Health and Social Care Partnerships in Scotland

Abstract

First paragraph: Since 1997 the development of partnership working across the public sector has been one of the key themes of UK government policy (Balloch and Taylor 2001). One area where partnership working has had a major influence has been in the field of health and social care. Whilst a diverse range of partnership mechanisms have developed between health and social care (Dowling et al 2004), equally diverse is the policy approach taken by each of the devolved areas that constitute the UK (Exworthy 2001). Varying modes of decentralisation have allowed Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to promote the modernisation of health and social care to meet the needs of their respective populations (Greer 2004). In Scotland, this resulted from devolution and the setting up of a Scottish Parliament in 1999. Health and social care became devolved matters for the newly formed Scottish Executive.