The organisational and professional context of the first acpc conference

The theme of today's conference “Partnership in a Changing Environment” is highly significant and could be adopted for almost any major conference in the health and personal social services field. “Partnership” is an “in” word, and like quality and other euphemisms it has become part of our rhetoric. Its definition and translation into practice at different points in our organisations, is however more problematic. For example in the area of child protection there has been a tendency to think of partnership as based around case conferences, but that is too far into the process to be of value to families or professionals. Partnership starts at policy making and today's conference is an attempt at bringing together the principal partners who should influence policy, as well as what happens further into the system when parents and children become engaged. The second part of today's theme “a changing environment” also applies throughout the public service. In recent years we have become accustomed to rolling organisational change. The most recent manifestations of this in Northern Ireland have been the introduction of general management throughout the services, the separation and redefinition of purchaser and provider functions, and more recently, the establishment of HPSS trusts. But change to the environment within which partnership in child protection takes place is influenced by forces other than organisational development. Research in child care over the last 15 years, the introduction of the Children Act 1989 in Great Britain and the prospect of similar legislation here within the next year or two, the impact of major reports, sometimes focusing on tragic events and the publication by the Inspectorate of the investigation into the case of Martin Huston have served to perpetuate change.