Fife Council’s Social Work and Education Services professionals along with colleagues from the NHS, Police and the Third sector have been learning to work together better. Over the past year they have all been undertaking a course in collaborative leadership at St Andrews University, experiencing the collaborative process by working together on shared research projects.

Learning from each other and focussing on leadership skills the course gave participantsthe skills and knowledge for creating a collaborative culture, facilitating change and tackling the daily challenges of collaboration in the workplace.

Heather Ford of Fife Council’s Social Work Service said: "I have really benefited from the course which covered issues such as the effect of cultures and roles in organisations. I think all the participants now have a better insight and understanding of collaborative working and this will enable us to work more effectively together."

She added "Technology is changing the way we work dramaticallyso we are developing new ways of working together to improve the services we provide for the people who need and use them. One area we see as a priority is encouraging collaboration between our partners."

Ann Thomson, District Nurse Team Leader with NHS Fife said: ‘"The collaborative leadership course gave me a greater understanding of the roles of fellow colleagues from Fife Council’s Social Work and Housing services. I gained a great deal of knowledge, as well as a broader understanding of the policy direction of the care agenda involving all the partner agencies."

Billy Swan, Chair of the Joint Organisational Development Group said: “A considerable amount of work is being undertaken to further strengthen partnership working. Shared approaches to workforce development provide an effective means of helping different professional groups working in frontline services to come together, share skills and knowledge and work effectively together.

“This is becoming increasingly important as more multi-agency projects and strategies are developed in areas such as reshaping older people care services, adult protection and dementia. In these cases a number of agencies are coming together to take a holistic approach to improving services across the piece for service users. This will result in better use or resources and subsequently better outcomes for people most in need.”