ABSTRACT

Communication and relationships have become an increasing focus of attention in debates about the future of health and social care services. Enquiries into a number of high-profile tragedies and scandals have highlighted apparent failures in communication, and have led to calls for changes in the nature of relationships, both between care professionals and between service providers and service users (for example: Department of Health 1991; Newham Area Child Protection Committee 2002). At the same time, pressure from service users themselves, together with the consumerism encouraged by the partial marketisation of care services, has brought a new emphasis on participation and partnership in relationships within services (Clarke and Newman 1997).