Qualification: NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Educator
Unit: Unit 2.5: Work in partnership
Learning outcome: Understand challenges to partnership working
Assessment criteria: Evaluate the complexity of partnership working
Partnership working is widely recognised as an important aspect of effective early years provision. It can help to ensure that children and families receive the best possible support and services, and can also lead to improved outcomes for children. However, partnership working can be complex and challenging, and there are a number of factors that need to be considered when evaluating its effectiveness.
One of the key challenges of partnership working is ensuring that all partners are committed to the same goals and objectives. This can be difficult to achieve, as each partner may have their own agenda and priorities. It is therefore important to ensure that there is a clear and shared vision for the partnership, and that all partners are aware of and committed to this.
Another challenge is ensuring that all partners are working effectively together. This can be difficult to achieve, as each partner may have their own way of working and there may be a lack of communication or trust between the partners. It is therefore important to ensure that there are clear lines of communication and that all partners feel able to work together effectively.
Personnel may change over time – for example, if a professional leaves their role – which can mean that the mutual trust and respect of the relationship is lost. It may take time for their replacement to build the same relationship with the other partners.
Information systems will vary between partners, which means that the data about a child and/or family may be scattered across different systems. This can make data retrieval difficult, so partners must have protocols for information sharing in place so that everyone has up-to-date and accurate data.