9 PARTNERSHIPS
9.1 Partnership working is a key tenet of Scottish Government policy in the delivery of public services. In particular, strategic partnership working is a key element in the Scottish Government's support for the third sector. This includes "developing a series of strategic partnerships with national third sector organisations around shared outcomes" 48. This is taken up more specifically by the Task Group that seeks to promote sharing of services between third sector organisations, between third sector organisations and the public sector and between third sector organisations and the private sector. The aim is to delivery efficiencies and "innovative synergies in the way the services are designed and delivered" 49. A shared services approach is also encouraged to produce Best Value (Joint Statement 50).
9.2 This section looks at third sector involvement in partnership working, particularly for the delivery of services. It examines what factors contribute to successful working partnerships and identifies some of the challenges faced by third sector respondents. Finally, this section looks at perceptions of partnership working for the future.
The extent of partnership working among TSOs
9.3 Most organisations were involved in some form of working in partnership with other organisations. The concept of partnership was interpreted broadly by many respondents with many different types of partnership being cited. These included partnerships with; funders; public sector providers; private sector; and other TSOs. The types of partnerships included both formal and informal partnerships for: service delivery; provision of training; consortium; partnership forum and referral partnerships.
9.4 The extent of partnership working was very varied between the organisations. Some felt that partnership working was more limited in the third sector than perhaps between/within other sectors, and that this would need to be developed in order to face the challenges of an uncertain funding future - also see The Importance of Partnerships in Facing Future Challenges 9.38.
We talk of partnership an awful lot, have done for years. When I started to work for [the organisation] as a member of staff it would be we talked about partnership and we'd go and sit in various fora and meetings and groups and all the rest of it [but] when push comes to shove, I am responsible for the funds, the projects and services and the staff [and] if another organisation is sitting there and we have to go head to head I think in reality, real partnerships, it's superficial.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.5 Some of the participants did not feel that in relation to developing partnerships they had "got the confidence yet to take it to that stage in many areas" (Senior Manager Employability).
9.6 However, generally participants were positive about partnership working with most organisations being able identify at least one partnership that they perceived to have worked well.
Success Factors
9.7 Respondents were asked to identify success factors that contributed to a successful partnership for the purposes of service delivery (or factors that caused partnerships to fail). A number of critical factors were mentioned. These included: Shared Goals/Ethos; Clearly defined aims; Complementarity; Equality; Trust and reciprocity; and Commitment.
Shared Goals/Ethos and Clearly Defined Aims
9.8 A number of respondents mentioned that it was important to have a shared vision or ethos between partnership organisations. Partnerships were made more difficult to maintain and to be effective where these were not shared:
We've come with a common purpose which all partnerships should be of course, a common purpose, a common aim and a clear shared set of values and that's working really well.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.9 In addition, having clearly defined and identified shared aims was also identified as important by a number of respondents in developing effective partnership working. In this example the organisation was working in partnership with the NHS:
We've signed up to a very clear statement and shared management agreement and its working very well now...
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.10 The success of a partnership to deliver services to disabled people in rural areas of Scotland was also attributed to a focus on the need for a common vision around shared values and principles.
One of the things that started the partnership working well was that we had a meeting of minds around a vision, we kind of shared values and principles... Then because of the tendering process we had a very clear set of rules of engagement. We knew what we were being contracted to deliver and what we weren't being contracted to deliver…all along the line there was agreement about values, principles and practice. Agreement about the reporting and methodology, and space created to discuss what the results were.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
Complementarity
9.11 Successful partnerships were perceived by many to be more likely where partner organisations complemented each other in a number of respects. This included where each partner could offer a particular expertise and specialism to the partnership that 'added value' to the service. This also had benefits for both organisations in being able to access funding and offer a service that individually they could not have provided as well as providing new areas of working for each of the organisations:
I think...each of us could focus on the areas where we have the expertise and the specialism, but then again it was about not reinventing the wheel...It [also] allowed us to …become engaged in an area that we haven't been traditionally been engaged in before... that individually we might have not been able to...We have been able to put together this more comprehensive package of service, that neither one of us could've done individually.
