What are the Partnership Assessment Tools and How Can They Help

1
What are the Partnership Assessment Tools and How
Can They Help?

• Eileen Waddington
• Independent Consultant

2
Origins of the Partnership Assessment Tool

• Extensive Research Programmes in the field of
  Health and Social Care
• Policy Imperatives focused on Partnership
• Challenge of using knowledge to inform practice
• Development of Generic Principles

3
What Can The Partnership Assessment Tool Offer

• An evidence based framework
• Common language/structure for partners to use
• Time out to take stock

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PARTNERSHIP ASSESSMENT TOOL6 PARTNERSHIP
PRINCIPLES

• Recognise and Accept the Need for Partnership
• Develop Clarity and Realism of Purpose
• Ensure commitment and Ownership
• Develop and Maintain Trust
• Create Robust and Clear Partnership Working
  Arrangements
• Monitor, Measure and Learn

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PRINCIPLE 1 RECOGNISE AND ACCEPT THE NEED FOR
PARTNERSHIP

• Identify principal partnership achievements
• Identify the factors associated with successful
  partnership working
• Identify the principal barriers to partnership
  working
• Acknowledge the extent of dependency upon others
  to achieve some of your own goals
• Recognise the extent of dependency of others upon
  you to achieve some of their goals
• Acknowledge areas in which you are not dependent
  upon others to achieve your goals

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PRINCIPLE 2 DEVELOP CLARITY AND REALISM OF
PURPOSE

• Successful partnerships are built on shared
  vision, shared values and agreed service
  principles
• Define clear joint aims and objectives, with
  objectives expressed as outcomes for users
• Ensure joint aims and objectives are realistic
• Acknowledge the existence of separate
  organisational aims and objectives, and their
  relationship to jointly agreed aims and
  objectives
• Recognise the extent to which the separate aims
  and objectives of individual partners are
  enhanced or compromised by the pursuit of joint
  aims and objectives
• Focus partnership effort on areas of likely
  success

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PRINCIPLE 3 ENSURE COMMITMENT AND OWNERSHIP

• Ensure appropriate seniority of commitment
• Ensure sufficient consistency of commitment
• Secure widespread ownership within and outside
  partner organisations
• Recognise and nurture individuals with networking
  skills
• Ensure that networks are institutionalised
• Promote partnership working through the use of
  appropriate rewards and sanctions

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PRINCIPLE 4 DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN TRUST

• Ensure all parties are accorded equal status
• Ensure fairness in the conduct of the partnership
• Ensure fairness in distribution of partnership
  benefits or gains
• Ensure the partnership is able to sustain a level
  of trust when faced with external problems which
  inhibit the contribution of individual partners
• Ensure that the right people in the right place
  at the right time
• Trust built up within partnerships needs to be
  protected from any mistrust that develops in
  parent organisations

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PRINCIPLE 5 CREATE CLEAR AND ROBUST PARTNERSHIP
ARRANGEMENTS

• Transparency in the financial resources each
  partner brings to the partnership
• Awareness of the non-financial resources each
  partner bring to the partnership
• Distinguish single from joint responsibilities
  and accountabilities
• Ensure size and complexity of partnership
  arrangements are commensurate with the identified
  partnership remit
• Develop structures which are time-limited and
  task-oriented
• Ensure prime focus is on process and outcomes not
  structure and inputs

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PRINCIPLE 6 MONITOR, MEASURE AND LEARN

• Agree a range of success criteria
• Create and use arrangements for monitoring and
  reviewing how well the partnerships service
  objectives are being met
• Develop arrangements for monitoring and reviewing
  how effectively the partnership itself if working
• Ensure feedback to and from parent organisations
• Celebrate and publicise local success and root
  out continuing barriers
• Reconsider/revise partnership aims, objectives
  and arrangements

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Using the Tool - What we Learnt

• The importance of language
• Establishing ground rules for the exercise
• Not all principles are of similar importance
• Setting up the process is an important starting
  point in committing to action

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Using the Tool - What we Learnt(continued)

• Scoring and visual representation of findings is
  popular
• Capable of use throughout organisations and
  charting progress over time
• Provides a framework and common vocabulary

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Rapid Partnership Appraisal
Principle 1
Principle 6
D
C
B
A
Principle 5
Principle 2
A
B
C
Principle 4
D
Principle 3
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Building up Evidence Based Practice
Research Findings
Market use
Develop new research questions
Distilling the key messages
Revise and publish
Understanding what the field needs
Informed by consultancy work
Field testing a prototype
Developing an appropriate practical tool
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Continuous Development Of The Tool

• Partnership Assessment Tool Adults
• Partnership Assessment Tool Children
• For use with strategic partnership
• Team Assessment Process for Adults
• Team Assessment Process for Children
• For use with front line multi disciplinary teams

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Some Examples of Assessments Undertaken

• Developmental Tool newly formed Partnership
  Board
• Trouble shooting Local Strategic Partnership
• Charting progress over time Integrated Mental
  Health Service
• Research/Evaluative Tool Longitudinal research
  project

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Key Messages from our Experience

• Probably works better with facilitation
• Traditionally a lack of attention to processes of
  working in partnership
• Understanding behaviour/perceptions enables
  partnership to target remedial behaviour
• People often need to customise the Tool
• Importance of the link between the knowledge base
  and practical application

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Key Messages from our Experience(continued)

• Keep it simple and accessible and people will use
  it
• Possibility of tension between use as
  developmental tool and performance management
  instrument
• Constantly review in light of experience

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Exercise For The Workshop

• Choose one of the tools to use
• Complete the exercise individually using a
  partnership you are involved with (15 mins)
• Discuss within your group the experience of using
  the tool, did it help you understand any more
  about your partnership working?
• Discuss within your group the usefulness or
  otherwise of the material
• How might you use it in the future?