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Working inpartnership:

A sourcebook

AcknowledgementsThis Sourcebook was researched and written for the New OpportunitiesFund by SQW Ltd, a management consultancy specialising in economicdevelopment and regeneration (www.sqw.co.uk).The Sourcebook was writtenby Tim Thorlby and Jo Hutchinson, with research also undertaken by SarahFrancis, Nikki Nicholson and Catherine Drury.

The research was managed for the New Opportunities Fund byMichael Clegg.

We would like to thank in particular the 12 partnerships who participated inthe case studies, including those individuals who helped to arrange the visitsand those individuals and organisations who participated in the research andwho provided comments on the draft Sourcebook.The 12 partnerships thatparticipated were:

● Mersey Valley Partnership● Boarded Barns & Melbourne Community Garden Project, Chelmsford● Hartcliffe Community Campus, Bristol● The ARC Healthy Living Centre, Irvinestown ● St. Mellons Healthy Living Centre, Cardiff● Help the Aged / Macmillan SeniorLink Project● Community Advocacy Partnership Across Birmingham City (CAPACITY)● Stirling Health & Wellbeing Alliance, Stirling● North East Institute of FE & HE and partners,Antrim● Peterborough Early Years Development & Childcare Partnership● Hamilton Oxford Schools Partnership, Oxford● Wigan Early Years & Childcare Team and partners,Wigan

We would also like to thank Margaret Grindle from English Nature and PeteJohnstone from the Countryside Agency who assisted in the selection of theenvironment case studies.

In addition, we would like to thank the numerous other individuals andorganisations who commented on the Sourcebook during its development.

The power-interest matrix on page 12 is an amended version of one in‘Exploring Corporate Strategy’ (1993), Johnson G. and Scholes K. ,Prentice-Hall, London.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ContentsIntroduction 1

1 Choosing to work in partnership 8

Challenge1:1 Should we work in partnership? 9

Challenge1:2Who should our partners be? 11

Challenge1:3 How do we establish working relationships? 17

Challenge1:4 Involving the voluntary and community sectors 19

Section 1 - Self-Evaluation Checklist 23

2 Setting up – the early stages 24Challenge 2:1 Defining roles and responsibilities 25

Challenge 2:2 Establishing an appropriate structure 29

Challenge 2:3 Establishing common goals 31

Challenge 2:4 Building the capacity of partners 32

Challenge 2:5 How to involve communities in the partnership 33


3 Planning and delivery 44Challenge 3:1 Effective action planning 44

Challenge 3:2 Effective monitoring and management 47

Challenge 3:3 Maintaining the involvement of partners 49

Challenge 3:4 Improving communication 50


4 Evaluating progress 54Challenge 4:1 Developing an evaluation strategy 55

Challenge 4:2 Evaluating partnership working 60


5 Moving on 66Challenge 5:1 Do we need to change? 66

Challenge 5:2 Preparing a forward strategy 63

6 Further reading 68

CONTENTS

Who should use thisSourcebook?Partnerships come in all shapes andsizes, but the issues that affect themare often the same or very similar.This Sourcebook is intended to be ofrelevance to a wide range ofpartnerships, including those that are:

● Formal or informal

● Local, regional or national

● Multi-sector or single sector

● Small or large

● Single-issue or broadly based

● That involve communities and areas of disadvantage

The Sourcebook is intended to be ofuse for people and organisationsfrom all sectors.Whilst primarilyaimed at those organisationscurrently funded by, or seeking, NewOpportunities Fund resources, it mayalso have a wider interest for otherpartnerships.

Partnership working can be a verydifficult process. Most partnershipsmake mistakes. Most must alsocontend with new challenges andchanging circumstances on a regularbasis. Every partnership that wants todevelop should therefore becontinuously looking at how it canimprove.This Sourcebook is designedto help you do this, at whatever stageyour partnership may happen to be.

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The New Opportunities Fundprovides Lottery funding for health,education and environment projectswhich will help create lastingimprovements to quality of life,particularly in disadvantagedcommunities.

We believe that effectivepartnership working is an essentialfactor in securing successfulprojects and outcomes.Partnershipworking between differentorganisations in the public, private,voluntary and community sectorscreates new opportunities, betterservices and helps to developsustainability for the projects wefund.We also acknowledge thatpartnership working brings manychallenges.We are committed tosupporting projects based onpartnership and to working withorganisations to overcome thechallenges and realise the benefitsthat such working brings.

INTRODUCTION

The New Opportunities Fund hasdeveloped this Sourcebook toencourage organisations and groupsto work in partnership and to helpthem to do so effectively. It isintended as a practical source of ideasand suggestions for both new andexisting partnerships.

The Sourcebook does not containready-made answers, but is designedto help you think through issues. Italso points you to otherorganisations, websites andpublications that you may find helpful.As such, this guide is intended to be astarting point.We hope you find ituseful.

It is also available on the NewOpportunities Fund website atwww.nof.org.uk

There are several important things tonote about this Sourcebook. Firstly, itis not intended to be prescriptive.There are often several ways ofachieving the same objective.The aimof the Sourcebook is to provide youwith a range of suggestions, adviceand options to help you.

Secondly, the Sourcebook alonecannot provide specific answers toproblems or challenges that individualpartnerships may have. It providesideas and advice which you can useto think through different situationsand suggestions on how to proceed.Each section also provides adviceabout other publications and sourcesof advice that may be of help to you.

Thirdly, this is not an academic reportor study – it is a guide intended forpractitioners. Many good studies ofpartnerships and partnershipworking exist and if you areinterested in following up some issuesin greater depth, we have highlighteda selection of ‘further reading’ inSection 6.

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● INTRODUCTION

About thisSourcebookThis Sourcebook has been preparedfor the New Opportunities Fund andit draws on established good practice,academic research and new research.

The new research undertaken for thisSourcebook consists of 12 casestudies of current partnerships fromaround the UK, that provideillustrations and experiences of realpartnerships in action.The casestudies have provided examples ofgood practice and also lessons thathave been learnt from problems theyhave experienced. Both types ofexperience, positive and negative,have been drawn on and used toinform the development of thisSourcebook. A summary of the12 partnerships is provided onpages 4 to 6.

We have sought to identify the keystages that most partnerships gothrough – the ‘lifecycle’ of apartnership – and, within these, toidentify the most important issuesthat partnerships must often address.For each issue we seek to present:

● The realities of partnership working – it can often be difficult and ‘messy’

● The opportunities that arise through partnership

● The things that can go wrong

● What works in practice

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INTRODUCTION

2 Setting up – the early stages

● 2:1 Defining roles and responsibilities

● 2:2 Establishing an appropriate structure

● 2:3 Establishing common goals● 2:4 Building the capacity of

partners● 2:5 How to involvecommunities in the partnership

3 Planning and Delivery● 3:1 Effective action planning● 3:2 Effective monitoring and

management● 3:3 Maintaining the

involvement of partners● 3:4 Improving communication

4 Evaluating progress● 4:1 Developing an evaluation

strategy● 4:2 Evaluating partnership

working

5 Moving on● 5:1 Do we need to change?● 5:2 Preparing a forward

strategy

The final section (Section 6)suggests further sources ofinformation and otherpublications that you may beinterested in.

How to use theSourcebookThe Sourcebook is designed so thatyou can dip in and out of it easily –you may only be interested in somesections of it.

The main part of the Sourcebook isdivided into five sections. Eachsection broadly represents a stage ina partnership’s development or ‘life’where there are different sets ofdecisions to be made.

Each of the five sections in theSourcebook is structured in the sameway as follows:

Key Challenges

For each stage of partnershipdevelopment, a series of KeyChallenges have been identified.These are not exhaustive and notall partnerships will experiencethem in the same way, but theyrepresent the most commonchallenges faced by manypartnerships, often relating toimportant decisions that must bemade. Under each heading, wedescribe:

● Some of the key issues whichwe think partners or partnerships will want to address together with advice on what some partnerships have found useful

● Case study examplesrelevant to the education,health and environment sectors, to illustrate key points

Self-Evaluation Checklist

At the end of each section, wehave provided a checklist ofquestions to assist you inreviewing your own situation –You may wish to use this as anindividual organisation orcomplete it as a partnershipexercise.

At various points through theSourcebook we also highlightadditional FurtherInformation that may be useful(from other guides ororganisations). Much has alreadybeen written on partnershipworking, and so we have notsought to duplicate it here.Wealso signpost readers to othersections in this Sourcebook thatmay be of further relevance.

Structure of theSourcebookSections and Key Challenges

1 Choosing to work in partnership

● 1:1 Should we work in partnership?

● 1:2 Who should our partners be?● 1:3 How do we establish

working relationships?● 1:4 Involving the community

and voluntary sectors

The 12 Case Studies

Where a case study example sheds light on aparticular point, a full description is givenalongside the relevant Challenge, and indicated bythe case study sign:c These examples show howothers have used the possibilities and met thechallenges of working in partnership.

HEALTH

Community AdvocacyPartnership Across BirminghamCity (CAPACITY)This partnership was put together by theQueen Elizabeth University Hospital inBirmingham to research and develop ways ofplugging service gaps in the provision ofpalliative care for sufferers of cancer,particularly those from ethnic minorities.There are 18 partners including the Hospital,NHS Primary Care Groups, hospices,community representatives and a HousingAssociation. The partnership was awardedfunding for three years under the NewOpportunities Fund’s living with cancerprogramme.

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INTRODUCTION

Living with Cancer SeniorLinkProject

Help the Aged and Macmillan Cancer Reliefhave formed an informal partnership at anational level to help introduce anddevelop the use of SeniorLink units withcancer patients. The units can be easilyinstalled in a patient’s house and providean emergency call service, allowingpatients who are very ill to return to liveat home but still able to access help ifrequired. Help the Aged provide the unitsand the service, and Macmillan Nurses willprovide one of the ways that patients canbe made aware of the service. The projecthas been funded through the NewOpportunities Fund living with cancerprogramme.

St. Mellons Healthy LivingCentre Project, Cardiff, Wales

The St. Mellons Forum is a large community-based organisation that has been working fornearly 10 years in a disadvantaged area ofCardiff. The Forum established a sub-group tosteer the development of a healthy livingcentre. The partners include Cardiff CountyCouncil, Bro Taf Health Authority, the localHealth Board, the Save the Children Fund, andresidents groups. The project has beenawarded New Opportunities Fund support andis in the early stages of implementation, withthe Health Authority as lead partner.

The ARC Healthy Living Centre,Co. Fermanagh, NorthernIreland

The Irvinestown Community Partnership, abroad association of local groups inIrvinestown, has joined together with a rangeof local partners to establish a healthy livingcentre. A new company called ARC Ltd.(Activating Rural Communities), has been setup to manage the centre, which is beingsupported by the New Opportunities Fund.Partners include the local housing executive,the district council, and the IrvinestownTrustee Enterprise Company. The centre issituated in a refurbished row of terracedhouses in a deprived residential area,providing a wide range of services.

Health Hub, Stirling Health &Wellbeing Alliance

The Stirling Health and Wellbeing Alliance wasset up in 1997 as a company limited byguarantee, with charitable status, to promotea more holistic approach to health and well-being in the Stirling district. It is led by thevoluntary and community sectors, withsupport from key partners in the publicsector, including the Health Board, the NHSPrimary Care Trust and Stirling Council. It hasalso been supported by the StirlingPartnership for Urban Regeneration. TheAlliance has been awarded a grant from theNew Opportunities Fund to set up a healthyliving centre. This will be known as the HealthHub and will provide an innovative range ofservices, including diet and nutrition advice,health education, complementary therapy,reminiscence work and signposting to otherhealth services. Its services will primarily betargeted on seven deprived areas in Stirling.

c

ENVIRONMENT

Hartcliffe Community Campus,Bristol

Hartcliffe Community Campus is a charitableorganisation based in a deprived area ofBristol, led by a multi-sector Board. Its aim isto develop and improve a 57-acre site, whichincludes two schools and a college, into acampus that serves the local community moreeffectively through better educationalfacilities, improved sports and recreationalopportunities and an enhanced environment.The project began in 1996 and the charitywas established in 1998. (This project has notbeen funded by the New Opportunities Fundto date.)

Mersey Valley Partnership

The Mersey Valley Partnership is based in thecentral part of the Mersey Valley, covering theRuncorn,Warrington and Widnes area. It isprimarily concerned with the environmentand its aims include conserving andenhancing the countryside, improving accessto it, developing community involvement andaction and promoting sustainabledevelopment. The Partnership is currently ledby a steering group of nine organisationsfrom the public, private and voluntary sectors,with much support provided by two of thepartners, the local councils in Warrington andHalton. The Partnership has been working, invarious forms, for over 20 years. (This projecthas not been funded by the NewOpportunities Fund to date).

Boarded Barns & MelbourneCommunity Garden Project,Chelmsford

The Busy Bees Residents Association,WilliamSutton Trust and Chelmsford Borough Councilhave developed an informal partnership toprovide a ‘community garden’ in the BoardedBarns area of Chelmsford. The project islocated in a deprived area and is seeking totransform an area of open space into anattractive and accessible garden for localpeople to enjoy. Other aims of the projectinclude community empowerment, thestrengthening of community identity, goodpublicity for the area and a decrease invandalism. The partnership is also receivingfunding, or other support, from Essex CountyCouncil,Writtle College, Chelmsford College,Essex Police, Chelmsford Primary Care Group,the Youth Offending Team, ChelmsfordCommunity Safety Group and ChelmsfordYouth Nuisance Group. The Partnership isapplying for funding from other sources,including the Countryside Agency’s "DoorstepGreens" programme, which is part of the NewOpportunities Fund’s green spaces andsustainable communities programme.

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INTRODUCTION

EDUCATION

Community Access to LifelongLearning, Co. Antrim, NorthernIreland

The North East Institute of FE and HE and itsfour partners (the Family Caring Centre,Randalstown Arches Association, MagherafellWomen’s Group and Workspace Draperstown)in Antrim have been awarded funding by theNew Opportunities Fund to develop a networkof four lifelong learning centres to benefittheir communities. The partnership is onlyrecently established and is in the process ofbeginning its delivery programme.

Peterborough Early YearsDevelopment and ChildcarePartnership

The Peterborough Early Years Developmentand Childcare Partnership (EYDCP) has beenoperating in its current form since 1998,although it is based on an existingpartnership of longer standing. It has beenled by the City Council and has received NewOpportunities Fund support to create a largenumber of new childcare places with aconsortium of providers. Partners include theCouncil and representatives of the private,voluntary and public sector providers ofchildcare services.

And finally…

We want to present a groundedpicture of partnership working,and to offer practical and testedadvice.We cannot promise thateverything will run smoothly if youfollow this advice but we hopeyou find this thought-provokingand, above all, useful.

6

INTRODUCTION

Hamilton Oxford SchoolsPartnership, Oxford

The Hamilton Oxford Schools Partnership wasestablished to deliver an ‘Out of School HoursLearning Programme’ in 10 schools in Oxford,largely funded by the New OpportunitiesFund. Partners include the schools, acommunity arts group and a communityeducation group. The Partnership is built on,and draws extensively on, an existingEducation Action Zone Partnership in Oxford.Activities being delivered include homeworkclubs, music and dance opportunities andbreakfast clubs, to engage and motivateschoolchildren.

Out of School Hours Childcare,Wigan

The Early Years & Childcare Team from WiganMBC have led the development of a growingprogramme of childcare activities in Wigan,partly funded by the New Opportunities Fund,and in partnership with a large number ofpublic, private and voluntary sector providers.The programme forms part of the work ofWigan’s wider Early Years Development andChildcare Partnership.Wigan MBC, as leadpartner, provides a lot of assistance to smallgroups wishing to participate in deliveringchildcare services, including voluntary groups.

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INTRODUCTION

1Choosing to workin partnership

This Section is for organisations considering the option of working more closely withothers or even setting up a formal partnership.You may be considering applying to theNew Opportunities Fund for the first time.Why should you get involved inpartnership working? Is it appropriate for your situation? What are the benefits ofdoing so?

This section will help you think through the issues and provides advice andsuggestions on how to proceed.The Key Challenges covered by this section includethe following:

Challenge 1:1 Should we work in partnership? 9

Challenge 1:2 Who should our partners be? 11

Challenge 1:3 How do we establish working relationships? 17

Challenge 1:4 Involving the voluntary and community sectors 19

Self-Evaluation Checklist 23

8

What do we meanby ‘partnership’?Firstly, what do we mean bypartnership? A partnership bringstogether organisations, often fromacross the public, private, voluntary orcommunity sectors, to pursue acommon vision and to work togetherto achieve more than any of themcould on their own. It can be informalor formal. It can involve a handful oforganisations or a wide range. It maybe a local partnership focused on asmall area such as a neighbourhood,or it could be a city-wide, region-wideor even a national partnership.

