{"title":"Gender based Barriers to Effective Collaboration: A Case Study on Children's Safeguard Partnerships","authors":"L. McAllister, A. Dudau","volume":17,"journal":"International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences","pagesStart":586,"pagesEnd":590,"ISSN":"1307-6892","URL":"https:\/\/publications.waset.org\/pdf\/4778","abstract":"
This paper explores gender related barriers to interagency collaboration in statutory children safeguard partnerships against a theoretical framework that considers individuals, professions and organisations interacting as part of a complex adaptive system. We argue that gender-framed obstacles to effective communication between culturally discrepant agencies can ultimately impact on the effectiveness of policy delivery,. We focused our research on three partnership structures in Sefton Metropolitan Borough in order to observe how interactions occur, whether the agencies involved perceive their occupational environment as being gender affected and whether they believe this can hinder effective collaboration with other biased organisations. Our principal empirical findings indicate that there is a general awareness amongst professionals of the role that gender plays in each of the agencies reviewed, that gender may well constitute a barrier to effective communication, but there is a sense in which there is little scope for change in the short term. We aim to signal here, however, the need to change against the risk of service failure.<\/p>\r\n","references":"[1] Kundera M. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Harper and Row. New\r\nYork. 1984.\r\n[2] Pearce W.B. (1989). Communication and the Human Condition.\r\nSouthern Illinois University Press. Carbondale.\r\n[3] Br\u251c\u255dckner M. \"On social work and what gender has got to do with it\".\r\nEuropean Journal of Social Work. Vol. 5. No. 3. November 2002.\r\nPp.269-276.\r\n[4] Bochel C. and J. Briggs. \"Do women make a difference?\" Politics.\r\nVolume 20. No. 2. 2000. 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