Senior Manager, Regional Learning Provider
9.12 However, if there was too much overlap in terms of expertise and services provided by organisations some respondents felt they were less likely to be successful because there was less opportunity to 'add value':
I would see that there is certainly a feeling within the employability forum that we could do some joint work together and put in bids together. It's never actually come to anything and some of the people in the forum actually tried it and it didn't work...because we were more or less doing the same thing, we weren't bringing different things.
Senior Manager, Equalities FG
9.13 Complementarity in terms of expertise and service provision did not always ensure that organisations were compatible in terms of their - more subtle - organisational cultures. However, this can be overcome as in this example of where cultural differences in staff attitudes between two potential partners had to be addressed before the partnership could progress:
The cultural differences I think are really interesting. We did some work with [X organisation] setting up placements for people from one of our projects. We had to go in a do a huge amount of prep work with [X's] staff before anything could take off...their attitude, between colleagues, to the general public, people with disabilities was appalling [and] we had to go in and run bullying workshops ...in order to create an environment where we were comfortable with placing vulnerable people...it's not because any of the people within [X's] was being deliberately negative about the people with disabilities - most of them were horrified when that kind of thing was fed back to them, it was just the culture.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.14 Finding organisations that complement each other sufficiently to take forward in partnership is not easy as this respondent describes. She feels that while local authorities promote partnership they are less clear about what this means and this may partly explain why partnership in the third sector is not more extensive:
There are local authorities that are very keen on partnership, they aren't necessarily very clear on what they mean by it. There are a whole load of voluntary organisations, we bid for things in tender together but it is very complicated. Some other voluntary organisations I know are talking to each other and if their pay rates are compatible, if their ethos are compatible, if they've got complimentary strengths and skills they're exploring it but its not something you can magic out of a hat.
Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
Equality
9.15 Too much disparity in power, resources, and terms and conditions of staff between partners can create significant challenges to building a successful partnership. This is perhaps more likely between TSOs and larger public sector providers with vastly different resources as well as different perceptions of 'professionalism':
9.16 After three years of intensive work, the partnership between this third sector organisation and the NHS was finally working successfully to deliver services. This respondent describes some of the challenges they faced along the way in terms of the 'clash of cultures' and the clear disparity in power between the two partners. There were differences in perceptions of professionalism, with NHS staff feeling themselves 'superior' to the TSO staff. There was also inequity in employment terms and conditions and staff security. One area of tension (that had not been anticipated) was around health and safety, with the NHS perceived as having very rigid, inflexible requirements that were inappropriate to the TSO. However, she identified that 'sticking with it' and buy-in at senior level ultimately helped to overcome these issues.
[There was] a definite feeling …that the NHS were the experts on how you deliver [the] service whereas we felt that we also had quite a lot to offer in terms of how you would support somebody ...and it was just a clash of cultures or a rubbing of cultures…. However the good thing about that was that we now have actually achieved that and its working really well....the NHS staff were deeply superior to our staff and actually treated them like you know fairly low skilled support workers and didn't see them as equal partners so it was very difficult.... I think also (there were) different…staff security, terms and conditions... holidays, pensions , pay, everything...One of the big tensions also came with health and safety. I mean we have an absolute platinum standard of health and safety at [name of TSO], but it was nothing compared to the NHS....
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.17 Relations with local authorities have occasionally been characterised by a sense of inequality and of being perceived to be the junior partner. A senior manager described how the treatment of TSOs by some local authorities was unlikely to foster a sense of partnership due to the perception that TSOs were charitable organisations who were more open to pressure and persuasion than their counterparts in the private sector.
A senior TSO manager described how there was ' an arrogance within local authorities and government over the way they treat the third sector; that they (the third sector) will always find a way to survive even to the point where we have been told that we should sell buildings like this or that we should use our benefactors money and fundraising to support front line services which is not the case'.
