Collaborative work in public health? Reflections on the experience of public health networks

Abstract

This paper aims to stimulate critical reflection and debate on the future development of multidisciplinary and collaborative public health practice. Focusing on the early experience of public health networks, it suggests that various processes of professional boundary maintenance combined with perceptions of public health amongst the wider community of practitioners may constrain the establishment of new ways of collaborative working between specialist public health practitioners and the wider public health workforce within and beyond the NHS.

Keywords:

• Networks
• boundaries
• perceptions of public health

Notes

Note

1.  The ‘managed’ dimension of the networks referred to the need for resourced administrative support and coordination and not performance management for the public health function (Hunt 2001).