Improving Inter-professional Collaborations

Working and Learning Across Professional Boundaries

“…Indeed, absence of trust has been defined as one of the five components of team dysfunction (Lencioni, 2002). 'Time', as a key requirement of interprofessionality, is another recurring theme (OECD, 1998;Weindling, 2005) as is interdisciplinary learning (Edwards et al, 2009;Robinson et al, 2005). Fundamental, but frequently unacknowledged, differences in terms of goals and values, protocols and procedures, the targets used to incentivise behaviour and ways in which success was construed for different groups frustrated attempts at interprofessionality.…”

“…Here, too, professional identity (Hall, 2005) and the stereotyping of others (Choi and Pak, 2007) An extended period of training and opportunities for continuing professional development are cornerstones of professionality. Whilst various studies have stressed their importance in addressing the distinctive challenges posed by interprofessionality (Edwards et al, 2009;Robinson et al, 2005), conflicting evidence suggests that the true demands have neither been recognised nor meteven in health where IPE and IPL constitute salient strands of the professional literature. As recently as 2006, Leadbetter observed how 'little reference' there is 'to professional learning within the wealth of guidance produced' for multiagency working (p. 49).…”

“…The Learning in and for Interagency Working (LIW) project (Edwards et al, 2009) and the Multi-agency Team Work in Services for Children (MATCh) project (Robinson et al, 2005) both deployed conceptual tools evolved through activity theory to enable different working cultures to be explored in a climate conducive to expansive learning. Because it 'enables the objects of interagency activity to be understood as constantly in transformation' (Warmington et al, 2004, p. 50), expansive learning is well-adapted to the needs of professionals who work with vulnerable children.…”

Building common knowledge at the boundaries between professional practices: Relational agency and relational expertise in systems of distributed expertise

“…These interventions have called for practitioners to recognise the complexity of a child's trajectory before responses are considered, as one professional acting alone is likely to miss some aspects of vulnerability (Edwards, Daniels, Gallagher, Leadbetter, & Warmington, 2009). Because of this starting point, how collaboration is understood is different from versions of networked support which are based on the interpretations of a single professional who asks others for the resources that she considers appropriate (Nardi, Whittaker & Schwarz, 2002).…”

Collaborative inter-professional policy and practice: in search of evidence

“…Edwards et al (2009) refer to 'co-configuration' as 'the careful shaping of a specific service through creating modules or tailored forms of provision targeted at particular groups' (15) in order to disrupt 'children's trajectories of exclusion' (ibid.). 'Co-production' (Bowles, Clark, and Burns 2006), it is argued, will redefine the relationship between public service professionals and their clients from one of 'dependence to mutuality and reciprocity' (1).…”