Trust and Reciprocity
9.18 In order for partnerships to become established and maintained a number of respondents felt that there needs to be trust and sharing between the organisations. Some felt that some organisations were reluctant to share resources or 'give up some of the control' that was necessary for effective partnership:
[In relation to a particular Consortium] - That's about joint working. It didn't really take off. Too many organisations were too reluctant to actually devolve and to actually have shared responsibility.
Senior Manager, Local Employability Provider
9.19 Too much overlap in the services provided by two organisations was thought to lead to competition which was not conducive to building a trust relationship - also see Partnerships vs. Competition 9.30.
The competition that I am aware of is in the childcare sector. Because we are all social enterprises, it is quite difficult to get neighbouring organisations to work in partnership because you are competitors.
Senior Manager, Local Learning Provider
9.20 Some felt that while the current financial climate might encourage more partnership working between voluntary organisations, smaller TSOs sometimes perceived large TSOs as a threat. One larger third sector organisation had a deliberate policy of not going into direct competition with a local provider until there had been discussions. However, there was a concern that a partner organisation might exploit another's expertise for their own gain:
I think its very difficult because if you're going for partnership working in a procurement environment, highly competitive, you're effectively showing all your washing and crown jewels to somebody that then could compete against you somewhere else which is exactly what happened in the partnership arrangement that we did have so its hard.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
Commitment
9.21 Commitment to the partnership within the organisations was also perceived by some to be important in order to facilitate effective working. However, there were different perspectives on who within an organisation was more crucial. On the one hand, this respondent identified the importance of commitment from senior managers within the organisation in order to make a particular partnership work:
...Sticking with it, senior buy in, and the interesting thing there was that at the senior stakeholder level there was huge amount of common understanding and I think everybody left their ego's at the door is probably the right way of putting that.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.22 However, others felt that it was actually operational staff working directly with each other that made all the difference to developing and maintaining a good partnership:
As with so many of these things, it's because of the people on the ground.... And you quite often have excellent operational relationships that are going really well and if a person moves on, that just disappears.
Senior Manager, Regional Learning Provider
Challenges in Partnership Working
9.23 Partnership working potentially also presented many challenges for organisations. In this section, we examine some of the challenges (and opportunities) presented by partnership working. Firstly, on a practical level, the resources required for effective partnerships could make this difficult for some organisations to pursue. Secondly, some questioned the effectiveness of 'formal' partnerships and felt that often 'informal' partnerships could be at least as if not more effective. Finally, some felt that the tendering system discouraged partnership working.
Investing in Partnership
9.24 For some organisations establishing and maintaining partnerships represented the investment of a lot of time and 'work'. For instance, we have seen above examples of the work done in order to ensure successful partnership roles, including clearly defining roles, building relationships at different levels, addressing disparities and so on.
9.25 This respondent describes the importance of investing time and energy into partnerships:
You've got to work out what is different about our service and then work out how...can organisations come together in a partnership. But that means people giving up things as well and that's a really hard thing to do. You need time and energy as well to actually make it work.
Senior Manager, Equalities FG
9.26 There was also a feeling amongst some that funders did not recognise the work required to form partnerships or understand some of the difficulties in establishing effective ones.
Formal versus Informal Partnership Working
9.27 Organisations were engaged in a range of different partnerships including some that were formalised and others that were informal. A number of respondents felt that often informal partnerships were a valuable way of sharing information:
We have a range of relationships. Some of them are quite formal and others are ad-hoc. We have a very good working relationship with the library for example. That is very much an ad- hoc informal thing where they send people to us and us to them. We have an exchange of information about the activities and events going on. At the other end of the scale we are very much a part of things like [X and Y]. That involves going along to more structured meetings.
