Partnership working has become a central feature of British social welfare policy since 1997. Although this development is applicable to all areas of public welfare, nowhere is it more evident than in the planning and provision of care that overlaps health and social services. The literature survey described in the present paper focused on research examining the impact of partnership working in these areas to assess the evidence concerning its effects and to investigate how partnership 'success' is conceptualised. The literature conceptualised the success of partnerships in two main ways: (1) process issues, such as how well the partners work together in addressing joint aims and the long-term sustainability of the partnership; and (2) outcome issues, including changes in service delivery, and subsequent effects on the health or well-being of service users. The authors found that research into partnerships has centred heavily on process issues, while much less emphasis has been given to outcome success. If social welfare policy is to be more concerned with improving service delivery and user outcomes than with the internal mechanics of administrative structures and decision-making, this is a knowledge gap that urgently needs to be filled.

Research and theory on ' dependency ' and ' care-giving ' have to date proceeded along largely separate lines, with little sense that they are exploring and explaining different aspects of the same phenomenon. Research on 'care ', initially linked to feminism during the early 1980s, has revealed and exposed to public gaze what was hitherto assumed to be a ' natural ' female activity. Conversely, disability activists and writers who have promoted a social model of disability have seen the language of and the policy focus upon 'care ' as oppressive and objectifying. ' Dependency ' is an equally contested concept: sociologists have scrutinised the social construction of dependency; politicians have ascribed negative connotations of passivity ; while medical and social policy discourse employs the term in a positivist sense as a measure of physical need for professional intervention. Autonomy and independence, in contrast, are promoted as universal and largely unproblematic goals. These contrasting perspectives have led social theory, research and policies to separate and segregate the worlds of ' carers ' from those for whom they 'care '. Drawing on the work of Kittay and others, this paper explores the ways in which sociological perspectives can develop new understanding of the social contexts of ' care ' and ' dependence '.

Parenting a technology-dependent child alters the meaning of parenting. Professionals need to recognize that providing care has a substantial emotional dimension for parents, and that they need opportunities to discuss their feelings about caregiving and what it means for their parenting identity and their relationship with their child. A key professional nursing role will be giving emotional support and supporting parents' coping strategies. Parents' perceptions of nurses raise questions about whether nurses' caregiving is individualized to the needs of the child and family, and whether parental expertise is recognized.

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