Abstract

Collaboration is the key to success in many aspects of health and social care delivery. It is also a characteristic of good research. This journal has developed from partnership working between South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust and the University of Huddersfield. Another local collaborator is the Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CHSCR) based in the School of Human & Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. As background for those readers unfamiliar with CHSCR; it was established in 2003 as a focus for research activity across local organisations and disciplines in West Yorkshire. It brought together a number of thriving research collaborations such as the Ageing and Mental Health Research Group and the Mental Health Research Group. Members of those groups have been involved in founding this journal and published papers in earlier editions. The emphasis of the CHSCR, irrespective of discipline, is on the generation of better understandings of health and social care and, importantly, the added value that those insights bring to the delivery of effective care. The CHSCR brought together the interests of University staff with research minded clinicians from across the broad constituency of health and social care. The first Centre Director was Professor Sue White who moved to the University of Lancaster in 2007. Now after nearly a year in post, this editorial offers an opportunity to offer a personal reflection on the importance of effective collaboration as a way of working for the Centre in the future.

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