For the purposes of this Sourcebook,and in view of the wide range ofactivities funded by the NewOpportunities Fund, we have taken abroad view of partnership.We havedefined a partnership simply as:

“a process in which two or more organisations or groups work together to achieve a common goal,and do so in such a way that they achieve more effective outcomes than by working separately.”

This guide has been developed inconjunction with 12 suchpartnerships many of whom haveaccessed New Opportunities Fundsupport. Partnerships can vary inmany ways:

● Sector – they may involve organisations from all sectors – public, private, voluntary and community – or just from a single sector

● Vision – they may focus on a single issue (or even project) or be long term and broadly based

● Structure – they could be relatively informal arrangements (e.g. a ‘voluntary association’) or formalised in a legal company

● Focus – they could have a local,regional or national focus

● Size – they could have only a handful of partners or a large number

● Scale – they could have significant resources or be operating on a ‘shoestring’

● Community participation – they could actively involve local communities in areas of disadvantage

Why do partnershipsform?Your partnership may be forming ormay have developed for a number ofdifferent reasons.Typical explanationspeople give are:● Our partnership evolved naturally

from long standing working relationships

● We were motivated by a recognition of particular common problems which all of our organisations believed it important to tackle

● We wanted to get funding for a project which is of great importance to us

● We wanted to be able to draw onthe skills and expertise of another organisation

● We wanted to motivate and enable other organisations to change

● We were required by governmentpolicy to develop a partnership

● We were motivated to draw together with others in order to access a new funding opportunity

Many partnerships may of course bea result of several of the abovefactors. Most usually change overtime too. Indeed, no two partnershipsare the same.

The rest of this section goes on tohighlight some of the key challengesand decisions for those thinking ofestablishing partnershiparrangements. It offers suggestionsabout how you might do this.

SECTION 1

9

SECTION 1

Challenge 1:1Should we work inpartnership?In practice, organisations and groupsget involved in partnerships in avariety of ways.You could find that:

● You are the driving force in encouraging partners to come together to deal with a particular issue or opportunity

● You hear of discussions which are going on and lobby to get involved

● You get a call asking you to co-write a funding application

● You get asked to put your name to a funding application as it reaches its final stages

● Your name is used on a bid or expression of interest and you get to hear about it later

● You get asked to help with the delivery of one part of a programme,designed by a partnership which has accessed funding

● A small partnership in which you are a partner gets involved in a relationship with a larger umbrellagroup

The process may be planned or moreopportunistic.Whatever thecircumstances, you may find yourselfcontemplating whether to establish acloser working relationship with otherorganisations or groups. It is importantto think through the risks and benefitsof this at the earliest opportunity, sothat you make the right decision.

iFurther informationTheory of Partnerships

Much has been written about different types ofpartnerships, why they form, how they differ andmodels of development. If you are interested tolearn more about this, some suggested readingcan be found in Section 6.

Is partnership workingappropriate for yourorganisation?There are three sets of issues thatyou might consider when thinkingabout partnership:

Benefits – what will yourorganisation (or project) get out ofthe relationship? What can you offerthat will provide benefits to others?Will the arrangement provide some‘added value’ that is not otherwiseavailable ?

Costs – what are the ‘transactioncosts’ of the process of working withothers? What is the timecommitment that will be required?Are there any financial costs?

Risks – will working with otherspresent new risks? Will it reduceexisting risks?

A more detailed set of questions isprovided in the checklist at the end ofthis section, to help you consider this.These issues need to be weighedagainst each other in relation to theparticular opportunity that you arefaced with. Partnership working is notalways appropriate in every situation.Even where it is appropriate, thereare different ways that organisationscan be involved (see Challenge 1:3).

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CHOOSING TO WORK IN PARTNERSHIP

So, with these issues in mind:

● Your organisation’s involvement inany partnership should be carefully considered by your management team…is there a case for it?

● You need to weigh the opportunities of involvement against the costs and risks

● Appropriate resources should be identified (whether cash or time),allocated to partnership working and ring fenced – if you are going to do it, do it right!

You should also remember thatorganisations can work together atdifferent levels – perhaps on a projector perhaps at a strategic level. Onepartnership may in fact consist ofpartnership working at several levelsand between different organisations.

Should you as anindividual be involved?You personally may be asked – orexpected – to represent yourorganisation within a partnership. Forsome people this is an intrinsic partof their role, for others it is an excitingnew opportunity, and for some anadditional and unwanted burden.Thepersonal circumstances andmotivations of partners have animpact upon the nature ofpartnership working and what can beachieved.

Therefore, you need to consider:

Do you have the time? Meetings can be frequent(particularly in the early stages) andmay be held out of normal workinghours

Do you have the commitmentto attend meetings? If you don’t then by not saying so you could be preventing someone from contributing who does

Do you have the necessary skills and the confidence? If you feel you don’t, other partnersmay face the same dilemma,partnership training sessions couldthen be valuable for a range ofreasons

These practical considerations aside,it is worth spending some timethinking what you personally wantout of your involvement. Careeradvancement, developing a widernetwork, developing new skills or re-invigorating your working life are allcommon personal reasons.

If you can articulate what you wantfrom the experience, then you willknow whether or not you are gettingthere and, if not, you are betterplaced to do something about it.

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Challenge 1:2Who should our partners be?Partners often get involved in a rangeof planned, and unplanned ways:

● Partners are invited to join a core group

● Those who turn up to initial meetings become core members

● Partners may demand to be involved

● Partners may be courted by influential figures to gain their involvement

However, at some point in theirdevelopment, partnerships need toformally review their composition toensure that the right partners areinvolved, and involved in anappropriate way. For example, if keyorganisations are missing fromaround the table, achieving yourobjectives may be much harder, oreven impossible.

Which organisationsand groups should beinvolved?There are no hard and fast rules onwho should be involved in differenttypes of initiatives or projects.However, it is useful to consider whyorganisations should be involved.There are broadly three differentroles that organisations can play in apartnership:

● Key decision-makers – these are the organisations that are centrallyinvolved in decision making about strategies and spending

● Consultees – these are the organisations who need consulting for their advice or views but who do not need to be centrally involved in all decision-making

● Informed parties – these are other observers or interested organisations who should be kept informed but who are unlikely to have strong views about the decisions being made

Organisations may change roles overtime as the partnership and itsprojects evolve.The challenge is todecide which organisations should beencouraged/invited to play whichroles. Some organisations may behappier as consultees rather thancore decision-makers. Similarly, sometraditional consultees may perhaps beready to be considered as decisionmakers. How do you decide?

The following ideas should help.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLES 1:2

Who should our partners be?

HEALTH The Stirling Health and Wellbeing Alliance whichmanages the new Health Hub in Stirling hasdrawn on the experience and support of a rangeof partners. The key public sector partners are thelocal Council in Stirling, which provides a directlink to the wider Stirling Partnership for UrbanRegeneration and the Forth Valley Health Boardand Forth Valley NHS Primary Care Trust. Theseorganisations provide both funding as well asknowledge of, and influence over, other localhealth provision. There is also a private sectorrepresentative and five local residents, somerepresenting local community groups. These peopleoffer local knowledge and experience, as well as away of ‘grounding’ the development of the Hub inthe local community.

EDUCATIONThe Peterborough Early Years Development andChild Care Partnership (EYDCP) has beenoperating in its current form since 1998. It hasbeen led by the City Council and has receivedNOF funding to create a large number of newchildcare places. Partners include severaldepartments of the Council (education, socialservices and early years/child care team) andrepresentatives of the private, voluntary andpublic sector providers of child care services,including nurseries, play groups and day centres.Cont. p.12

SECTION 1

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12

1. Make a long list of the stakeholders in your proposed initiative…this comprises all those organisations with some interest or involvement in the initiative. Most may be obvious to you, some may not. Consider:

● Funders or potential funders

● Statutory providers

● Other providers

● Community and voluntary groups

● Expert groups and advisory organisations

● Groups or organisations likely to be affected by the outcomes of the proposed initiative

2.Consider where each of the above organisations belongs in the Power –Interest matrix below. Power relates to how much influence an organisationcan bring to the partnership to help it achieve its objectives. Influence could beeffected through funding, statutory regulation or other forms of more informallobbying or persuasion. Interest relates to how much of a stake or concern anorganisation or group may have in the outcomes being worked towards.

INTERESTLOW HIGH

LOW A.Non-partners B.Those to keep informed

HIGH C.Consultees D.Key decision makers

There may also be other factors to take into account in agreeing who the keypartners should be. Some organisations may have particular skills, knowledgeand expertise relevant to the work which the partnership is seeking to pursuewhich may be valuable. Other organisations may feel as though they ought tobe involved because of who they are, or what they have done in the past.These possibilities should be considered carefully.


SECTION 1PO

WER


Cont. from p.11

ENVIRONMENTThe Mersey Valley Partnership is currently led by aSteering Committee comprising nine organisations.There are three public sector organisations (theCountryside Agency and the two local authorities),three voluntary sector organisations (theWoodland Trust, the Country LandownersAssociation and the Mersey Basin Campaign) andthree local private sector organisations, twocompanies and an institute. All organisations haveone member on the Steering Committee, exceptthe local authorities, who are each represented bythree local councillors. The Committee also workswith a range of other organisations on a projectby project basis.

What about existingpartnerships?

The Hamilton Oxford Schools Partnership was setup largely to devise and deliver a range of out ofschool hours learning programmes across 10schools. Its members are actually largely drawnfrom an existing educational partnership leadingthe city’s Education Action Zone. The newpartnership is effectively an extension anddevelopment of the existing partnership, andmany of their activities are integrated. Such anarrangement makes good use of an existingpartnership and prevents unnecessary duplication.However, it is also important to ensure that eachpartner is clear about its role and responsibilitiesin each partnership.

c

iFurther informationChoosing partners

See Section 4 for further information on theevaluation of partnerships, including reviewingpartners. Other tools and methods also exist tohelp you think about who to work with; some ofthe publications listed in Section 6 include these.If you are applying to the New OpportunitiesFund for a grant, the application guidance mayalso suggest some organisations that you maywant to contact.

If you are setting up a new partnership, it canoften be helpful to talk to a similar existingpartnership in your area about what they have done.

Ultimately, the process of agreeingwho should be partners is one ofdiscussion and negotiation.The endresult needs to be sustainable andworkable in practice.

The important point is that noteveryone who is interested needs tobe involved as a key player.Also, noteveryone who is powerful orinfluential necessarily needs to beencouraged to become a key player.

The word ‘partner’ is often usedinterchangeably in many situations toimply many different types of roles.

The terminology that you use,however, should not obscure the factthat each organisation that is involvedshould have its own clearlydifferentiated role.These may differbetween organisations.

What about existingpartnerships?Since the early 1990s, the number ofpartnerships has proliferatedsignificantly in all parts of the UK.Theyare now seen as a key tool, at alllevels, from national to regional tolocal. Many organisations may be partof several partnerships. However, anincreasingly heard complaint is that of‘partnership fatigue’, as moredemands for partnership working areplaced on organisations. In someareas, there can be what seems like abewildering network of partnershipscovering overlapping areas andworking towards different(or overlapping) objectives.

In considering partnership, you maywish to ascertain whether there isalready an appropriate partnership inexistence which you should makecontact with, or even join.At the veryleast, you should be aware of anypartnerships covering your area thatmay have a bearing on your proposedinitiative. Many produce strategiesthat may be of relevance to youractivities. It is in everyone’s interestsfor new initiatives to dovetail withestablished ones where practical. Itcan also help to improve theeffectiveness of new investments inan area, where it works with the grainof other investments alreadyprogrammed there.

To help you think about who youmight need to approach and discussyour initiative with, we have describedsome of the existing networks ofpartnerships funded by Governmenton pages 14 to 16.The list is notexhaustive and will change over time.There will also be many partnershipsin your area not funded byGovernment that may be unique toyour area or region.The list isintended simply as a starting point tohelp you identify any relevantpartnerships. Most partnerships willbe happy to explain their activities toyou and signpost you on to otherorganisations that may be morerelevant. Community and voluntarysector groups may be able to getadvice from a local CVS or similarorganisation (see Section 2:2 for a listof contacts).

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SECTION 1

14


A summary of some Government funded partnerships in the UK

Type of Partnership Description Government sponsor

ENGLAND

Local Strategic Every local authority in England has been invited to DTLRPartnerships establish a broadly based partnership to cover each local

authority area, including all sectors.Their tasks will include preparing a Community Plan and, for some, a Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy.

Single Regeneration Multi-sector regeneration partnerships, often focused DTLRBudget Partnerships on small areas of deprivation, delivering time-limited

programmes.

New Deal for Community 39 community-led regeneration partnerships focused on DTLRPartnerships some of England’s most deprived neighbourhoods.

Delivering 10 year programmes of comprehensive renewal.

Sure Start Partnerships A network of local partnerships seeking to promote the DWPwell-being of families and pre-school children.

Health Action Zones Strategic partnerships covering relatively large areas, DoHtackling health inequalities, led by Health Authorities.

Education Action Zones Strategic partnerships covering a number of schools, DFESproviding additional funding and support to those schools, to raise attainment

Early Years Development and Partnerships covering local authority areas, involving a DFESChildcare Partnerships wide range of organisations involved in providing

childcare and pre-school development opportunities.

Connexions Local authority-led partnerships seeking to promote DFESinformation, advice and guidance services for young people.

Sport Action Zones Local partnerships, funded through Sport England, DCMSto enhance sporting opportunities, particularly in deprived areas

Crime & Disorder Partnerships Partnerships at local authority level, including the DTLR/Home Police and the Probation Service, to tackle Officecrime and promote community safety.

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SECTION 1

A summary of some Government funded partnerships in the UK.(cont.)


SCOTLAND

Social Inclusion Multi-sector regeneration Scottish ExecutivePartnerships partnerships, often focused

on small areas of deprivation,delivering time-limited programmes.Also includes a small number of thematic partnerships.

Community Planning Local Authority led strategic Scottish ExecutivePartnerships planning mechanisms,often with

a focus on excluded client groups and areas.

Adult Guidance Local partnerships to promote Scottish ExecutiveNetworks guidance services and raise

quality of provision.

Pathfinder Initiatives Short-term Executive funded Scottish Executiveposts to explore decentralised and customer focused service delivery in excluded areas.

Childcare Partnerships Voluntary sector led initiatives Scottish Executive to raise the volume and quality of childcare.

Initiative at the Edge Supports remote and fragile Scottish Executivecommunities by influencing service delivery – a time-limited initiative.

A summary of some Government funded partnerships in the UK.(cont.)


WALES

Education Action Zones, These broadly work as they do National Assembly Health Action Zones, in England, but operated for WalesSure Start, Connexions, through the Welsh Assembly.EU Objective 1 & 2Partnerships, Early YearsDevelopment and Childcare Partnerships

People in Community A programme that seeks to involve local people, National Assembly Programme working in partnership withpublic agencies, for Wales

to tackle social disadvantage in local deprived areas.

Communities First A new regeneration programme to address the National Assemblychallenges in Wales’ 100 most deprived for Walescommunities.

Regeneration Usually set up if WDA is carrying out Welsh Developmentpartnerships regeneration activity and involving local Agency

authorities and other public, private and voluntary sector partners.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Local Strategic At the local authority level, Local Strategic Northern Ireland Partnerships & Partnerships are evolving, with broad responsibilities Executiveneighbourhood for promoting social, economic and environmental renewal structures improvements. Structures at neighbourhood level in

some deprived areas will be developed.

16


Challenge 1:3How do weestablish workingrelationships?Some partnerships consist oforganisations and people who haveworked together for years. Othersconsist of organisations perhapsmaking meaningful contact for thefirst time. For the latter group, firstimpressions do count, and the waythat you approach others will beimportant, especially if they are notyet committed to working with you.This section offers some suggestionson how you might go about this.

Establishingconstructive workingrelationshipsIn approaching other groups andorganisations to establish workingrelationships, there are three helpfultips that are especially important inthe early stages:

Be clear about what you want Most people are busy. It helps to havea clear idea of what it is that you wantfrom the other organisation. Makesure that you communicate this tothem as succinctly as possible.

Speak to the right peopleFinding the right person to speak toand to involve is crucial.They shouldbe someone whose remit or jobcovers the area or issue that you areinterested in, and who has someinfluence or seniority in theorganisation. It may take several callsor even meetings to find the rightperson. Face to face meetings canhelp to emphasise your seriousnessand build relationships and trust.An informal approach is better at first,before making formal proposals.

Try to understand whatthey want It helps to have an understanding ofthe constraints and priorities of theother organisation. If you are notfamiliar with them, you may want todo some informal research into whattheir aims and priorities are.Are youable to offer them some benefits or opportunities? Partnerships shouldbe ‘win-win’ situations.

