Collaborative Practices

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Collaboration: Introduction

What is collaboration?

Collaboration generally refers to individuals or organisations ‘working together’ to address problems and deliver outcomes that are not easily or effectively achieved by working alone. Collaborative practice is now central to the way we work, deliver services and produce innovations.  Collaborative relationships are attractive to organisations because the combination of effort and expertise produce benefits greater than those achieved working alone.

When to collaborate?

Collaboration is only one form of shared service model. It is most effective in particular circumstances but can be challenging to implement and therefore not appropriate in every situation. The challenge for individuals and organisations wanting to work together is determining when to use collaboration and when to choose a simpler approach. In many circumstances it is sufficient just to share information, expertise and referrals on an ongoing basis. In other contexts it may be beneficial to develop more efficient ways of working together by better aligning existing resources and effort, eg using taskforces and inter-agency committees. Equally, there are some situations where single agency action remains appropriate.

Source: Australian Research Alliance for Children and Young People, Fact Sheet: When to collaborate?

Australian Research Alliance for Children and Young People has a series of useful factsheets on:

1. What is collaboration?
2. Why collaboration and why now?
3. Collaboration and services
4. When to collaborate?
5. Key elements of collaboration
6. Collaboration – Getting going

Available at:

www.aracy.org.au/index.cfm?pageName=adv_collaboration_fact_sheets

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