partnership working in the current environment

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Partnership Workingin the current environment

Workshop for CLINKS Road Show 2011

Alan Cripps



The partnership spectrum• Informal

– Networks

– Clusters

• Agreements within the VCS– Joint delivery of existing services

– Joint projects

• Contracts for public service delivery– Sub-contracting

– Consortia

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Issues in partnership 1 - Environment

• Commissioning environment– Who is buying?

– What are they looking for?

– How big are the contracts?

– How is strategy decided?

• Procurement rules/processes– Threshold requirements

– Tender processes

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Issues in partnership 2 - sectoral

• Who is out there that– You can trust?

– Your organisation can fit with?

– Can offer a mutual exchange of value?

– You can create a relationship with?

– Is prepared to commit to the ground rules?

• How can you find them?


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Issues in partnership 3 - Internal

• It all takes time and resource, so:-– Know why you’re doing it

– Prioritise and evaluate, BUT

– Resist pressure for big payoffs quickly

– Look for some quick wins

• Make sure your Board is on board


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Thinking about partnerships you’ve been involved in:-

• What have been the main barriers to success?

• What things have enabled partnerships to work well?


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Ways forward – some thoughts• Develop intelligence and networks

– Start local

– Share the work of mapping

– Be prepared to share influence and contacts

– Look for a sponsor

• Build a collective identity and voice– With commissioners and funders

– Within the local VCS


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Ways forward – some thoughts

Rehearse to build social capital– Develop working relationships to find out who is

worth partnering with

– Find non-contractual opportunities to work together


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Ways forward – some thoughts

Prepare for tendering

• Agree the basics beforehand

– Quality standards

– MOUs

– Governance structures

• Get PQQ materials together

• Get kitted-up (Dropbox, Skype etc)


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Key learning points from workshops

• Don’t have all your eggs in one basket.

• Make sure you don’t get pulled off mission

• Be prepared to deal with last minute changes of goalposts.

• Be clear about what’s negotiable and what’s not.

• Make sure there are shared ethos and values


Partnership working

www.hact.org.uk − Full evaluations and executive summaries of Collaborate

1 and 2

[email protected] − Collaborate 2 microsite – self-help toolkit for resource-

sharing clusters

NCVO and NAVCA (Link from NCVO website)

− Pathways Through The Maze – a guide to procurement law for commissioners

Department of Work & Pensions – Code of Conduct− Annex 1, Commissioning Strategy 2008

Resources


Partnership working

GOOD

LUCK!

And finally . . .

partnership working in the current environment

Documents