In developing a longer termrelationship with other organisationsthere are three further factors tobear in mind.These are consistentlycited by existing partnerships as‘lessons learnt’…

…partnerships are aboutpeople, first and foremost.The mosteffective partnerships are often thosethat consist of committed, hardworking people who communicateand work well with each other.Thequality of relationships betweenindividuals is crucial.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE 1:3

Establishing constructive workingrelationships

Help the Aged, a national charity, have operated aSeniorLink service for some years, providingemergency call assistance for elderly people athome. This provides them with greaterindependence in being able to live at home, andalso provides peace of mind. They becameinterested in expanding the use of such a serviceto benefit people suffering a terminal illness andwho wished to spend their final days at home butwere concerned about being able to access helpquickly should they need it.

Help the Aged believed that the use of SeniorLinkhad an important role to play in such palliativecare and began by developing a business plan toexplore how such a service could be developed.Various options were explored but it quicklybecame clear that they would need help inmaking contact with the individual patients whomight benefit from such a service. Help the Agedknew that they did not have the necessaryregional and local networks to be able to do thisalone. Hence, the charity began to look for apartner who could provide the access and links tocancer patients.

After a number of contacts and discussionsMacmillan Cancer Care agreed to be the nationalpartner for this project. They are able to provideaccess to a national network of Macmillan Nursesand hospices dealing with terminally ill cancerpatients. This provides a mechanism throughwhich the SeniorLink service can be made knownand used. The project is now being driven by aproject co-ordinator employed by Help the Aged.Cont. p.18

17

SECTION 1

c

Nowhere is this more important thanin the first stages of partnershipdevelopment when organisationsseek to establish new or differentarrangements.Always make sure thatnewcomers and new colleagues areproperly introduced and briefedabout the partnership and who theywill be working with. First impressionscount.

…trust and respect are central toeffective partnerships. If the corepartners do not regard each other as‘equals’ or as reliable partners, it maybe very difficult to work together.Thiscan often be a problem forcommunity and voluntary groupstrying to work with statutory orprivate organisations. Organisationsthat are seeking to work acrosssectors or with new organisationsmay find that they have unhelpful‘stereotypical’ views of each other.These obstacles will need to beaddressed, if trust is to be establishedand built up.

…building relationships takes time.Many of today’s most successfulpartnerships have taken years toevolve and develop. Sometimes,organisations can have completelydifferent working cultures and soinitial contact can sometimesproduce a ‘bumpy ride’ for both sides.Some friction is almost inevitable.However, people and organisationscan, and do, change; this is one of themain rewards of partnership working.If your organisation encountersproblems working with others, try tobe patient and give it time.

Section 2 offers some ideas abouthow you might go on to activelydevelop a new set of relationshipsand build the capacity of partners,especially those for whom this kind ofpartnership working perhapsrepresents something of a culturechange. For some partnerships, itmay be appropriate to undertakesuch activities at an earlier stage.

Who should representan organisation? Consider carefully which individualsare involved in the partnership.Youneed to get someone with sufficientauthority to be able to take decisionson the behalf of their organisation,and whose responsibilities overlapthose of the aims of the partnership.The chief executive of anorganisation is not necessarily themost appropriate person; there maywell be others.

More junior members of anorganisation may be well intentionedbut may just not have enoughinfluence to ‘get things done’. If theyare involved, arrangements should bein place to ensure that the seniordecision-makers from theirorganisation are properly engaged.

18



Establishing constructive workingrelationships. Cont. from p.17

The partnership between Help the Aged andMacmillan is project-specific and only informal,but it has provided benefits to both partners andto the people each of them is trying to serve. Theprocess of finding and working with a partner wasbuilt upon several principles:

1. Help the Aged had clearly defined their requirements for this project…they knew what role they were looking for a partner to fulfil.

2. They had decided to look for a partner with similar values and outlook.

3. Help the Aged had also made efforts to put themselves ‘in their partner’s shoes’and understand what Macmillan would want and perhaps be concerned about in such an arrangement. This appreciation of the costs and benefits as seen from the ‘other side’ was an important factor in helping persuade Macmillan to participate and also ensure that the project would meet their needs also – a ‘win-win’ project.

4. The partners met several times to discuss the proposed project and to ensure that the appropriate people from each organisation were involved.

Challenge 1:4Involving thevoluntary andcommunity sectorsThe voluntary and community sectorsinclude a large,diverse and rich array ofgroups and organisations throughoutthe UK.They have a lot to offer in termsof skills,expertise and experience.However,many groups may be smalland not well resourced,and may find itdifficult to get involved in partnershipsor projects.The New OpportunitiesFund is committed to promoting theinvolvement of such people and groupsin appropriate ways.

This section offers some suggestionsabout how this might be achieved inthe early stages of a partnership’sdevelopment. It should be of interestboth to voluntary and communitygroups themselves,as well asorganisations in other sectors whoseapproach can affect the ability ofsmaller groups to be active partners.The effective involvement of voluntaryand community groups requirescommitment and willingness from boththe groups themselves and also theother public and private partners.

Involving thevoluntary sectorThe voluntary sector consists of adiverse range of organisations fromlarge well established nationalorganisations to small groups ofvolunteers working at aneighbourhood level.

Voluntary organisations often providevaluable services, are ‘not for profit’,and are often an important source ofinnovation.

Emerging partnerships shouldrecognise the opportunities thatrelevant voluntary organisations mayplay; indeed, some partnerships may beled by the voluntary sector.Whilst largeorganisations need no special support,the challenge for partnerships withrespect to the voluntary sector is infinding ways to work with the smaller,less well resourced groups.

The next part of this section –‘involving local communities’ – may wellbe relevant to some voluntary groupsalso. It considers how individuals andgroups can be involved in partnerships.For small groups, the challenges ofcommunity and voluntary sectors areoften very similar.

Nevertheless, voluntary groups mayalso have more specialist needs – legal,financial, etc.Much information andadvice already exists for voluntarygroups on this, and there is not spaceto reproduce it here.The FurtherInformation box in Challenge 2:2therefore gives details of some of theorganisations from which furtheradvice can be sought if wished.

The case study examples in thissection also describe the way that twopartnerships have sought to involvelocal voluntary groups (and others) asproviders.


Involving voluntary groups

EXAMPLE 1 - PETERBOROUGHThe development of childcare provision acrossPeterborough has involved significant partnershipworking between the City Council and a host ofsmall providers, many from the voluntary sector,but also from the private and public sectors. Infact, the needs of many small groups is often thesame, regardless of their sector, particularly if theyare new. The Partnership has developed acomprehensive approach to identifying, supportingand working with new providers of childcareplaces. The approach has four key features:

● A dedicated and responsive team – childcareco-ordinators are open to approaches from anyorganisation or individual wanting to discuss thepossibility of providing new services. They meetprospective providers and discuss what the providermay be able to offer and what would be expectedof them in return. Face to face advice and supportis available to individuals and groups

● A rigorous process – if prospective providerswish to pursue an opportunity, they are required toundertake a rigorous assessment of the childcareneeds they are seeking to fulfil and their approachto doing so. This involves assessing the nature andscale of the local need, working up a business plan,and meeting stakeholders (e.g. a school, socialservices, parents, etc.) in the area to consider thebusiness plan and any issues that arise in it. Onlythen are prospective providers encouraged andassisted to make an application for funding

● A manual - the Partnership has also developed aguidance manual for new childcare providers, called"The Success Pack". This contains guidance on thedesign of activities, advice on procedures, legalrequirements and financial management, marketing,managing premises and recruitment.With respect toCont. p.2019

SECTION 1

c

Involving localcommunities – does itmatter?The process of involving localcommunities is an important one. Itmeans involving those people wholive in your area, and who are likely tobe the main beneficiaries of yourpartnership and its activities.You maybe trying to target particular sectionsof the community (for example,young people) or particularneighbourhoods or even users of aparticular service or facility.

The process of getting community(or ‘user’ or ‘client’) involvement, andgenerating consensual agreement isnot straightforward for a number ofreasons:

● The community often does not speak with one voice, within any community or client group there will be differences of opinion – sometimes saying conflicting things

● Partnerships are tackling difficult issues – if there was a straightforward way to address problems it would probably have been done already

● Individuals and groups may not be used to being involved in formal partnerships and may not feel that they have the confidence or skills to do so effectively

● There is a danger of actual or perceived ‘token’ involvement if representation on a Board or management group is not backed up in any way

20


● Time constraints often mean that projects start, and money gets spent before communities have been involved in any meaningful way

However,despite the difficulties, it isimportant and worthwhile to involvethe community.There are numerousadvantages:

● Community groups often know local problems best – and an accurate diagnosis of the problem provides a sound basis for planning remedies

● Creative thinking can often come from groups whose minds are not constrained by thoughts of funding regimes,organisational structures and policy directives

● Solutions which are accepted and supported by community / client groups are more likely to be sustainable

● Local people and client groups represent an immense resource of time,energy, know how and commitment

Many studies of regeneration initiativesin particular have regularly highlightedthe importance of local communitiesbeing actively involved in developingstrategies and projects that affect them.

Issues of community or client groupinvolvement in partnerships areextremely complex and vary from oneinterest group to another.The NewOpportunities Fund is keen to ensurethat partnerships do involve those theyare seeking to support.This can best beensured if the partnership develops aclear strategy for communityinvolvement at an early stage.


Involving voluntary groupsCont. from p.19

the latter, the Pack provides model job descriptions,example job adverts, etc. The Pack has proved verypopular with users and is very practical

● A network – the existence of the wider EYDCpartnership provides a local network throughwhich advice, experience and support is usuallyavailable. Good practice can be identified anddisseminated and difficult questions fed throughto those who can help.

EXAMPLE 2 - WIGANA slightly different approach to involving voluntary(and private sector) groups has been developed bythe Early Years Development and ChildcarePartnership in Wigan.When developing a new bidfor childcare funding, the Wigan MBC Early Years &Child Care (EYCC) Team use an open process tofind service providers. Their consortium bids todate have included up to five providers at a time.In order to secure the involvement of childcareproviders, and also stimulate the creation andgrowth of such providers,Wigan EYCC Team holdperiodic ‘open workshops’ to which potentialproviders are invited. The purpose of theworkshops are:● To inform providers about funding

opportunities● To provide advice about developing

project proposals● To put providers in touch with each other● To highlight the support and advice

available from the Team and also others

Workshops are limited in size, to prevent themfrom being too intimidating. Invitees includerepresentatives from the private, voluntary andpublic sectors. They are about two hours long.They also serve as an opportunity to introducegroups to support and advice available, includingfrom the EYCC Team, the Social Services regulationand inspection team and the local Council forVoluntary Services. Cont. p.21

Degrees ofinvolvementCommunity or client involvement inpartnership can take a range offorms. Often this range is referred toas "the ladder of participation".Thefurther along the ladder you progress,the more involved the communitybecomes in the partnership’sdecision-making.What level isappropriate for your partnership?

The ladder below will help youdecide.

You should also consider whether thenature of community involvementshould change over time as thepartnership and its tasks develop.Should the community have the samerole in each stage?

Involving communities is a complextask.The solutions will vary betweenpartnerships, but effectiveinvolvement is possible.

21

SECTION 1

What it means How its done

Information Passing on information Newsletters, press releases,about what the partnership open meetings, displays.plans to do to those whom it will affect.

Consultation Seeking views which can be Questionnaire survey,considered by the partnership consultation document.when planning strategy or service delivery.

Involvement Occasional involvement in Sub groups or special partnership’s decision "task forces", Planning for making process. Real events, citizens panels.

Participation Full involvement in the Membership with strategy, planning and delivery appropriate voting rights aspects of the of the partnership’spartnership’s work. decision making

forum/group.


Involving voluntary groupsCont. from p.20

For those groups that are still interested infollowing the workshop, support is given indeveloping a business plan and cashflow. Thedevelopment worker discusses the requirementswith the group and provides half a day of time(one working session) for each of the businessplan and cash flow.

Once funding is approved, the Team also providesongoing advice to providers during delivery. At thestart of the process, a development worker visitsthe provider to explain the management andmonitoring requirements and to give them the‘monitoring and evaluation pack’.

Small community and voluntary groups also oftenneed funds in advance of expenditure, as they donot have the cash reserves to undertakesignificant expenditure, with repayments inarrears.Wigan Council have agreed to provideadvance payments to some groups as theirsolution to this problem. This approach doesrequire careful monitoring by the organisationproviding the funding, to ensure that expenditureis appropriate.

The key points of Wigan’s approach are:● Holding an open workshop where

information can be provided and face to face discussions held with individuals and groups

● Providing hands-on support in developing a business plan and cash flow

● Providing face to face advice and a ‘start up’ pack when funding is approved

● Providing funding ‘in advance of need’,rather than in arrears

CommunityInvolvement StrategiesAt an early stage in your partnership’sdevelopment, it may be helpful toestablish a simple strategy for whatyou are trying to achieve.The strategycould involve the followingconsiderations:

Who should be involved?The term ‘community’ can mean different things.Which geographicalarea does it cover? Do you wish toinvolve residents of an area? These arethe individuals and households thatare the ultimate beneficiaries of your activities.They may offer a widerange of views.Are there perhapsparticular sections of the communitythat you wish to communicate with(e.g. young people,minority ethnic communities, the unemployed)? Or are there organised community(and voluntary) groups who areactive? These groups may have a lot tooffer but may not be representative ofthe whole community.

What are the aims of involving the community?Be clear about why the communityshould be involved.What are theybeing expected to bring to thepartnership?

How much involvement is appropriate? Following directly on from the previous question, is the issue of whatrole the community should play.Arethey being consulted on specific issueson a one-off basis, or are they to bepartners over the longer term? Bothare egitimate roles, but which onesare appropriate for your partnership?

Remember that roles can change overtime. Involvement may take time tobuild up.

At what stages should they beinvolved?With respect to your partnership andproject – what tasks should thecommunity be involved in? All or onlysome? Is there a timetable for this? Ifyou are developing a project to besubmitted for funding, can thecommunity be involved in itsdevelopment?

How will the involvement be achieved?Define what approaches andmethods you can use to communicate with, and involve, localpeople and/or groups.How will youmake first contact with people? Whatinformation should they be given? Willtranslations into other languages apartfrom English be necessary? Is anytraining or capacity building necessary? Many examples of techniques and good practice exist, and some are described in Section 2 of this guide.

Taking communities for granted orignoring them can lead to cynicismand distrust. If local communities areto be involved in partnerships, theymust be given time and support to doso. Be realistic.Communityinvolvement takes time. If you aredeveloping a project and have notinvolved the community to date, youmight think about whether it is betterto delay the funding application until acommunity involvement strategy is inplace. Some further suggestions (andsources of further information) onhow to involve communities inpartnerships is offered in Section 2

22


iFurther informationSupport for voluntary groups

Some of the organisations that can provide adviceand support to groups are listed in the FurtherInformation box in Challenge 2:2.

23

SELF EVALUATION CHECKLIST

Section 1Choosing to work in partnershipThe purpose of this checklist is to help you consider whether partnership working is appropriate.

You may wish to photocopy this page and use it with your partners.You can of course also adapt the form if you wishto suit your own circumstances.An electronic version of the form is available to download on the New OpportunitiesFund website at www.nof.org.uk

It may be helpful at an early stage to consider the factors below when contemplating a new venture or new workingrelationships.Try to be specific about the project, opportunity or goals for which such working is being considered. Usethe form, and discuss the issues, with your potential partners.

Possible benefits include: ✔ Comment on significance

Securing additional resources for your organisationor a project

Improving your ability to identify needs and plan for the future

Developing your organisation’s skills and capability

Expanding the scale of your capacity to deliver

Improving the co-ordination and quality of services ‘on the ground’ – making them more joined up

Creating new ideas and services through collaborative thinking and doing

Making strategies and services more responsive to community/user experiences and views

Improving long term sustainability of services

Possible costs include both time and cash costs:

Administration of meetings and decision-making processes

Your organisation’s input/investment into research,strategy development or projects

More extensive consultation processes

Possible risks include:

The level of commitment to the partnership may not be clear at the outset

You may lose some autonomy

Some of the partners may not deliver their contribution

Your new alliance may mean that you are viewed differently by some organisations

It may pull your organisation in new policy directions

2This Section is for organisations who are setting up new partnerships or new workingarrangements with others.You may be looking to the New Opportunities Fund forsupport for a particular project.What is the best way to structure your partnership?How should you work together?


Challenge 2:1 Defining roles and responsibilities 25

Challenge 2:2 Establishing an appropriate structure 29

Challenge 2:3 Establishing common goals 31

Challenge 2:4 Building the capacity of partners 32

Challenge 2:5 How to involve communities in the partnership 33


Setting up-the early stages

24

The previous section noted thatpartnerships may come together as astrategically planned response to aparticular issue, or they may emergefrom a rather more haphazard andopportunistic process. Either way, theearly phases of development will setboth a pattern of behaviour and thedirection of activities for subsequentmonths and years.