Senior Manager, Local Learning Provider
9.28 Some respondents were cynical about the effectiveness of 'formal' partnerships. Having a relationship formalised through a partnership agreement did not ensure that partners would or could work together:
We talk about it and we're all great pals and we sign partnership agreements that don't actually mean anything because there's nothing that really bonds the two organisations.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.29 This Senior Manager believes that informal partnerships can be just as effective, if not more so, than formal partnerships in her experience. She explains that she thinks a key factor in making partnerships work is the motivation and commitment of partners to make it work as well as an open attitude (e.g. lack of defensiveness) rather than having anything formalised on paper. She comments that informal partnerships are based on partners recognising mutual benefits whereas those linked by formal agreements may not have this perspective:
It doesn't matter what you've got written down formally some place. There's got to be this will and this commitment to partnership working, and this understanding that you can't do it all yourself. From our perspective there is more than enough work for all of us and funded work out there for all of us. But there are organisations who think "we can deliver it all". You can't. But when you come out of that perspective, you are not going to look at anything else in any meaningful way. That's probably why informal partnerships are more successful because people aren't bound by this sort of formal agreement. They are doing it because they see the benefits of doing it.
Senior Manager, Regional Learning Provider
Partnership versus Competition
9.30 A number of respondents expressed the view that the tendering process had encouraged more competition between third sector (and public) organisations rather than encouraging partnership working. This was not a universally held view however, with one respondent feeling it had not made any difference and another feeling that this had 'always been the same' in that there had always been competition between TSOs that was not necessarily anything to do with the current tendering systems. However, nobody expressed the view that the tendering process had encouraged or facilitated partnership working although one organisation was very positive about the role that Community Planning Partnerships had in helping them engage more in partnership working through the contacts they provided.
9.31 Some felt that there was conflict in the policy environment with the dual focus on competition to get tenders and the encouragement to work in partnership with other TSOs. Some felt that the two were not always compatible. In one example, the development of a forum was meant to encourage partnership working between third sector organisations in helping to get clients job ready and then find them employment. However, the TSOs had been effectively put into competition with each other because of the performance targets they had to meet.
9.32 This perceived tendency to encourage competition may intensify as a tight funding environment may make organisations more defensive about working with each other because of fears of gaining competitive advantage by sharing ideas.
But of course, as funding starts to tighten up, people start to redefine themselves to chase the funding again. That's a real challenge. Everybody starts to pull in their defences. They close themselves out, because again people worry about "if I share some of our thoughts on what we want to do, somebody else is going to pick up on that and they are going to do it". And that's a terrible way to think, but unfortunately, it's happening.
Senior Manager, Regional Learning Provider
9.33 This potential for increased competition between organisations to be able to provide complete services rather than working with other partners could disadvantage clients:
The impact runs back into funding again because one person representing the third sector says 'oh, this organisation does that' because (they'll say they'll do everything), so instead of organisations working together which was of benefit to the individual, it is now one organisation that wants to take a bigger whack of money to do it all, so the individual suffers.
Officer, Regional Learning Provider
9.34 In particular, some felt that a tight funding environment may also make public sector organisations less likely to work with the third sector in order to protect jobs in their own sector:
There is also a big issue about defending their own jobs in the public sector and how that's going to square with partnership working with the voluntary sector and I think that's going to be quite a challenge environment for going forward.
Senior Manager, Equalities FG
9.35 A Senior Manager with a large employability TSO described how partnership and collaboration with other TSOs and private organisations was initially considered to be incompatible with competitive tendering.
When I joined [name of TSO] we were isolationist and working away on our own in a sense. Competitive tendering maybe pushed us a bit in that direction but it was also about the attitude of some of the staff at that time
Senior Manager, National Employability Provider
9.36 However, latterly within this TSO, there was a realisation that partnership working did not weaken the competitive strength of the organisation, and they had become more engaged in partnerships again:
And I think it's much better now that we are working in partnership because that is the right thing to do. What we have tried to do is to position ourselves in the third sector by being more participative, rejoining SCVO, taking an active role in the coalition, getting more involved in employers organisations and also looking at ways in which we can work with other TSOs…I think the future is about shared services, about contracting with each other.
