- "Leadership takes place every day. It is neither the traits of the few, a rare event, or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. …Every time we face a conflict among competing values…we face the need to learn new ways."
Heifetz (1994). Leadership without easy answers - "Leadership is central to improving performance, redesigning services and securing better outcomes for the people of Scotland."
NHSScotland (2007) Better Health, Better Care: Action plan
Personal responsibility
Partnership working requires leadership at all levels and across services. In order to make partnership working effective, leadership needs to be the responsibility of everyone. To overcome the challenges involved in partnership working, all professionals take personal responsibility for continuing to focus on the purpose and outcomes of partnership working. The purpose is to deliver better outcomes for children and young people with additional support needs by working together to ensure they benefit fully from education.
The purpose of partnership working is to combine human and material resources to achieve more together than can be achieved alone. When all staff are clear about this purpose and act in a way that achieves it, then they are exercising leadership. Those within organisations who have positions of authority have responsibility for creating a context and an ethos where staff can work together well. In turn this also means recognising each others' leadership role rather than relying on job-titles and positions of authority.
Relationships, communication and interpersonal skills
Creating an ethos of respect and mutual understanding between different professions and parents is a pre-requisite for partnership working. In practice then, leadership is about focusing all activities on delivering an effective service to young people. In order to do this, excellent communication is required from practitioner level to the strategic planning level. This includes communication across agencies and with service users, particularly parents. Effective communication helps develop good quality relationships which reflect a genuine regard and respect for each other's contribution to supporting children. Different professional interests are put aside when partnerships are working well. Constraints and challenges are understood and responsibility shared in a way that is solution focused.
It is essential that all practitioners take into account an individual child's or young person's communication needs and that they are aware of the most successful way of interacting and supporting children and young people to express their views.