn Taylor; Local government, anti-poverty strategies and partnership working Sarah Pearson; Partnership and change in social housing Barbara Reid; Improving partnership working in housing and mental health Simon Northmore; Part Two: Partnerships in social care and health: The potential of project status to support partnerships Valerie Williamson; Promoting independence: a partnership approach to supporting older people in the community Helen Charnley; Partnership between service users and statutory social services Michael Turner and Susan Balloch; Partnership working in health promotion: the potential role of social capital in health development John Kenneth Davies; Part Three: Power, participation and place: Partnership and power: the role of black and minority ethnic voluntary organisations in challenging racism Jabeer Butt; Rounding up the 'usual suspects': police approaches to multiagency policing Peter Squires and Lynda Measor; Partnership - participation - power: the meaning of empowerment in post-industrial society David Byrne; Spatial considerations in multiagency and multidisciplinary work Philip Haynes; Conclusion - can partnerships work? Susan Balloch and Marilyn Taylor.

"This carefully crafted collection unpacks the concept of partnership in a range of policy contexts, exposing its tensions and contradictions and pointing to the centrality of the issue of power in understanding why partnerships do or do not work." Gary Craig, Professor of Social Justice, University of Hull