This section focuses on the structureand ways of working adopted by thepartnership – issues more relevant tothe ‘setting up’ stage of a partnership.The next section looks at issues ofparticular relevance to howpartnerships deliver. In practice ofcourse, the development of apartnership may be such that you areworking out internal systems andstructures at the same time asactually delivering projects.Thus,Sections 2 and 3 may not necessarilyfollow each other in chronologicalorder!

A period ofopportunity and riskEarly phases of partnershipdevelopment can be very interesting,even exciting, times for thoseinvolved. Involvement in the earlyphases throws up a number ofopportunities.You can:

● Build new working relationships

● Contribute to decisions regarding the purpose of the partnership and possibly, how to spend significant "unallocated" resources

● Reinvigorate local governance

● Change the way key stakeholders think, take decisions or do business

But there are also risks. For example:

● Enthusiasm at new relations and opportunities can disguise intrinsicand fundamental differences

● Over-reliance on bi-partisan relationships with the lead partnercan underplay differences between other partners

● Partners may be reluctant to raise misgivings or problems early on for fear of damaging potential relationships

Therefore, in the early stages it isimportant for your partnership to seta number of priorities associated withdeveloping relationships and mutualunderstanding, as well as planningactions. These challenges include:

● Defining roles and responsibilities

● Establishing a workable structure

● Establishing a clear focus

● Building the capacity of key partners to get involved

Each of these is addressed in thissection.A comprehensive checklist ofissues to consider at this stage in yourpartnership’s development isincluded at the end of this section.

How to proceedPartnerships should make time intheir early stages to think about theissues identified in this section.Suggestions for how to proceedinclude:

PlanIt is often helpful to establish a ‘timeplan’ to define what tasks needto be done, and when.The checklistat the end of this section may help todo this.

Meet and discussAllocate time for partners to meettogether.This may require severalmeetings, perhaps including an ‘awayday’ event.An external facilitator mayhelp you think through issues.Partners may need to get to knoweach other, as well as discuss issuesand make decisions. Being sociable isan important part of partnership building.

Build capacityPartner organisations and individualrepresentatives may need somesupport or training. This should be‘designed in’ to the setting up process.

The process of deciding on roles,responsibilities and structures needsto include all the key partners.Thedecisions made will have animportant impact on how decisionsare made in future and who haspower and influence in thepartnership.

SECTION 2

A typical partnership arrangementmight have three levels orcomponents:

(1) A decision-making component This could be a Board orManagement Committee forexample, and is the executive decision-making part of the partnership. It makes the final decisions, but is unlikely to beinvolved in the day to day management of projects or activities;

(2) A management componentThis could be a single person or organisation or a team of people or organisations who are responsiblefor implementing and managing thepartnership’s activities from day today; and

(3) A consultation/advisory component This could be committees, sub-committees, fora and/or a citizen’s panel, whose role is to think,advise and offer feedback to the partnership.They may or may not be a formal part of the partnership. Ifthey are, they may have somedelegated responsibilities.

Some examples of differentpartnership arrangements are shownin the case studies. Each of the abovethree components are discussed inmore detail below.

25

SECTION 2

Challenge 2:1Defining roles andresponsibilitiesPartnership arrangements varyconsiderably.A publication of this sizecannot cover every possible variation.However, within most partnerships itis possible to identify similar types ofroles that organisations can play.Thechallenge is to agree which partnersshould play which roles and to agreea workable division of responsibilities.The next Challenge (2:2) looks inmore detail at the legal and moreformal dimensions of partnerships,but in this section we take a look atroles and responsibilities.

At the outset, it is important toacknowledge that not all partners willhave, or feel that they have, equalweight or power in decision-makingprocesses.When deciding upon rolesand responsibilities therefore, it willhelp for all partners to be honestabout this issue and take it intoaccount.The final decision on whatrole each organisation has should beagreed by all partners and shouldseek to provide for a reasonablebalance of power between partners.


Partnership arrangements

STIRLING HEALTH & WELLBEINGALLIANCEThe new Health Hub in Stirling will be owned,managed and operated by the Stirling Health andWellbeing Alliance, which is a company limited byguarantee. The Alliance is working in partnershipwith Stirling Council, Forth Valley Primary CareNHS Trust and Forth Valley Health Board, togetherwith local residents in seven regeneration areas inStirling where the services of the new Health Hubare being targeted. The Alliance is led by aManagement Committee on which all partners arerepresented. It is currently chaired by a localresident, and has half of its membership drawnfrom the local community. The Alliance employs afull time Director and will be employing furtherstaff to manage and operate the Hub.

The offices of Chair, Treasurer and Secretary forthe Alliance are held by representatives of thecommunity or voluntary sectors, which helps toemphasise the local ‘ownership’ of the Health Hub.The other partners on the ManagementCommittee have provided advice and support toresidents to assist them in their roles, wherenecessary.

The Alliance is developing plans to involve localresidents further in decision-making through thedevelopment of local community committees.These will allow residents to feed into how theAlliance and the Health Hub operates. Cont.p.26

c

Some tips gleaned from experienceinclude the following:

● The inclusion of more than around 12 partners on a partnership Board generally can create an unwieldy structure with the potential for difficult or possibly counter-productive meetings

● The chair of the partnership Board does not necessarily have to come from the lead partner, if the role is highly sensitive a systemof "rolling chairs" can be introduced.You may want to review the Chair each year as a matter of course

● Check whether Board representatives need to have theirdecisions ratified by their own organisations before they can be considered ‘binding’

● Partners on the board should keep their long term objectives firmly in mind and concentrate onstrategic issues

● Most boards/committees proceedon a consensual basis…only the most controversial decisions should require votes

● Avoid making ‘corridor decisions’– decisions by a small group of people ‘in the corridor’ before meetings. Important decisions should be made collectively and inclusively in Board meetings

● The role of a Board member is primarily to further the interests of the partnership as a whole,pursuing its collective vision, not just the interest of that person’s partner organisation

26

(1)The Decision-Making ComponentAlthough decisions are taken at alllevels of partnerships, this is thegroup or body whose role is takeultimate responsibility for thepartnership and its activities.The tasksof this body – often called the Boardor Management Committee – couldinclude:

● Agreeing the vision, aims and objectives of the partnership

● Agreeing the constitution / memorandum of association or similar

● Formulating policies and strategies

● Giving final approval for expenditure on activities

● Providing oversight and steering for the day to day management function

● Ensuring that management,monitoring and financial systems are in place and are adequate to meet audit and accountability requirements

● Reviewing progress at regular intervals

Particular issues to consider includethe size of the group, who should berepresented upon it and defining aclear role for the group, and clearresponsibilities for individualmembers.

SETTING UP – THE EARLY STAGES


Partnership arrangementsCont.from p.25

CAPACITY, BIRMINGHAMThe CAPACITY Partnership in Birmingham isfocused on developing new palliative care servicesthat will benefit people suffering from cancer. ThePartnership is run by a steering group that meetsquarterly and makes the key decisions, and aworking group that meets monthly and ensuresthat activities are being managed effectively.There are 18 partners including the UniversityHospital Palliative Care Service, a HousingAssociation, voluntary sector-run hospices, aChinese community centre, five NHS Primary CareGroups, several Acute Trusts, Birmingham CityCouncil and an NHS GP practice.

They also set up time-limited task focused sub-groups from time to time to explore and addressparticular issues that the main decision-makinggroups do not have time to consider fully. Other‘experts’ from outside the Partnership are oftenco-opted onto these groups as well to add totheir experience and skills.

The Partnership is not formally and legallyconstituted, and financial and contractual issuesare either dealt with by the lead partner (theHospital) or whichever partner is most relevant.The roles and expectations of some partners havebeen defined through the use of service levelagreements (SLAs) with the lead partner.

The Partnership recently appointed a full timeProject Manager. This appointment wasdeliberately delayed for several months until thePartnership had been set up and its aims andobjectives had been clearly defined. This ensuredthat an appropriate job profile was agreed beforethe appointment was made.Cont.p.27

27

(2) The ManagementComponent The management team or secretariatalso works in partnership but at anoperational level. Its role is toimplement the decisions of the Board/ decision-making body.Typical tasksinclude:

● Day to day management or co-ordination of projects and activities

● Contracting with delivery organisations and providers

● Operating financial systems and maintaining records

● Monitoring activities

● Line management of any partnership staff

● Undertaking research and compiling reports to the Board / decision-making group

Key points to consider include:

The management function should be independent Its role is to implement the wishes ofthe Board / decision-making group,not to pursue its own agenda.This isparticularly important where the management function consists ofpeople employed by one of thepartners, or is perhaps located withinthe offices of a partner. Problems cansometimes arise if there is even aperception of bias, and should beaddressed as early as possible. Theseissues are unlikely to arise where the partnership has established itself as a limited company or other legalbody.

Lines of reporting should be very clearAre the management team accountable to the lead partner or tothe partnership?

Delegated powers should be clearly definedEnsures that the partnership is happythat the management team areimplementing their wishes, but goingno further.

The importance of locationA management team that isphysically located in the premises of one of the partners will inevitably be associated with that partner’s agenda, in perception if not actually.You may wish to consider the implications of this.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE 2:1Partnership arrangementsCont. from p.26

COMMUNITY GARDEN PROJECT,CHELMSFORDThe Busy Bees Residents Association,WilliamSutton Trust, Chelmsford Borough Council and alandscape artist have formed an informal partner-ship to provide a community garden in theBoarded Barns area of Chelmsford. The projectwas initiated by a local resident who contactedChelmsford Borough Council expressing her con-cerns about the lack of recreational activitiesavailable in the area. She enquired whether theopen space in the Boarded Barns area could bedeveloped into a Community Garden.

The partners originally came together throughinformal links. The informal nature of thepartnership has continued in the setting up anddevelopment of the project. The lead partners,Busy Bees Residents Association,William SuttonTrust and Chelmsford Borough Council, meetregularly to discuss the project and the widerpartnership group – other supporters andadvisors – meet approximately every two months.The landscape artist reports project progress andissues to both meetings. The informal nature ofthe partnership’s structure and its working is anarrangement that works for this project. Thepartnership has formed to promote and secure asingle project, and is therefore very task-focused,and indeed, time-limited. An informal structure hasworked in capturing the interest and help of thecommunity in developing the project.When theproject is complete, the maintenance andmanagement of the garden will rest with theBorough Council and the community.

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(3)The Consultation /Advisory Component The role of any such committee orgroup or forum should be clearly setout and understood. It can have manydifferent purposes and is often auseful way of exploring key issues ingreater depth or involvingstakeholders from outside of thepartnership.There are a number ofissues you might consider :

1. What status does it have? Is there an agreement that the partnership will accept the views of any sub-committees? If they don’t are they obliged to give clear reasons?

2. Will the group report to the management team or directly to the Board/decision-making body?

3. Where is the committee/group to secure its information and facts from? What reports, minutes, etc from the partnership will it receive?

4. Who is responsible for administering/co-ordinating the group?

The Lead PartnerAs part of the thinking and decision-making about roles andresponsibilities, there is a particularset of issues about the ‘lead partner’.Many partnerships identify a leadpartner. In many cases fundingorganisations, including the NewOpportunities Fund, expect a leadpartner to be nominated for financialaccountability.

For some partners the notion ofhaving a lead partner can appearcontradictory to their desire to be"equal" partners. Equality of status, orof responsibility, or voting rights, areall issues which your partnership willneed to address – but they are not bythemselves automatically impossible ifa lead partner is nominated. It ispossible to reconcile democraticdecision-making with having a leadpartner/project driver, as long aspartners have clear roles andresponsibilities.

The lead partner can assume anumber of different roles, including:

● Convenor of meetings

● Home of the partnership secretariat

● External liaison with policy makers, funders, press and community and client groups

● Accountable body (in terms of financial accountability)

● Champion of the partnership

Lead partners often represent thepublic face of the partnership.Theirrole is to drive forward thepartnership’s agenda. It is not todominate the partnership’s agenda.The partnership should clearlyidentify the role and remit of the leadpartner, as part of its discussions anddeliberations at this stage. Leadpartners themselves will need todemonstrate that they can be trustednot to ‘dominate’ the partnership andexclude others from discussions.

The organisation that takes the roleof lead partner does not have tocome from the public sector, althoughit often does.The organisation takingthe role could also change during thelifetime of the partnership.The roleshould be reviewed from time totime by the partnership.Any changesin lead partner should always benotified to your funders in advance.

Challenge 2:2Establishing anappropriatestructureHaving decided upon roles andresponsibilities, you will need toconsider what structures, particularlywhat legal structures, are appropriatefor the partnership.This is often calleda constitution.There is no ideal typeof arrangement and, indeed, it is oftenthe case that several different optionsmay work equally well.You shouldconsider the pros and cons of eachoption and decide which offers thebest ‘package’ of benefits.

The table opposite summarises someof the main alternatives and some ofthe pros and cons.All are commonvehicles used by partnerships.

Please note that law varies betweenthe different parts of the UK and thatyou should always seek professionallegal advice on these matters. Furtheradvice and guidance can be soughtfrom various sources including thoseidentified under ‘Further Information’.

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SECTION 2

iFurther informationStructure and constitutions

Organisations that can provide advice include:

NACVS (www.nacvs.org.uk or 0114 278 6636)The National Association of Councils for VoluntaryService can signpost you to your local CVS.

NCVO (www.ncvo-vol.org.uk or 020 7713 6161)The National Council for Voluntary Organisationsprovides information and support and can putyou in touch with local support services.

SCVO (www.scvo.org.uk or 0131 556 3882) TheScottish Council for Voluntary Organisationsprovides similar services in Scotland and can putyou in touch with your local CVS.

NICVA (www.nicva.org.uk or 028 9087 7777)The Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Actionprovides the same services for Northern Ireland.

WCVA (www.wcva.org.uk or 029 20431700) TheWales Council for Voluntary Action provides asimilar range of services for groups in Wales.

Development Trusts Association(www.dta.org.uk) is a membership-based network ofTrusts from around the UK (except Scotland) whichsupports those interested in setting up Trusts.

Community DevelopmentFoundation (www.cdf.org.uk) promotes andstudies community development. It regularlypublishes research findings.

Charity Commission (www.charity-commission.gov.uk or 0870 333 0123) TheCommission regulates and supports charities inEngland and Wales and provides information onapplying for charitable status. In Scotland orNorthern Ireland, application for charitable status ismade to the Inland Revenue. SCVO or NICVA can advise.

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Option

Company Limited byGuarantee

PartnershipAgreement

Voluntary Association

Development Trust

Charitable Status

Description

Establishes a legal company which is ‘not forprofit’ and which is governed by aMemorandum and Articles of Association.Requires annual accounts to be submitted toCompanies House.

A legally binding agreement between two ormore organisations. Can be for any purposeand can take numerous forms (e.g. jointventure).

Organisations agree to co-operate and maydefine their mutual commitment in amemorandum.The partnership has no legalstatus or recognition.

A local independent ‘not-for-profit’,community-based organisation pursuingregeneration objectives. It often has a physicaldevelopment focus.

This is a legally recognised status that canonly be awarded to an organisation that isexclusively charitable in its objectives. It canapply to companies or other types oforganisation.You should seek advice from theappropriate authority on the criteria (seeinformation box opposite).

Pros and Cons

● Offers flexibility● Legal status allows the Company to

employ staff, enter into contracts and makepayments

● Creates an ‘independent’ organisation which is separate from any particular partner

● Offers some protection to individuals against personal liability

● Costs of annual auditing are incurred

● More appropriate for project specific or other clearly delineated activities

● Legally binding agreement

● Easy and cheap to establish● Flexible and informal● Cannot employ staff or enter into

contracts, so must rely on a partner organisation to do this on its behalf

● Does not confer additional legal powers ortax benefits

● There is a growing network of such Trusts inthe UK

● Charitable status provides credibility and status

● Activities are largely tax exempt

In addition to the above options, there are also two further variations that can be combined with some of the above:

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Challenge 2:3Establishingcommon goalsThe purpose of a partnership shouldbe clear to all of you who areinvolved and also to people fromoutside who come into contact withit. In some cases this is relativelystraightforward – those which are setup to bring pre-existing servicestogether may be quite simple todefine and to understand. Others, setup to tackle issues of poverty ordeprivation for example, can becomplex and could quite quickly losefocus.

