Practitioners of all professions recognise the need and importance of collaboration, yet many find it far from easy to achieve. One way to find help in understanding the nature and complexity of collaborative practice is to study the dynamic nature of relationships that transcend boundaries between users and professional providers, and between different professional groups. The heightened interest in new ways of working together in health and social care has merited a new edition of this excellent text. With the help of four new contributors the focus of the original text has been retained but also enlarged in order to address collaborative relationships within organisational hierarchies