ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the experiences of four partnership action learning sets which I facilitated as part of the Department of Health-funded Social Care Leadership Development Initiative (SCLDI). For the first three years, SCLDI funded some 50 time-limited action learning sets for individual top managers, or whole senior management teams, in English local authority social services departments (SSDs). From 2002, SCLDI started to invite SSDs to work together with their partner organizations. Initially, these partnership learning sets brought together senior management teams from SSDs and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). They subsequently focused on authorities that were piloting the development of Children’s Trusts with partnerships involving social care, education, health and other stakeholders. SCLDI defined the aims of these partnership sets as ‘to work together in protected space on the fundamentals of effective partnership work and the delivery of services that are well joined-up in terms of values, leadership, shared knowledge and trust’ (Peryer, 2002: 3).