It is therefore important that apartnership defines its ownboundaries and its own purpose.Generally this is done through thedevelopment of a shared vision ormission. Many partnerships developvision or mission statements. The twoare different but are often usedinterchangeably:

● A vision describes why the partnership exists, and presents a statement of what the partnershipwould like to see happen. It should be inspirational

● A mission statement is about how the partnership will go aboutachieving the vision, and may comprise a series of aims and objectives

It is important to have a writtenvision as a statement of thepartnership’s purpose – it can bereferred to, to frame decisions, and toprovide the basis for evaluation. Theway that the vision is developed andagreed is also important; all partnersshould be involved so that they feelequal ‘ownership’ of it. It should alsorelate clearly to the issues andchallenges being tackled, and be asspecific as possible.

It is even more important that thepartners actually share the vision andalso the ways of working - what thepartnership seeks to do and how itseeks to do it. If partners are pullingin different directions, it will bedifficult to deliver a successful project.

SECTION 2


Establishing common goals

AN ENVISIONING PROCESSThe partnership setting up the ARC Healthy LivingCentre in Irvinestown, Northern Ireland establisheda common vision fairly early in the process. Theirvision statement is:

“the provision of a centre within which to base a range of holistic health improvement programmes and initiatives co-ordinated, owned and managed by a strong community partnership and a range of strategic agencies and organisations. The project will design rural solutions to rural problems and address local health needs over a broad catchment area in a practical, efficient,relevant, equitable and socially acceptable manner.”

Partners believe that the actual process ofagreeing the vision was as important as the finalstatement itself. They created an opportunity forpartners to discuss the project proposal at anearly stage and brainstorm ideas. An external andindependent facilitator was brought in to helpthem think through the different issues.

Other ways that have helped to build consensusand mutual support between partners includedteam building residential weekends and a studyvisit to an existing healthy living centre inLondon. The visit proved inspirational to partnersand boosted confidence that their own projectcould work.

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Challenge 2:4Building thecapacity ofpartnersWorking in partnership may be anew experience for someorganisations. Even for those used toit, getting involved in a new initiativeor partnership often means meetingnew agencies, groups and people.Not all partners may have had thesame experience of this type ofworking; not all may have the sameskills or confidence. For some it mayinvolve a change of working culture.

So, it may be appropriate to reviewpartners’ skills and feelings towardsjoint working and assess whether anytraining, relationship building or otherwork may be helpful.A failure toaddress such issues may lead toproblems arising, with some partnersbecoming frustrated or othersbecoming too dominant.


There are different types of skills andknowledge required:

● Interpersonal skills, such as good communication,presentation, negotiation and timemanagement skills

● Technical skills, such as knowledge and understanding of financial data, statistical analysis and use of ICT

● Content knowledge, including knowledge of the subject / local area, of the policy environment and local organisations

It should not be assumed that allpartners possess these skills, orindeed that community or voluntarysector partners are the most likely torequire additional support. Trainingthe whole partnership team in theseskills and knowledge can help developbetter mutual understanding.Ways ofbuilding capacity include partnershipdevelopment meetings / away days,formal training and even informaldiscussions between partners.


Building the capacity ofpartners

TEAM BUILDING EVENTSThe Hartcliffe Community Campus have used avariety of team building events to strengthenrelationships between partners. They held an AwayDay shortly after a number of new members hadjoined to introduce people to each other, and toallow people to raise issues that are not alwayseasy to raise in every day meetings, or whichrequire a longer discussion than is often possible.The Campus have also organised ‘study visits’ forsmall groups. A group of local headteachers andthe college principal together visited a ‘lifelonglearning centre’ in Southampton to learn from theexperience of an existing project, and understandwhat might be possible in their own area. Suchvisits can sometimes be valuable in inspiringpeople and strengthening the partnership’s visionof what can be achieved.

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Challenge 2:5How to involvecommunities inthe partnershipSection 1 explored some of thereasons about why involvingcommunities is important, and howthe nature of that involvement maydiffer. In this section, we suggest someof the various methods and tools thathave been used by partnerships toachieve involvement.

Involving communities takes time.Start early in the process, leave plentyof time, have a clear strategy but beflexible. Be aware that differentmethods will suit different purposes.Questions to ask are:

● Who are we trying to reach?

● What do we want to get out of this process?

● Are there some approaches more likely to work with these target groups?

Examples of different possibleapproaches are described on pages34 to 37.The list is by no meansexhaustive and what may work inone area may not work in another,but it is hopefully a source of ideas.Many of the suggestions could also becombined with one another also.These are followed by examples fromour case studies.

It is always worth checking with yourfunders, including the NewOpportunities Fund, whether theirfunds can be used for the activitiesthat you are proposing.

Other suggestions on how to involvecommunities include:

● Having a local office in the community or where the partnership can be found

● Using appropriate language in all communications, whether it is just local phrases or ethnic minority languages

● Using professional outreach workers

● Using local or otherwise appropriate venues for meetings

● Addressing practical obstacles to involvement such as problems with transport, caring responsibilities or hours of work –perhaps experiment with the timing of meetings (different days,mornings/evenings, etc)

● Making information which is sent out directly relevant to the target audience

● Using small meetings, rather thanlarge open meetings where possible, as small ones are more inclusive and allow people to contribute more

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iFurther informationCommunity involvement

Many publications and guides exist offering adviceon how to involve communities and what lessonshave been learnt in recent years, particularly byregeneration partnerships. Benchmarking toolkitsalso exist, which can be used to assess the extentof community involvement in a partnership inmore detail. Advice also exists on how to promoterace equality. Some key guides are listed inSection 6


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Where individuals or groups areinvolved in a partnership on a longer-term basis (that is, not justconsultees), thought should be givento the need for capacity building.Thissimply means any training or supportthat will enable the community ortheir representatives to participatemore easily and more confidently.Theneeds of minority ethnic communitiesshould be carefully considered inparticular. Cultural and languagedifferences should not preventinclusion; indeed, such groups havemuch to offer.Time and resources forcapacity building should be built infrom the start of the process.

Whatever approach is used toinvolve the community, it should bereviewed from time to time. Involvingthe community should build theirconfidence and abilities and perhapsallow greater responsibilities andpower to be given to communityrepresentatives. Capacity building andinvolvement can, over time, lead tocommunity empowerment.

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SECTION 2

Tools to involve communities

TASK INFORMING THE COMMUNITY

APPROACHExhibitions and open public meetingsUsing visual displays is often the most effective approach. Information aboutplanned activities or opportunities can be explained.

APPROACHExhibitions and open public meetingsUsing visual displays is often the most effective approach. Information about planned activities oropportunities can be explained.

APPROACHUsing leaflets, publications, newsletters

APPROACHUsing emails and websitesGrowing in importance and a useful way of disseminating documents.

APPROACHAttending ‘target group’meetings‘Targeted’ consultation and information can be achieved by attending meetings of the target groups you are tryingto reach. This could be a one-off or you may have a regular slot in their meetings.

APPROACH‘Piggybacking’ on events, etcThis involves using fun-days or fairs or other community events to present information or have a ‘stand’where you can meet people and talk with them.

ISSUESCan be useful in reaching a broader cross-section of people, and cheap to run. But turn-outs are oftenlow and unrepresentative of local views. Little opportunity for constructive debate or decision making.

ISSUESGood to convey brief information to large numbers of people, but securing feedback is difficult. Thetiming of distribution needs to be considered (e.g. avoiding holiday periods).

ISSUESNot everyone has access to a computer but useful as an additional way of communicating.

ISSUESThis can be time consuming and may involve visiting a number of groups.A good way of engaging focused groups in discussion. May miss sections of the community not represented bythese groups.

ISSUESCan reach people who would not otherwise come to public meetings. Limit to the amount and complexityof information that can be conveyed.

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APPROACHSurveys and auditsUsing questionnaires and formal research methods to interview a sample of local people, to get morestructured information about the area, its problems and people’s views. Could be done by professionalresearchers, or a local community group may be able to assist.

ISSUESRequires a lot of organisation and some knowledge of research, but can be a useful way of generatingnew information about an area and people’s views. Care must be taken in phrasing questions, so as notto be misleading.

APPROACHWorkshopsRepresentatives of the various interest groups and views are invited to participate in an event to discussissues in a structured way. Could be half a day or a day. Requires independent facilitation to be effective,so that all participants are ‘equal’.

ISSUESA very interactive and useful way of exploring issues, debating more complex problems and makingdecisions. Commonly used. Need to give people time to think about the issues and prepare for it, ifpossible.

APPROACHPlanning for Real eventsLike a workshop but often based on the use of real models or plans of an area. This very visual andinteractive approach has been used particularly to explore new physical development opportunities. cansometimes take a day or even a weekend.

ISSUESMore complex events to organise, and may require outside assistance. Also time consuming for localpeople, but often fun and constructive. Allows local people to explore issues in more depth and withthe ‘experts’.

TASKSEEKING LOCAL VIEWS,CHOOSING PRIORITIESAND MAKING DECISIONS

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APPROACHScenario planning workshopsA structured approach to defining different possible future scenarios, choosing between them andplanning ahead.

ISSUESA more complex but rewarding tool to use with communities.Would require careful planning. A number ofconsultancies specialise in undertaking this and similar exercises.

APPROACHBrainstorm workshopsThese are more flexible opportunities to take on board a wide range of views and seek consensus onwhat the key issues in an area or project might be.

ISSUESThis is a flexible tool. It relies on using representatives rather than just members of the public, but couldstill access a wide range of views.Workshops can be a good place to ‘float’ new ideas.

APPROACHMediation / external advisorsUsing external advisors or negotiators can help to bring opposing sides together.

APPROACHDialogueBringing different sides together regularly to discuss issues, can be an important ‘safety valve’ for somecommunities..

ISSUESSome conflict situations are very serious and require expert advice. There are often organisations that canassist. Maintaining ongoing dialogue with groups can also be very important. An independent ‘chair’ forsuch discussions can help build trust.

TASKBUILDING A COMMON VISION

TASKCONFLICT RESOLUTION

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TASKLONG TERM ENGAGEMENT


APPROACHCommunity Forum Can be open or membership based, but provides an opportunity for a broad network of communitygroups and individuals to come together several times a year to discuss issues of concern and feed viewsto the partnership. Could be used to elect representatives to a partnership Board.

APPROACHDirect community electionsDirect one person one vote elections in an area, formally organised (e.g. by the Electoral ReformCommission). Could be used to elect local people to a partnership Board.

APPROACHSub-committees/consultative groupsThese are specific groups set up as part of a partnership to fulfil particular requirements. The localcommunity could be represented on each committee or have its ‘own’ committee or group as anaccountability mechanism.

APPROACHCommunity chests and projectsAnother important way to involve communities is as part of the delivery of a programme or project. Thisdepends on the nature of the partnership and its mission. Some partnerships have small budgets to givemodest grants to groups to undertake small projects to complement the main initiative.

ISSUESRelatively expensive to operate, but could offer greater legitimacy to community representatives elected.Defining the area and the target constituency (who can vote) requires careful thought.Ways of holdingthose elected to account needs to be considered.

ISSUESThere are many different ways of using committees. They usually have clear roles and definedmemberships, may be time-limited and are quite commonly used.

ISSUESLarger partnerships may consider using this approach. It can be a good way to deliver tangible benefitsto communities and build trust. Grants are often small (e.g. £100 - £1,000) and could be linked to otherpartnership activities. A good way of raising the profile of a partnership or a project. (Please note thatfunds from the New Opportunities Fund may not be used for this purpose).

ISSUESThis method can be used with other approaches and is very inclusive. Membership can be large, butoften informally organised. Not always representative of local opinion, depending on membership and‘who turns up’ to meetings. Can be hard to manage and define a clear mission in practice. There shouldbe a clearly understood relationship with the partnership as a whole.What is the role of the forum?Could be one for an area, or one for each neighbourhood, or even different groups for different issues.

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PLANNING FOR REAL Hartcliffe Community Campus organised aPlanning for Real open day in a local church hall,as part of their community consultation for thedevelopment of a new ‘educational campus’. Amodel of the proposed development was used, andlocal planners, architects and artists participatedin explaining the possibilities and encouraginglocal people to offer their own ideas and views. Itproved to be a very ‘hands on’ event and therewere even activities for children, to keep them(and their parents) interested.

MARKETING NEW SERVICES TOCOMMUNITIESThe North East Institute in Antrim in NorthernIreland, with its partners, has been establishing anetwork of four lifelong learning centres, one ineach of four communities. A major challenge is toadvertise the existence of these centres and theopportunities available within them, to encouragelocal people to use them. They have found thattailoring written materials (newsletters, leaflets,etc) to each community area has been helpful.They also recognised that using ‘word of mouth’was one of the most effective marketing tools, andhave sought the assistance of each area’scommunity groups to help promote this.

RAISING AWARENESS, BUILDINGCONFIDENCEThe ARC Healthy Living Centre in Irvinestown,Northern Ireland, has emphasised the importanceof face to face contact with their local communityto raise awareness of the new Centre and toencourage local people to feel confident in usingit. Local residents were invited to the officialopening of the Centre, along with VIPs. Projectworkers also participated in the local ‘Lady of theLake’ community festival, as an opportunity tomeet local people and talk about the Centre.


How to involve communities

Examples include the following:

INCLUSIVE DESIGNThe Busy Bees Resident Association is one of thekey partners developing a new community gardenin Chelmsford. The involvement of the communityand the skills which they will develop areessential for the overall success of the gardens.When the project has been completed it will bethe local community, with the help of a part timeCommunity Warden who will use and maintain thegardens. The area currently suffers from continualvandalism and it is hoped community involvementin the development of the project will result inthe local residents taking ownership and ensuringthe gardens are looked after and maintained.

Phase 1 of the project will also allow thecommunity to become involved in the planningand design of the gardens through workshops,meetings and informal conversations. Input will besought through meetings of groups such as theBusy Bees Residents Association, the Mother andToddlers Group, the Youth Club, the Luncheon Cluband others. Feedback and inputs are also soughtthrough informal conversations, which happen asthose involved meet people on the streets, inshops and pubs.Workshops will take place for thegroups already mentioned and in the schools inthe area. The workshops will be enhanced byvisits to other gardens including a visit to nearbyWrittle College.

MANAGING ‘STOP-START’FUNDING PROCESSESOne of the features of bidding for funds andpreparing delivery plans is that the process tendsto have several stages and lulls; there may be aninitial bid, and then a full bid, and each time thepartnership must wait for the result of thefunding application. Sometimes delays orcomplications occur.When communities areinvolved in a partnership, they must be kept up todate on what is happening; residents are often notfamiliar with how funding processes work. The St.Mellons Healthy Living Centre project in Cardiffwas aware of this problem and worked to keep itslocal community up to date. The Partnership hasnoted the importance of not raising residents’expectations too high, before funding has beenapproved and also recommends meeting withcommunity representatives to explain key stagesof the process. Community engagement must bemaintained over time.

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INTEGRATING NEW MEMBERSHartcliffe Community Campus in Bristol areconcerned to improve the representation withintheir partnership from the local community andare learning how to do this by borrowing goodpractice from a local primary school’s Board ofGovernors. The school, having identifiedcommunity representatives, considered itimportant to provide practical support to the newindividuals as they became involved in decision-making. Support included:

● Arranging for new members to meet the Chairperson before and after the first few meetings, to allow them to be briefed on the context and to review what had happened

● Providing them with a glossary of jargon

● Appointing an existing member as a ‘buddie’for new members for the first few meetings, to provide the extra explanations and introductions necessary to bring them up to speed

It was also decided to avoid giving new membersdirect or significant responsibilities for the first 6-12 months to allow them to grow in confidence,rather than being overwhelmed with too muchtoo soon.

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SECTION 2

Self-EvaluationChecklist Section 2 Setting up –the early stagesThe purpose of this checklist is tohelp you consider whether you haveconsidered all the types of issues thataffect many partnerships setting up. Itsummarises and addresses many ofthe challenges and key pointsidentified in this section. It could alsobe considered a checklist of ‘thingsto do’.

Setting up a partnership fully couldtake a year.Building the trust andconfidence of a local community couldtake a lot longer.Partnership building isa difficult process and often involvesmaking mistakes; the important thing isto be honest, learn from the mistakesand move on.Be realistic whenplanning the process of partnershipbuilding.Prepare a ‘timeline’of activitieswith key dates and discuss it with yourpartners.Use the checklist to identifyactions that you need to begin orimprove on.Use the suggestions andadvice given in this section to help youwork through any difficult areas thatyou identify.

You may wish to photocopy this pageand use it with your partners.You canof course also adapt the form if youwish to suit your own circumstances.An electronic version of the form isavailable to download on the NewOpportunities Fund website atwww.nof.org.uk

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Building the capacity of partners

Do any partners require training in technical skills to participate fully in decision-making?

Do partners know each other? Would a ‘get to know you’ event be helpful?

Do partners share a good understanding of the issues being tackled? Is any briefing required?

Is there a budget/time set aside for training/capacity building for partners?


Establishing clear roles ✔ Comment on significance

Are the roles and responsibilities of all partners clearly defined and agreed?

