ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development of joint working consider key issues in its realisation and provide guidance on how to make it happen, with illustrations from our own experience in Manchester. The 1983 Care in the Community circular extended the Joint Finance scheme and also enabled health authorities to transfer funds to local authorities and the voluntary sector. Promoting joint working involves considering a number of issues, concerning what is to be attempted and what local factors will help and hinder the effort. The purchaser-provider splits do not make the goal of joint working and seamless supports any easier. The incentive for services to move towards a joint model of provision usually derives from a review of the overlapping areas of each agency's work. In many areas the agency wanting to move towards a joint model of working will have coterminous boundaries. The push towards joint working arrangements often needs help to overcome the protectionism of each agency.
