Making the right partnering choice

To reduce cost, deliver improved outcomes and better value to their community, local authorities are increasingly looking to their existing partnerships as a way of achieving more for less. The principles of localism and total place, transparency of spend decisions, personalised commissioning and the emergence of community based budgets and service delivery approaches are seen as ways of bridging the public service funding gap but have further complicated matters in terms of when best to use them and how to practically deliver them.

These trends mean councils now have to make complex choices about when and how to work with partners whilst retaining democratic accountability for services and demonstrating value-for-money for every pound of public money spent. 

Councils increasingly have to be capable of managing complex delivery relationships if they are to truly achieve a better outcome. Our experience shows that for partnerships to add real value, there are some tried and tested foundations to put in place.

When faced with these challenges partners need to develop a framework which:

• sets a common purpose

• develops and deliver a performance driven (commercial) regime

• builds joint management framework and capability

• drives change and culture to build a collaborative relationship

• enables performance management and monitoring of contracted delivery and cultural change and leadership styles

This will help you work out the questions to ask and the answers to look for when choosing a partner to work with, such as:

• when to enter a formal partnership as opposed to a loose or informal collaborative venture?

• how to select the right partner in terms of cultural fit and complementary of skills?

• how to select and secure a partner – using local government regulatory powers or public sector procurement regime?

• how to position and manage the relationship to ensure the intended benefits are delivered?

We helped Southampton City Council select a strategic partner to help transform a broad range of support functions so the Council is well placed to achieve efficiency gains.

Read our view here on how you can push the boundaries of Shared Services.

To speak with an expert about how can help you make the right partnering choices, please contact us now.