Is there a lead partner? Is their role clearly defined?

Establishing an appropriate structure

Has the partnership agreed an appropriate constitution and structure? Does it define:● Who employs any staff● Who administers the day to day activities● Who contracts with delivery bodies● Which body makes the final decisions● Who is responsible for financial control & auditing

Are the membership of committees,groups, etc all defined?

Are the meetings for the first six months scheduled?

Is there a clear strategy to involve the community in the partnership?

Are there clear written procedures to prevent conflicts of interest?

Establishing common goals

Has the partnership agreed a vision and aims?

Is the vision supported by the local community?

Do they know what the partnership exists for?

Section 2 Setting up – the early stages

3

Planning anddelivery

This Section is for partnerships beginning work together on a new project orprogramme, or half-way through delivering it. It deals with a range of issues that arisewhilst planning and delivering activities or which affect delivery in some way. It mayalso be helpful to think about these challenges when developing a project, particularlywhen planning timetables, etc.


Challenge 3:1 Effective action planning 44

Challenge 3:2 Effective monitoring and management 47

Challenge 3:3 Maintaining the involvement of partners 49

Challenge 3:4 Improving communication 50


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SECTION 3

Developing project proposals andwinning new funding can be timeconsuming and challenging. Mostpartnerships would probably agreethat actually delivering a programmeis even harder! Translating proposalsinto an effective and deliverableprogramme, and keeping it on trackrequires careful planning andmanagement.

The process can be complicated bylots of circumstances:

● Tight deadlines for completion of the action planning

● Insufficient resources/staff to complete the Action Plan

● Unexpected funding conditions being attached to any grant approvals

● Grant being approved but at a lower level than requested,requiring re-negotiation of budgets, etc

For partnerships setting themselvesup, the issues covered in this sectiondo not necessarily follow onchronologically from those in Section2 (e.g. monitoring systems) and so itmay be helpful to consider Sections 2and 3 together. Section 2 focusedmore on the decision-makingprocesses in a partnership….thissection focuses on the operationalside of delivering a partnership’sactivities.

Challenge 3:1Effective actionplanningAny project, programme or initiativeshould have a clear action plan toguide its implementation. It may coverone year or several. It mayalternatively be called a delivery planor a business plan.Your NewOpportunities Fund programme mayhave specific requirements about thestructure and contents of the actionplan / business plan.You should paycareful attention to any guidance.There are, however, varioussuggestions that may assist you inpreparing your plan.

What should theaction plan contain?The purpose of an action plan is todefine who is going to do what,when, where and how. It is a practicaldocument and one that all partnerswill need to sign up to. It may alsohave a role in communicating thepurpose of your project to thecommunity or to potential funders. Itis a very important document.

Most action plans contain thefollowing information:

▼ Aims and objectives of the project

▼ Who the intended beneficiaries are

▼ Description of the project and strategy

▼ Who will manage the project

▼ Timeline and milestones/key events

▼ Project costs and the sources of funding

▼ Defined outputs and benefits of the project

▼ Forward strategy

▼ Evaluation framework

Particular concerns often include:

Cashflow Especially for smaller organisations,understanding what funding is comingin and what costs are going out eachmonth will be very important.Youmay need to arrange ‘bridgingfinance’ if costs exceed funds,particularly if any funds are paid inarrears and your organisation doesnot have cash reserves.

Agreeing the action plan The plan should not be drawn up inisolation by one partner.All partnersshould be involved at some stage inagreeing the timescales, the details ofdelivery and the arrangements.Circulate a draft and try to allow atleast a couple of weeks for people to comment.

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SECTION 3

Have contingency plans Even the best prepared projects go awry from time to time.Assume unexpected events will happen, be realistic in your timescalesand ensure that you have goodmonitoring systems to give you ‘earlywarning’ of any problems, andcontingency plans for any key risks(see later for advice on riskassessment)

Lead-in time Projects generally take some time to get off the ground – people need to be recruited to new posts,premises found, volunteers trained,materials written and printed. Lead-in (and indeed wind down) periodsshould be allowed within the plan. Itsbetter to set timescales too long andbe early, than be too optimistic andbe late.

Multiple PlansLarger organisations may bedelivering several related projects or programmes. Consider integratingaction plans, so that managers onlyhave one set of targets/documents torefer to.

Sums ! Always get someone to check thecosts and funding …mistakes are easy to make.

Action Planning forIndividualsThe St.Mellons Healthy Living Centrein Cardiff has developed a process tohelp manage its staff and projectworkers.


Action Planning

CAPACITY, BIRMINGHAM – BEINGFLEXIBLECircumstances, information and opportunitiessometimes change between submission of afunding bid and the development of a deliveryplan. The CAPACITY Partnership in Birminghamfound this when planning for their first year oftheir project funded through the Fund’s ‘livingwith cancer’ programme. Being able to discusspossible changes with funders was also important.As one partner put it

“…After we started we found that some needs were different from those anticipated in the bid and required a different approach - so we had to change our approach: we needed to train the patient advocates more fully… our thinking moved on since initial bid development and the need to ensure accreditation for quality assurance and the personal development of these volunteers became more critical…The world we work in is changing all the time and some of what was relevant, important or anticipated at the time we applied has altered - so we talk to and we write to our funders if we feel that we need to make adjustments. It is very helpful.”

Cont. p. 46

An individual work programme isdrawn up for each staff member eachyear, to help define their aims, tasksand how these link to the work of theCentre. Progress is monitored againstthe milestones. Part of one person’sprogramme is reproduced opposite:

Objective 1Provides basic training in the conceptof healthy eating to HLC members.

➜ ActionThree tutorial sessions,handouts, Evaluation and resourcepacks.

➜ Link to health and well beingEnsure consistent messages regardingHealthy Eating can effectively be usedby HLC staff when working withcommunity members.

➜ Target date Complete initialtraining June 2001.

Objective 2Offer basic food hygiene qualificationto a range of community memberson an ongoing basis.

➜ Action Complete necessarytraining in order to teach basiccertificate.(1) IntermediateSupervising Course (2) AdvancedCourse.

➜ Link to health and well beingBoost participants’confidence andemployability; boost good hygieneknowledge and practice; incorporatecooking skills/good housekeeping.

➜ Target date Training completeNovember 2001

c

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46


Action PlanningCont. from p. 45

CHILDCARE PROVIDER,PETERBOROUGH –AN INTRODUCTION TOBUSINESS PLANNINGAnother view, on the importance of businessplanning, comes from a small childcare provider inPeterborough who said:

“…We had to set out all our costs and income, show where we were going to dip in the first year and plan for raising revenue, charge out rates, etc beyond the period of initial seed funding. I now know where we are cash-flow wise, and why. I could see the prospects from the beginning so I knew what I was getting involved in and that there would never be an assured income unless I secured it.”

The following matrix may be the sort of tool that you could use to assessrisks. No specialist knowledge is required.

Risk Assessment Matrix

Risks Significance Steps Taken to Contingency (Low, Medium, Reduce Risk PlansHigh)

Failure to secure all funding required

Refusal of any necessary permissions

Lack of demand/take- up of service

Any other potential risks (specify)

An important way of anticipating problems is through careful monitoring ofactivities.This is covered in the next section (3B).

The following matrix may be the sort of tool that you could use to assess risks.No specialist knowledge is required.

An important way of anticipating problems is through careful monitoring ofactivities.This is covered in the next Challenge (3:2).

Things that can go wrong include:

● Staffing problems – problems withrecruiting staff into post, managing

staff transition, turnover etc

● Funding problems – levered resources are not available when they are needed, funds come with unanticipated "strings attached",costs may escalate etc

● Partnership problems – partner relations may deteriorate,organisations change policy, key individuals leave etc

Using Risk Assessment When action planning yourprogramme/project you may find ituseful to undertake a risk assessment,to identify those events orcircumstances that are most likely tohinder successful delivery and to helpyou plan ahead for them.Unexpected or unwanted events area fact of life; they happen to the bestprojects. It is very unrealistic to say‘there are no risks to my project’.Some partnerships also undertakerisk assessments of theirorganisations and structures, not justtheir projects, etc.

PLANNING AND DELIVERY

47

Every project funded by the New Opportunities Fund will require monitoring.Requirements vary between programmes and you should pay careful attentionto the detailed guidance from your programme.This section offers somesuggestions in how to implement good systems. Factors that you need toconsider include the following:

Defining what i What aspects of the project do you want to measure? to monitor… What do you need to know? Your funders will often

have their own requirements. Is there anything else that you wish to monitor….e.g. where your beneficiaries live?

ii Monitoring the ethnic origin of beneficiaries is important and allows any issues of equal access to be identified.

iii How frequently do you need to monitor the project? At first, more frequent reporting may be helpful until the project is properly underway.

Collating the i Who is responsible for collating the monitoring data ? monitoring data ... Do they know this? Will they need prompting?

ii Are the meanings and definitions of any outputs that youare monitoring clear? Shared written definitions are important.

iii What documentary evidence do you require to support monitoring claims? Do your funders require anyDo your auditors?

iv Make sure that you are not reporting the same outputs to more than one public sector funder (this is known as double counting).

v Record the responsibilities and procedures of your monitoring system in writing and ensure people are aware of it.

Using the i How will you feed the monitoring data into your data ... partnership’s decision-making? Are there ‘headline’

indicators that are more important than others?

ii Does monitoring reveal issues of strategic importance? Can lessons be learnt?

SECTION 3

Challenge 3:2Effectivemonitoring andmanagementA crucial factor in the success of aproject is the effectiveness of themanagement and monitoringarrangements operated.Theserequire:

● A clearly identified manager

● Clear lines of accountability for that manager

● Good monitoring systems

● Reliable implementation of those monitoring systems

Management and monitoring gotogether; how can you manage aproject unless you know what ishappening to it? Monitoring couldinclude a range of activities from aninformal telephone call to check onthe latest progress to a formalwritten report or monitoring return.The benefits of monitoring include:

● Evidence of benefits and outputs delivered

● Public accountability

● Identification of problems

● Evidence for which approaches work and which do not

48


Pitfalls and issues you may need to look for include:

Issue

There is some cultural resistance tomonitoring in some organisations orwith some individuals.

Multi-funded projects have a plethoraof monitoring requirements.

Different partners use differentdefinitions of outputs.

Different partners use differentcomputer systems – which don’t talkto each other.

Some monitoring data is sensitive, forexample individuals’ records orcommercial data.

Explanation

Partners must stress the importanceof having adequate monitoring datawhich they can use to supportproject delivery and not to squeezeorganisations.

As early as possible gather all detailedinformation requirements into onemaster list, identify overlap betweenfunding regimes and particularrequirements. Set up or modifyexisting systems accordingly.

A handbook or crib sheet of exactlywhat is meant by each output andhow and when it should be recordedcan be developed. It cannot be toosimple!

A tricky one. Consider the costs andrelative benefits of getting additionalsoftware written and installed, againstre-inputting data into a mastersystem.

Special arrangements will be requiredto ensure that some data isanonymous. But monitoringinformation is still needednonetheless.

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SECTION 3

Challenge 3:3Maintaining theinvolvement ofpartnersThe initial stages of partnershipdevelopment tend to involve a lot ofmeetings and frenetic activity. As therelationships develop and as projectsget bedded in, there is a period ofsettling down. Consequentlypartners:

● Meet to discuss key issues less andless frequently

● Get on with the business of delivery and pay little/no attentionto partnership processes and relationships

● Develop routines

In this phase of partnershipdevelopment there are risks:

● A greater focus on project delivery and less on strategic development

● Laziness or ambivalence about partnership processes and relationships

● Staff turnover and loss of experience and links

● Lack of partnership nurturing leading to lost opportunities and minimal impact

● Higher risk of implementation problems

There are various ways that youcould address these risks:

Keep communicating The key to keeping things going is to keep communicating – keep it regular but not routine, and keep itinformative but without informationoverload.You may consider varyingyour usual approaches to meetings.

Preserving continuityWhilst this can be difficult, maintainingcontinuity of people is usuallybeneficial.Where individuals leave, tryto ensure that some briefing andhandover occurs to theirreplacements. Some partnershipseven ‘rotate roles’ from time to timeto ensure that individual people or organisations do not have all of a particular kind of experience.

Celebrating successIt can be easy to forget what the hard work is for. Don’t be afraid to celebrate the success of your partnership and its activities.This can help to remind partners why they are involved.

Reviewing the relationship From time to time partnerships often review themselves andconsider whether the list of partners and their roles are still relevant and appropriate.This is ahealthy thing to do and can lead to problems being spotted sooner rather than later. Consider doing this as part of an Away Day or some similar event away from partners’ usual surroundings.

The NightmareMeetingPartnerships usually involve plenty of meetings.From time to time you should consider howthese are run. Unproductive or unfriendlymeetings can put off individuals fromparticipating in partnerships. The example belowoffers some thoughts on how to avoid thepitfalls. . .

Ever been to a nightmare meeting? Mostpeople have. The best way to organise these isas follows:

● Arrange it at short notice● Send the agendas out late● Arrange to meet in a small room with no

open windows at a location that’s hard to get to by public transport

● Timetable it for the school holidays, in the middle of August

● Don’t appoint a chairperson ● Forget to introduce everyone and make sure

that the newcomer in the corner is ignored● Table lots of papers and reports at the

meeting that no-one’s had time to read andthen ask them to make decisions on the basis of the contents

● Ensure that the agenda is so long that it isnot possible to cover all items

● Try to discuss the most important items last● Make sure the meeting overruns by at least

an hour but stop people from taking a break for air half way through

● Don’t provide refreshments● Don’t discuss action items agreed at a

previous meeting● Ensure that no childcare is provided● Forget to bring the flipcharts…● When it’s over, forget to arrange the date

for the next meeting

Recognise this? Do not do it!

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Challenge 3:4ImprovingcommunicationGood communication can providemany benefits to a partnership. It canadvertise services and projects tothose for whom they are beingprovided, celebrate successes andraise the profile of the partnership.Do not underestimate the power of agood media story. Communication isalso useful for keeping partners up todate and in touch. Many problemscan be avoided by ensuring thateveryone is ‘on board’….it is whenpeople and organisations get left ‘outof the loop’ that suspicions and illfeelings can arise.

The New Opportunities Fundprovides specific guidelines forpublicity arrangements on theprojects it funds. Please use these.They can also sometimes provideassistance.Things you can do include:

Invite people to visit a high profile visitor to a project can raise the profile and bring recognition, especially if it is someonethe local community can identify with.

E-mail now a very common form of communication, some partnershipsnow rely almost exclusively on thisfor circulating agendas, minutes andreports quickly. Smaller organisationsmay not have access to e-mail however, so this will need to be considered.

Press release a common but effective way of raising awareness, and free! Remember to credit all the partners with their contributions andconsider carefully what image you aretrying to put across. See p.51 formore advice.

Remember, the best publicity is a successful project.Also, good newsspread by word of mouth can be themost effective form of advertisingby far!

Some of your partner organisationsmay also be able to provide advice oncommunications and publicity for thepartnership.

When publicising your partnership,make sure all relevant partners arementioned.Your partnership maywish to develop and agree acommunications strategy to ensurethat opportunities are maximised andthat individual partners have clearroles and responsibilities if necessary.

Relaunch?occasionally, partnerships encounter serious difficulties ….confrontations, partners leaving, deepening politics or mistrust between organisations or individuals. It happens. One way that some partnerships have dealt with this in the past is to relaunch themselves – making a ‘fresh start’.This is not an admission of failure,but usually a pragmatic way of getting through problems.

Partnerships usually involve plenty ofmeetings. From time to time youshould consider how these are run.Unproductive or unfriendly meetingscan go a long way to puttingindividuals off from participating inpartnerships or projects.Thedescription of the nightmare meetingoffers some thoughts on how toavoid some of the pitfalls…

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SECTION 3

HOW TO PREPARE A PRESSRELEASE

Pick a newsworthy event (an opening, animportant visit, some milestone, etc). The releaseshould:

● Be typed/word processed on A4,preferably double spaced

● Have a punchy heading

● Be only a page long if possible

● Try to summarise the key facts in the first sentence or two as an introduction

● Clearly describe the 5 W’s…what is happening, when, where, who and why…

● Avoid jargon or abbreviations and use short sentences

● Have a clear date on it

● Say whether there is a photo opportunity

● Include a contact name and phone number

Send it to the newspaper/TV/radio station beforethe event…getting personal contact withreporters is more effective than just sendingwritten material.

Section 3 – Planning and deliveryThe purpose of this checklist is to help you consider whether you have considered all the types of issues that affectdelivery of your project(s). It summarises and addresses many of the challenges and key points identified in this section.

Use this checklist with your partners.Where you identify actions that have not been undertaken or where further workis required, agree who should carry the work forward.Where problems are identified, use the suggestions and adviceprovided in this section to help you think through possible options and solutions.

