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The national Social Partnership Forum (SPF) recognises the challenges facing the NHS over the coming months and years.
We have been working together through the SPF to support the delivery of NHS priorities since 2007 and have seen the benefits that this has brought. We do not work in partnership for partnership's sake but because we see the way that it can deliver real benefits including strong and effective communications, enhanced staff engagement, better implementation of policy and organisational change and improvements to patient care.
Over the past year the role of the regional SPFs has become increasingly prominent and integral to the delivery of national policy through partnership, often being named as the route for delivery and assurance.
The government welcomed the opportunity to meet, listen and have a dialogue with SPF members now and in the future. The full ministerial team attended the inaugural meeting (under the new government) of SPF in June 2010 with Simon Burns, Minister of State (Health) confirmed as the new SPF Chair.
There will be significant changes to the structure of the NHS and partners will need to adapt to maintain partnerships through challenging times. However we believe this can and should be done.
In the short term the regional SPFs, in their current form, remain a key part of assurance, information sharing and support for programmes such as Transforming Community Services and Quality, Innovation, Prevention and Productivity (QIPP).
In the longer term, partnerships regionally will need to change with the regional structure. This will only be achieved through building relationships and strengthening the forums now. This online toolkit is designed to support regional SPFs in their work and to share learning and good practice in order to build and improve partnership working in their own forums.
Gill Bellord Nic Greenfield Mike Jackson
NHS Employers Dept Health NHS Trade Unions |