Senior Manager, National Employability Provider
9.37 The Task Group wants to improve partnership working with the third sector by identifying a clearer understanding of how shared services can work between different types of partners and to create 'clearer pathways for authorities and organisations seeking to work in partnership and collaboration" 51. The onus is on the voluntary sector to "clarify what added value they bring to any decision-making and policy-forming partnership [and]…what the third sector expects in return" (Joint Statement 52). However, there is still some way to go given some of the challenges that have been identified.
The Importance of Partnerships in Facing Future Challenges
9.38 As was highlighted earlier, partnership to provide shared services or 'joined-up' services are advocated in order to produce efficiencies as well as synergies (Task Group), and could be an important strategy for meeting the challenges of a tight funding environment. There was also a perception that local authorities were encouraging partnerships for service delivery, and for 'joined up' working. This potentially could make the provision of services more cost effective by using resources more effectively and avoiding duplication:
I think they're trying to encourage people to work in partnership more, and I think it's a difficult thing to do. I think it is the way to go in the sense that they don't have a finite amount of resources and they've got to work in a smarter way. And I can see that I think diversity's important but I also think that sometimes, yeah, I think some organisations can look at some duplication of services. I could almost see it in other organisations and also my own, I
can see it within some of the services in my area...you could have 2 organisations maybe sharing some of the work or working together and it would cost less. And I can see why local authorities would see that obviously as a way forward.
Senior Manager, Equalities FG
9.39 A number of respondents agreed that partnerships would be more important in the future. This included building and maintaining relationships with funders as well as working in partnership for service delivery:
I think there's room for us all to an extent but at the moment we are seeing contracting expenditure - there's less and less likely to be room for us all - you probably heard the statistic that 1,000 charities closed last year, there's going to be more, so we do have to as a sector, not be too precious about 'this is what we do and this is what you do' and we are more and more trying to work in partnership with people.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
9.40 Some felt that this also had the potential to be beneficial for the client in terms of providing 'joined-up' services - providing services that meet the needs of clients at different stages. Although some organisations already worked in partnership to provide this kind of service better 'joined-up' working was supported by a number of respondents as a better way to provide services to clients:
I do think that councils, the local authorities and whatever have a much greater focus on...'join all this up' - 'We fund something here, a bit there, and a bit everywhere, let's get it all together and have something that is much more cohesive for people and much more seamless'. [For instance]...if someone comes out of hospital into support accommodation and then comes out of day service and then requires something that's a wee bit more structured and focused and then leading on to employment and then perhaps out at the other end.
Senior Manager, National Health and Social Care Provider
Summary
9.41 Most participants had experience of successful partnership working. However, the extent of partnership within the sector and with other sectors may have the potential to increase in the future.
9.42 A number of factors were identified that contributed to successful partnership working for service delivery. These included:
- Shared Goals/Ethos and Clearly Defined Aims - having a shared vision and ethos and having clearly defined and identified shared aims.
- Complementarity - The extent that organisations complement each other in terms of expertise, specialisms and organisational cultures
- Equality - Where organisations are roughly equal in terms of power, resources and terms and conditions of staff.
- Trust and Reciprocity - Trust and sharing of resources between organisations
- Commitment - The commitment of individuals at different levels within organisations to the partnership
9.43 Partnership working presented a number of challenges for some organisations. These included:
- The ability of organisations to invest time and resources into partnerships
- Some respondents felt that informal partnerships were at least as important, if not more so, than formal ones and questioned the effectiveness of some formalised partnerships.
- There was a perception that the tendering process, whilst purporting to encourage partnership, actually increased competition between organisations to the detriment of partnership working. There was some concern that this tendency would intensify in a tight funding environment.
9.44 Developing partnership working to a greater extent was perceived to be important in order to meet the financial challenges ahead. In particular more extensive participation in 'joined up' working could also be beneficial for clients.