You may wish to photocopy this page and use it with your partners.You can of course also adapt the form if you wish tosuit your own circumstances.An electronic version of the form is available to download on the New Opportunities Fundwebsite at www.nof.org.uk

Does the partnership have an action plan which identifies the aims, Yes Mostly Nocosts, timescale, funding and targets of its projects?

Comment

Have success measures for each project been identified? Yes Mostly No

Comment

Have those whose job it is to implement the programme been Yes Mostly No involved in negotiating the action plan?

Comment

Does the partnership have an agreed set of guidelines regarding what outputs Yes Mostly No are to be monitored and their definition? Are they being implemented?

Comment

Does the partnership have systems in place to consider reports Yes Mostly Noof monitoring information?

Comment

Has the partnership carried out a risk assessment for key projects? Yes Mostly No

Comment

Do you need to review the way that you conduct meetings? Yes Mostly No

Comment

Do you have a clear communication strategy in place? Yes Mostly No

Comment

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4

SECTION 4

Evaluatingprogress

This Section is for all partnerships and covers the important issue of evaluation. It isnever too early to start planning for it and can provide benefits even for the smallestprojects. How are we doing? What impact are we having? Can we improve? Evaluationwill help answer these and other questions. Many New Opportunities Fund initiativeswill allow you to budget for evaluation expenses in your initial proposal.


Challenge 4:1 Developing an evaluation strategy 55

Challenge 4:2 Evaluating partnership working 60


54

SECTION 4

Why evaluate?Evaluation has an important role toplay in improving the delivery ofprojects and programmes, and theoperation of partnerships, and inlearning lessons for the future. It isnow considered good practice. It can:

● Provide real-time feedback on theperformance of projects and the partnership

● Inform the review of priorities andallocation of resources

● Provide an opportunity for reflection

● Identify and communicate achievements to funders,stakeholders and local communities

● Assess the value added by partnership working

● Assess the impact of partnership activities

● Provide lessons for the future

Evaluation is not the same asmonitoring, although the tworeinforce each other. Monitoringusually includes the day to dayrecording of activities and outputs asthey are produced from a project.Evaluation takes a longer term viewand asks ‘deeper’ questions abouthow effective the activity is, how cost-effective it is, what impact it is having,etc. Evaluation usually requires extradata and information to be collected,on top of ‘monitoring data’.

Evaluation is also not something thatcan easily be ‘bolted on’ to a projectat the end; it usually requiresinformation to be collated from thestart of the project if it is to beeffective.

You might also be aware that somepartners may view evaluation withsome suspicion. Reasons sometimesgiven for this include:

… it is an intrusive and challengingprocess

… it is time consuming to participate

… it may cover issues that some would rather leave untouched

… it may be skewed to one partner’s agenda

… it may allow benchmarking of activities against others operating under different circumstances,giving a misleading impression

Where partners have genuineconcerns, these must be addressed.However, done sensitively andprofessionally, evaluation can bringimportant benefits.

Challenge 4:1Developing anevaluation strategyThe best time to start thinking aboutevaluation is during the early stages ofsetting up a project or partnership.Here are some thoughts to help you.

(1) What are we evaluating?

You need to decide first of all whatyou are seeking to evaluate.There aredifferent possibilities:

i Your programme of activitiesIs this one project or a programmeof projects or activities? Do you want to include all of your activities (regardless of who funds them)?

ii Your partnership Do you want to try to assess the added value that partnership working offers? This is usually a very difficult exercise, but can be rewarding.

iii Operational systems Do you wish to assess the effectiveness of your project management and monitoring systems?

(2) Is there commitment?

Are all partners supportive? Do allshare an understanding of the purposeof the evaluation? People may havedifferent concerns.These should bediscussed.

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SECTION 4

(3) Are there existingevaluations?

Many organisations will already beundertaking evaluations. How shouldthis new one fit in with them? Is therethe risk of any duplication?

(4) Who will do it / pay for it?

Can you undertake the evaluationwithin the partnership? Do you havethe skills and experience to do it? Ordoes the evaluation need to beundertaken independently? Is therean opportunity to involve the localcommunity (or users) in theevaluation? Most funding bodies nowrecognise evaluation as a legitimatecost.

(5) What should our strategyinclude?

A strategy needs to be built upon aclear conceptual framework; that is, aclear understanding of what you aremeasuring, the types of informationyou need to collate, when you needto do it, and what it will (and won’t)tell you. Many strategies include threebasic elements:

i A baselineThis is a ‘snapshot’ of the conditions that exist at the time that the project (or partnership) starts.The conditionsare defined by a number of well defined ‘indicators’ which will be updated during the lifetime of the project, etc.

iFurther information

Developing an Evaluation Strategy

Plenty of useful guides and sources of advice areavailable to assist you in undertaking evaluation.A list is provided in Section 6, with details ofwhere to get them from. One example is:

A short and readable guide from the Audit Commission called “Aiming to improve – the principles of performance measurement”.

Many partnerships choose to commissionindependent consultants or researchers to helpthem. If you wish to do this, ask otherpartnerships for recommendations.

56

EVALUATING PROGESS

ii Interim evaluationThis is, literally, a review of the performance of the project or partnership at mid-way stage in itslife. For long-term programmes,there may be several such interim evaluations. It allows any changes or impacts to be assessed and gives the opportunity to feed information back into the project – are there aspects that need to change? What is working? What is not working?

iii Final evaluation This is undertaken at the end of a project or programme and often focuses more specifically on measuring the impact of the activities and lessons that can be learnt or transferred to others. It can provide valuable feedback to funding bodies to inform how future programmes should be delivered.

The diagram opposite offers anexample of a typical conceptualframework for a project and thetypes of questions that an evaluationwould seek to answer.

Typical Evaluation Framework

2 EffectivenessCompare the aims and objectives of the projectwith the outputs delivered. How effective is itproving?

3 Cost-effectivenessCompare the inputs (i.e. the cost) with theoutputs.What are the unit costs? Is this value formoney?

1 RationaleCompare the identified issues in the area with theaims of the project. Do the vision and aims of theproject match these? Is the project targeted at theappropriate issues? For interim evaluations, thequestion is whether conditions are changing andwhether the project needs amending in the lightof this?

▼

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▼

▼

▼▼

▼

▼

▼

▼

LOCAL CONDITIONS(SOCIAL ECONOMIC,ENVIRONMENTAL) LOCAL IMPACTS

(EFFECTS ANDIMPACTS ARISINGFROM PROJECT)

VISION, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES PROJECT

ACTIVITIES ANDOUTPUTS (E.G.

PATIENTS TREATED,CHILDREN CARED

FOR)

PROJECT INPUTS(FUNDS AND TIME)

4 Impact & significanceAssess the local impact of the project.Who isbenefiting and how? Compare the nature andextent of the impact with the local conditions andany change in them.What difference has theproject made?


Evaluation

As part of its evaluation strategy, the IrvinestownARC Healthy Living Centre intends to usequalitative approaches to record and explore howindividuals have benefited from the Centre. Peoplewill be encouraged to tell their ‘story’, as part ofindividual case studies. Other more formal (andquantitative) monitoring and evaluation will beused also.

57

Self evaluation orindependentevaluation?A lot of the information which isneeded to answer evaluationquestions is held by the partnershipand by those implementing thepartnership’s strategy. Some also hasto be gathered specifically for thepurpose of the evaluation – inparticular the views and opinions ofthe client group or community areless easy to access – but even hereaccess to such groups is usuallyachieved via project managers andthose delivering a service.

The question then becomes, whoshould gather and interpret thisinformation?

● A secondee from one or more ofthe partnership organisations? (forexample an academic from a partner university, or a monitoring and evaluation officer from a local authority)

● The programme manager of the partnership?

● A paid third party? (such as a specialist consultant)

Partnerships should decide whichform best suits their needs, a decisionwhich will reflect their progress, theiranticipated use of the evaluationreport, their openness, their availablebudget and their information systems.It is, of course, possible to mixapproaches, with different aspects ofevaluation being undertaken bydifferent people or organisations.

Self evaluationSelf evaluation is the processwhereby the evaluation questions areaddressed by your partners and byyour project managers.You ask thequestions of yourself as part of areflective process which ultimatelyshould form part of a regular strategicreview. It will only work if:

● People who have the authority to influence change are involved in the process so that they own the process and are responsible for itsfindings

● All partners are asked the same questions

● All project managers / service deliverers are asked the same questions

● There is an understanding that theprocess is supportive and not seeking to develop competitive pressure or apportion blame

● Monitoring systems are regularly updated, and systematically applied across the whole programme

● The views of those affected by the partnership’s activities, the local community or client group,are sought in a reasonably consistent and systematic manner

● The timing of the evaluation is consistent, as far as possible acrossall projects

● Negative and positive feedback is encouraged in appropriate ways

SECTION 4

c

i i i. Written specificationIt is essential that you clearly definewhat services you want in writing.This is often called a ‘research brief ’or a ‘research specification’. It doesnot need to be long but it shouldinclude a clear statement of:

Research objectives – defining thepurpose of the evaluation

Basic background information – on theproject being evaluated (refer tocurrent strategies, business plans, etcif available).

Evaluation specification – definingwhat you want evaluated, how long itshould take and the issues that shouldbe covered. Set clear deadlines.

Preferred approach – if you have one,specifying any minimum requirements(e.g. review of certain activities) orconstraints that may need to beobserved in the evaluation.

Budget – some organisations preferto give contractors an idea of howmuch funding may be available for theproject.

Research outputs – if you have apreference, state how you want theresearch findings presented to you.Do you want a written report? Howmany copies and in what format? Ifyou need an executive summary orone written for a wider audience, say so. Do you need help with widerdissemination (website,presentations, etc)?

Tender process – including when andhow tenders should be submittedand to whom.

Contact details.

58

● Analysis of findings from each project or partner is presented in a clear and consistent manner

● Findings are fed back to all those who participated

There is some debate regardingwhether self evaluation should bepart of a systematic process used byall projects across a range of activityor whether it should be a morecreative process whereby eachelement of the partnership’s work isevaluated in whatever way thoseassociated with it think best.

In practice, the systematic approachwill be favoured by those managing oroverseeing the work of thepartnership – not least because itprovides data which can be moreeasily assimilated for externalagencies.

EVALUATING PROGESS

SECTION 4

IndependentevaluationIndependent evaluation involvesappointing an external third party toundertake the evaluation on yourbehalf. It could be a researchorganisation, a university or college ora commercial consultancy. Manyorganisations provide researchservices. If you are unused tocommissioning evaluation work, hereare five points to consider:

i.Focus You should be clear about what it is that you are evaluating (which activities) and what you want to know at the end of the process (which questions you want answered). You may not have sufficient resources or time to evaluate everything so you may need to prioritise.

i i. TimingGood research often takes time.Tender processes also take time.Try to plan well ahead if you wish tocommission evaluation work. Ideally,the timetable and even budget shouldbe defined in your project’s businessplan or annual delivery/action plan.

iv. Tender processMany organisations have strict rules onhow to tender work to outside contractors.You should check howyour organisation operates tenderprocedures and ensure you follow theguidelines.You can either invite bidsfrom a list of contractors or put out anopen invitation.Whatever method youuse, you should aim to secure no morethan five or six detailed proposals; anymore becomes very time consumingto review. If you use anopen invitationprocess, you may wish to have tworounds, inviting only ‘expressions ofinterest’ in the first round to allow youto reduce the list of organisationssubmitting full proposals to amanageable number.

v.Reviewing tendersYou should design a clear set of criteria against which to judgetenders.These should include as a minimum:

How well does the tender meet your written specification?

Is the approach/methodology being proposed acceptable to you?

Do the organisation, and the individuals that would do the work, have the necessary skills to do the work?

Does the proposed price for the work justify the benefits?

In identifying organisations to bid forwork, gauging what represents valuefor money and understanding how tochoose a contractor, you should talkto someone who has been throughthe process before.

Many partnerships and publicorganisations have commissionedevaluation work and would be happyto discuss how they did it.

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SECTION 4

Challenge 4:2EvaluatingpartnershipworkingAs well as evaluating the activities ofyour partnership – projects,programmes, etc – you may also wishto evaluate the actual process ofworking in partnership. Does the factthat you and your partners worktogether actually provide new typesof benefits that cannot be achievedotherwise? Can the process beimproved? What do your partnersthink about this?

Evaluating partnership working iscomplex and difficult to do, and thereis no ‘right way’ to do it. Some of theguides listed in Section 6 offerpossible models and suggestions.Here we have suggested a basicapproach that you could use, oramend to suit your own purposes. Itcould be done with outsideassistance (an independent ‘referee’almost) or as a form of self-evaluation.

Your partnership is important. It isworth investing time (and money) inreviewing it, developing it andimproving it.The best partnershipsare the ones that are seeking to‘continuously improve’.

We suggest that there are threedimensions of partnership workingthat you could evaluate. Under eachone, we have identified a set ofcriteria that could be used.The self-evaluation checklist at the end of thissection presents this as a form youcould use.

60

EVALUATING PROGESS

(A) The partnership process

This looks at the day to day,week toweek process of meetings, decision-making and planning and considers itsqualities.Are the right conditions inplace to allow fruitful inter-organisation working? Key criteria are:

● Purpose

● Leadership

● Communications

● Decision making

● Participation

● Human resources

● Organisational cultures

(B) Operational systems

This considers the various systemsrequired to run the partnership andits activities.Are they effective? Manyof these issues are covered in Section3 of this guide.There are four types ofsystem/arrangements:

● Management

● Financial control

● Monitoring

● Evaluation

(C) Partnership value

This final set of criteria attempts toprobe what the nature and extent ofthe benefits of partnership workingmight be, from your partnership.Wesuggest that there are eight main typesof benefits that could arise fromworking with others.Can you identifysome or all of these in yourpartnership?

● Consensus

● Innovation

● Efficiency

● Stronger voice

● Joined up services

● Quality

● Scale and coverage

● Bending main programmes

The assessments are very qualitativebut no less useful for that.You maywish to carry out a similar exercise onan annual basis and compare theresults of each exercise with theprevious one to track changes andimprovements over time. It may alsoprovide a useful ‘safety valve’ for thepartnership, ensuring that everyonehas the opportunity to express theirviews and feelings about how thepartnership is working.

61


Section 4 – Evaluating progressThis checklist can be used to help assess the quality of your partnership and how it works. It relies on judgements andqualitative assessments, but provides a framework to cover many of the key issues that apply to partnerships. For mostpartnerships, using this checklist may highlight important issues that you need to discuss and explore with your partners.Try to use the process as a positive opportunity to move forward and develop the partnership.You may wish tophotocopy these pages and use them with your partners.You can of course also adapt the form if you wish to suit yourown circumstances.An electronic version of the form is available to download on the New Opportunities Fund websiteat www.nof.org.uk

Criteria

(A) THE PARTNERSHIP PROCESS

1 Purpose The partnership has a clear purpose,expressed in writing andagreed.Key factors include:● There is a clear vision and mission statement● The activities of the partnership are clearly stated in an action

plan/business plan● All partners understand the purpose of the partnership● Objectives are realistic and achievable

2 Leadership The lead partner or a main decision-making body of thepartnership provides clear leadership.Key factors include:● There is senior commitment to the partnership from within the core

partners● The partnership is not afraid to make difficult decisions● The Board (or main decision-making body) make the strategic decisions

3 Communications The partnership communicates well internally and externally toall stakeholders.Key factors include:● All partners are informed of key meetings and are given necessary papers

in advance● Progress and issues are reported to the Board/main decision-making body

regularly● All partners feel confident that they know what is going on in the

partnership● Key events and milestones are publicised to the wider community● There are opportunities for partners to air problems and issues and resolve

conflicts

4 Decision making The partnership makes well informed decisions without unduedelays.Key factors include:● Decision-making is open and transparent with decisions

recorded in writing● Key decisions are based on research, monitoring data or well informed

experience

Assessment and comment

VERY GOOD, GOOD,SATISFACTORY, POOR,N/A

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

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Criteria

(A) THE PARTNERSHIP PROCESS

5 ParticipationAll key stakeholders are involved in the partnership in anappropriate way, including the community.Key factors include:● All key stakeholders are involved in the partnership, even if not in the core

decision-making group, and have appropriate roles● Representatives of partners are of an appropriate seniority● The community are involved in the key decision-making, or there is a clear

strategy to involve the community● The partnership operates a clear equal opportunities policy, including

attention to the promotion of racial equality

6 Human resourcesThe staff and decision-makers of the partnership have thenecessary knowledge,skill and confidence to make decisions andundertake key tasks.Key factors include:● The needs of partners, including the community, for capacity building are

assessed and addressed● New members and participants are clearly briefed and properly

introduced to the partnership

7 Organisational cultures Partner organisations provide the necessary support,flexibilityand assistance to enable their representatives to participate fullyin the partnership.Key factors include:● Partner organisations allow their representatives sufficient time and

resources to fulfil their roles in the partnership● Decisions made by the representatives are supported by their

organisations



Section 4 – Evaluating progress

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

63


Criteria

(B) OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS

1 Management arrangementsEffective management arrangements are in place and operatingKey factors include:● A clearly identified manager with defined responsibilities● Clear lines of accountability from the manager to the Board or

decision-making body of the partnership

2 Financial control systemsEffective financial control systems are in place and operatingKey factors include:● Expenditure is approved by the appropriate signatory● Clear audit trails for expenditure are being laid● Accounts are audited annually

3 Monitoring systemsEffective monitoring systems are in place and operatingKey factors include:● The requirements of all funders are being met● Clear definitions for outputs and milestones are provided● Monitoring is undertaken regularly and feeds back into decision-making

4 Evaluation strategyA clear evaluation strategy has been prepared and is beingimplemented




Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

Assessment:

Comment:

64


Criteria

(C) PARTNERSHIP VALUE

1 ConsensusPartners usually make decisions by consensus and have agreedcommon goals and objectives.Significant conflicts betweenpartners are rare and settled quickly.

