Partnership with care homes: A new approach to collaborative working

This paper reports ways of working and early findings from the Partnership with Care Homes Project (PCH). PCH is an extension to the ongoing CELEC Action Research Project: Care for Older People that is concerned with the development and evaluation of seven lead research and development nurses. These nurses have responsibility for improving care for older people in seven NHS trusts in North East London in line with the National Service Framework for Older People. Funded originally by CELEC (Central and East London Education Consortium), these nurses are using action research to blur the boundaries between education, practice and research. This innovative way of working has fostered closer working relationships, the cross-fertilisation of ideas and joint working between acute and primary care trusts; general and mental health services; users, carers and professionals; health and social care providers (NHS and voluntary sector), and commissioners and providers of education. The success of the action research project led to the North East London Workforce Development Confederation (CELEC's replacement), giving additional funding to extend the project into the private sector — the Partnership with Care Homes Project. This work is ongoing and currently 25 care homes (representing more than 1,500 beds) are participating in the project, with the emphasis very firmly on partnership working to meet their education, research and practice development needs. The lessons learned from the project may lead to a new model of commissioning for both education and service delivery which is able to respond more promptly to emergent need. The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of working in this way, explore the early findings and, more importantly, celebrate some of the outcomes that are already emerging from the work.