NHS organisations and local authorities need to work in partnership to deliver better health and social care to local communities. Recent reports however have suggested that some of these partnerships are not working.

The major concern is around finance. A Local Government Association survey of local authorities conducted last year it was found that almost seven out of 10 local authorities said that NHS deficits had had an adverse effect.

The survey undoubtedly reflected strong views from the local authorities who took part. But it only covered local authorities in the minority of areas where the primary care trust was reporting a deficit. It did not show the national picture.

The NHS Confederation has recently polled NHS primary care trust chief executives from across the country to ask them about partnership working. The results were interesting - yes there are areas where NHS deficits have led to PCTs pulling out of joint projects. However, nearly the exact same number of local authorities had to pull out of joint projects last year, also because of financial difficulties.

This is not a time for blame, but a time for openness and transparency. It is only through clear, honest communication that both the NHS and local government will understand the challenges that each other face and find the best way to overcome hurdles for the good of their communities - together.

Both the NHS and local government are cash limited systems trying to achieve the same goal of providing the best local public services for its communities. As the rate of growth in funding reduces, both NHS trusts and local authorities need to look at how they can form more cohesive, strategic partnerships and use available resources in the most effective way.

For example, sharing back office functions such as human resources, information technology facilities and administration can be extremely beneficial as it could halve the overhead costs spent on these functions. Co-location of staff can improve communication and enable more cost effective care packages.

In the future, the NHS Confederation would like to see NHS trusts and local authorities being given the opportunity to plan on a longer-term basis than 12 months. Year-on-year planning achieves very little and in order to create the flexibility needed to embark upon joint projects and build valuable relationships, we need to be able to plan over a period of five to 10 years.

It is also hoped that as the recent reconfigured PCTs begin to bed down, trust will form between the new organisations and local authorities. After all, it is ambitious to think that staff will want to embark on partnerships which may well break down when organisations and relationships continue to be unstable.

Strengthening commissioning processes will also benefit partnership working in the future. Practice based commissioners will be considering how to deliver pathways of care for people with long-term conditions. When dealing with these types of patients,jointly delivered services which keep them healthy and supported in their own homes are equally as important as the more acute services that they may need from time to time.

Through building two-way trusting relationships, embracing smarter commissioning and planning more strategically and long-term partnership working for the future needs to grow in strength and become common practice. Only then can we start to improve local health and social care services in every community across the country.