2 Innovation By working together,partners have been able to develop newservices or approaches that would not otherwise have arisen.

3 Efficiency By working together,resources are being used more efficiently,with a lower unit cost achieved for the relevant services.

4 Stronger voiceThe area or issue being promoted by the partnership has a higherprofile and is higher on the agenda than before the partnershipbegan work.

5 Joined up servicesBy planning and working together partners have been able toimprove the ‘joining up’ of their services on the ground,asexperienced by the community/users.They are easier to access andthere are less gaps.

6 QualityPartners have brought about an improvement in the quality of oneor more services they are delivering as a result of their closeworking and learning from each other.

7 Scale and coverageBy working together the partners have been able to pool resourcesand services and increase the scale and/or geographical coverage oftheir services to reach more people and to do so moreconsistently.

8 Bending main programmesThere is evidence that working together in this partnership hasencouraged partners with mainstream programmes to amend theway that they deliver these programmes to tackle the needs of thepartnership’s target beneficiaries more effectively.




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5

Moving on

This Section is for partnerships that have been operating for some time or havereached a ‘break point’ in their development and are considering their options for thefuture. Do we carry on? Do we need to change? It will also be of relevance for anypartnership considering its future strategy.

This section will help you think through the issues and provides advice andsuggestions on how to proceed. It is never too early to think through these issues.The Key Challenges covered by this section include the following:

Challenge 5:1 Do we need to change? 66

Challenge 5:2 Preparing a forward strategy 66

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SECTION 5

Challenge 5:1Do we need tochange?At various points in the lifetime of apartnership – such as the end of afunding period, an unexpected event,the departure of a partner or theconclusion of a project – you mayfind yourselves at a natural ‘break-point’.These can sometimes beturbulent and difficult times, but canalso be a good time to stop andreview the partnership. Do we needto change?

Changes you might need to considermaking include:

Changing the membership Have circumstances changed since the partnership was last reviewed?Are there other agencies you shouldbe working with? Are there anypartners looking to leave? Are some partners not proving to be very committed? Review the situation.

Taking a longer view Sometimes partnerships and projects emerge in response to funding opportunities.There is nothing wrong with this, but it meansthat interventions can sometimes bemore disjointed or incomplete thanthey might otherwise be. Break pointsare a useful opportunity to consider whether the partnership should take a longer view, outside of specific funding concerns, and prepare a strategy or mission that is based more fully on local needs and opportunities and priorities.

Changing approachSometimes as partnerships developthey decide they want to move to a different approach. For example, some regeneration partnerships have taken the opportunity at the end of their funding programmes to become ‘community development trusts’or other community-led companies. If the organisation has an asset base or other source of income, the partnership is no longerdependent on particular fundingsources to continue and can take alonger term, and more independent,view of its mission.Would yourpartnership benefit from a change ofapproach?

RelaunchFor some partnerships that have encountered difficulties or significantchanges, a relaunch can be a usefulway of making a ‘fresh start’.This mayentail a change of image, newpartners and a public event to markthe change.

Disbanding the partnershipPartnerships exist for a purpose.Sometimes it may be appropriate, ifthe original mission is complete, todisband the partnership.This shouldnever be done lightly and care shouldbe taken to preserve networks andother benefits where appropriate.


Do we need to change ?

MERSEY VALLEY PARTNERSHIP– MOVING WITH THE TIMESThe Mersey Valley Partnership has been operatingfor over 20 years, but has been through threesignificant ‘turning points’ during this time. At eachpoint, the Partnership has reviewed its purpose, itsopportunities and has reshaped itself.

The Partnership began in 1980 as a countrysidemanagement project, with a range of partners,growing to a point where it was operating a largeprogramme of environmental projects andemploying a large number of people. Interestingly,the Partnership was originally formed to submit afunding bid, which subsequently provedunsuccessful. However, the partners felt that therewas sufficient common cause for the Partnershipto continue.

After nearly a decade, in 1989, three importantpartners – the Manpower Services Commission andtwo local Development Corporations – were woundup and therefore withdrew from the Partnership.The Partnership had to review the way it wasdelivering its aims, and drew up a new BusinessDevelopment Plan for the future in response. Newpartner organisations were invited to join thePartnership.

The second turning point came in the mid-1990sfollowing local government reorganisation. Thisprompted a need to amend the Partnership’sarrangements.Cont. p. 67

c

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SECTION 5

Challenge 5:2Preparing aforward strategyAll partnerships should consider theirfuture and where they wish todevelop. Some partnerships may betime-limited, existing only for aspecific task. Many will wish tocontinue and evolve over time.

It is never too early for a partnershipto prepare a forward strategy.At itssimplest, this is a statement of howthe partnership intends to continuepast its current planning or financialperiod. For partnerships relying onshort-term funding, this is particularlyimportant.The time lags in securingnew funds and the need to maintaincontinuity mean that preparationsshould be engaged in relatively early.

The business plan or delivery plan is agood place to consider and set outfuture intentions, even if they maychange.They should be reviewedeach year to check whether theassumptions still hold good.As break-points near or funding comes to anend, forward strategies will usuallyrequire greater elaboration.


Do we need to change? Cont. from p. 66

The most recent turning point involved thePartnership reviewing how best it could meet itsobjectives, and deciding to transform itself into aGroundwork Trust. From April 2002, they will beknown as Groundwork Mersey Valley. They used anexternal facilitator to help them think through thisprocess, which they believe was valuable inbuilding a consensus amongst partners.

There are several reasons for this change. ThePartnership has, up to this point, relied uponHalton Borough Council as its ‘accountable body’,to employ staff and enter into contracts on itsbehalf. The Partnership considered that establishingitself as a Trust, separate from its local authoritypartners, would provide it with important newbenefits. They would gain greater freedoms onemploying staff, be able to engage in a widerrange of business activities and contractualarrangements and be able to access new sources offunding not available to public sectororganisations. They would also have the benefits ofbeing part of a national network of GroundworkTrusts. Other options that they considered andrejected included:

● Continue as a partnership with a local authority as accountable body

● Become a stand-alone Trust or a company limited by guarantee

● Continue as a partnership, but with a separate fundraising trust

The pressures for change faced by the Partnershipduring the last 20 years have come from both theoutside, with wider changes beyond their control,and inside, with partners making decisions aboutpriorities. The Partnership has been able to ‘movewith the times’ successfully by not being afraid toreview its options and make changes whennecessary. This means that it is better placed torespond to future needs and opportunities.

6

Further reading

This Section provides pointers to where you can find further information and adviceon various topics. It lists reports, other good practice guides and gives details oforganisations who can help. It is by no means exhaustive and many other guides andsources of advice exist.

Author

Burns, Danny &Taylor, Marilyn

Chapman, M

Clarke, Caroline

Department forTransport, LocalGovernment &the Regions

Department forTransport, LocalGovernment &the Regions

NCVO

Date

2000

1998

1999

1997

2000

2002

Title and publisher

Auditing Community Participation:An Assessment Handbook (JosephRowntree Foundation)

Effective Partnership Working,GoodPractice Note No.1 (ScottishExecutive Central Research Unit)

Effective Partnerships for Voluntaryand Community Groups (Civic Trust)

Involving Communities in Urban andRural Regeneration – a Guide forPractitioners (DTLR)

New Deal for Communities – RaceEquality Guidance (DTLR)

Guidance for Public/VoluntarySector Partnerships – a supplementto the Funding Code(NCVO)

Comments and availability

A detailed guide providing tools andappraisal exercises to assess thenature and extent of communityinvolvement in partnerships andprogrammes.Available from theJoseph Rowntree Foundationwww.jrf.org.uk

General guide to good practice inpartnerships written in a Scottishcontext.Available from the CRU atwww.scotland.gov.uk/cru

A guide to working with cross-sectoral regeneration partnerships.Available from the Civic Trustwww.civictrust.org.uk

Contains a lot of ideas on how toapproach community involvement.Available from DTLR PublicationsSales Centre on 01709 891318.

Designed for use by NDCPartnerships, but likely to be of valuefor many partnerships in addressingthe important issue of race equality.Available from DTLR on020 7944 4278.

Provides advice to public sectororganisations on how to improve theprospects for good partnershipworking with the voluntary sector.Part of the NCVO’s ongoing workbased on its Compact between thepublic and voluntary sectors. Furtherdetails are available from NCVO’swebsite. www.ncvo-vol.org.uk

68

Further information and reading

1.‘How to’ guides to good partnership working

SECTION 6

69

SECTION 6

Author

Wilcox, David

Wilson,Andrew& Charlton, Kate

Date

1999

1997

Title and publisher

The Guide to Development Trustsand Partnerships (Development TrustsAssociation)

Making Partnerships Work – apractical guide for the public,private, voluntary and communitysectors (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)


Available from DTA on 020 77064951 www.dta.org.uk

A good practice guide offering a widerange of advice to multi-sectorpartnerships.Available from theJoseph Rowntree Foundationwww.jrf.org.uk


1.‘How to’ guides to good partnership working

70

FURTHER READING

Author

AuditCommission

Carley, M et al

Dean, J et al

DTLR

Edwards, B et al

GFA Consulting& EIUA

Date

1999

2000

1999

1998

2000

1999

Title and publisher

A Fruitful Partnership – EffectivePartnership Working (AuditCommission)

Urban Regeneration ThroughPartnership – a study in nine urbanregions in England, Scotland andWales (The Policy Press)

Fitting Together? – a study ofPartnership Processes in Scotland(Research & Information Report No.70) (Scottish Homes)

Evaluation of the SRB – aPartnership for Regeneration: AnInterim Evaluation(DTLR)

Partnership Working in RuralRegeneration (The Policy Press)

Building Partnerships in the EnglishRegions – a Study Report ofRegional & Sub-RegionalPartnerships in England (DTLR)


A Management Paper on partnershipworking. Available from the AuditCommission website www.audit-commission.gov.uk

Study exploring the factors that affectthe success of urban regenerationpartnerships.Available from theJoseph Rowntree Foundationwww.jrf.org.uk

Study identifying lessons on goodpartnership working in a Scottishcontext.Available for downloadingfrom the Scottish Homes researcharchive, via the research page atwww.communitiesscotland.gov.uk

A report from the long-term nationalevaluation of the Single RegenerationBudget Programme, containing somestudy findings on the issues that haveaffected regeneration partnerships.Available from DTLR PublicationsSales Centre on 01709 891318.

Findings of a research study exploringthe effectiveness of rural partnerships.Available from the Policy Presswww.bris.ac.uk/publications/tpp

A study of regional and sub-regionalpartnerships, including an assessmentof what makes for successfulpartnerships.Available from DTLRPublications Sales Centre on 01709 891318.


2.Research Publications Including Findings on Partnership Working

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SECTION 6

Author

Hutchinson, J &Campbell, M

NCVO

AuditCommission

AuditCommission

CharitiesEvaluationServices

Clark, C

Date

2001

2001

Title and publisher

Working in Partnership – lessonsfrom the literature (DfEE ResearchReport No. 63) (Policy ResearchInstitute, Leeds Metropolitan University)

Co-operation,Participation &Complexity – local partnerships &public policy (NCVO)

Aiming to Improve – the principlesof performance measurement (AuditCommission)

On Target – the practice ofperformance indicators (AuditCommission)

How Well Are We Doing ? – a guideto monitoring & self-evaluation(CES)

Community Participation – a selfassessment toolkit for partnerships(Engage East Midlands)


A comprehensive literature review ofpartnership studies up to 1998.

Short report considering theimplications of partnership workingfor voluntary organisations.Availablefrom NCVO 020 7713 6161 orwww.ncvo-vol.org.uk

Presents advice on the principles thatunderlie the development ofperformance measurementframeworks and systems.Availablefrom the Audit Commission websitewww.audit-commission.gov.uk

Gives advice on the development ofperformance indicators.Availablefrom the Audit Commissionwww.audit-commission.gov.uk

A short simple guide aimed at smallorganisations, explaining how to setup monitoring processes.Availablefree from CES, contact020 7713 5722.

A detailed toolkit to support moreeffective voluntary and communityparticipation in partnerships. Providesdetailed self-assessment tools forpartnerships to use at each stage oftheir development to identify issuesand plan actions.Available fromEngage East Midlands 0115 934 8471


2.Research Publications Including Findings on Partnership

3. Advice on How to Evaluate Partnerships

72

FURTHER READING

Author

GovernmentOffice forLondon

Groundwork,New EconomicsFoundation &Barclays

LocalGovernmentNational TrainingOrganisation

McCabe,A,Lowndes,V &Skelcher, C

Roger Tym &Partners

Date

2001

2000

1997

1999

Title and publisher

Testing the Mix (GOL)

Prove It! – measuring the effect ofneighbourhood renewal on localpeople (Groundwork, NEF & Barclays)

Smarter Partnerships Website

Partnerships and Networks – anevaluation and development manual(Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

Local Evaluation for RegenerationPartnerships – good practice guide(DTLR)


Provides advice and gives ideas onhow people from black and ethnicminority communities can becomemore involved in partnerships andprojects. Based on an action-researchproject in London.Available fromGOL’s website atwww.go-london.gov.uk/sustainabledevelopment/local_government.htm

General guidance on evaluationwritten for the layperson, withguidance on the selection ofperformance indicators for localrenewal.Available from Groundworkwww.groundwork.org.uk or the NEFwww.neweconomics.org.uk

An interactive website that provides ageneric set of checklists to helppartnerships assess their learning andskill requirements. Located atwww.lgpartnerships.com

Presents an evaluation approach thattakes a particular interest in howorganisations relate to each otherthrough networks and other links.Available from the Joseph RowntreeFoundation www.jrf.org.uk

A readable introduction to evaluationfor partnerships.Available fordownloading fromwww.regeneration.dtlr.gov.uk



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SED have developed a full toolkit andprocess for partnerships to identifyskills needs and areas forimprovement.The process is in threestages and involves interviews,seminars and workshops.The processfocuses on seven characteristics ofeffective partnerships. Aninformation pack and further detailsare available from SED

Written for SIPS, but may be of widerinterest. Available from the CRU atwww.scotland.gov.uk/cru.

A benchmarking tool to facilitate theself-evaluation of communityinvolvement in regenerationpartnerships.Available from YorkshireForward 0113 243 9222 orwww.yorkshire-forward.com

Title and publisher

Partnership by Design

Guidance for Social InclusionPartnerships on Evaluation (ScottishExecutive Central Research Unit)

Active Partners – benchmarkingcommunity participation inregeneration (Yorkshire Forward)

Date

2001

2000

2000

Author

ScottishEnterpriseDunbartonshire

ScottishExecutiveCentralResearch Unit

Wilson, M &Wilde, P



74

FURTHER READING


Available from DfES on 08700012345

A range of guides are published byDfES to assist Early YearsDevelopment & ChildcarePartnerships.Titles include No. 5‘Working with local agencies andother partnerships and networks’ andNo. 7 ‘Communication andConsultation Strategies’. Copies areavailable on the DfES website atwww.dfes.gov.uk/eydcp/

Provides advice on evaluation forHLCs.The guide is available onwww.hda-online.org.uk

Title and publisher

Raising Standards,Opening Doors –developing links between schoolsand their communities (DfES)

Good Practice for Early YearsDevelopment & ChildcarePartnerships (DfES)

An Evaluation Resource for HealthyLiving Centres (Health DevelopmentAgency)

Date

1999

Author

DfES

DfES

Meyrick, Jane &Sinkler, Paige


4.Specialist guides

Working in partnership: A sourcebook - warringtonva.org.uk€¦ · Working in partnership: A...

Documents

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