Looking for and finding project partners

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Looking for and finding project partners

• Sally Hiscock, 11 June 2009

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Looking for and finding project partners

• Why bother
• Types of partnership
• Planning for partnership
• Examples, tools and resources
• Putting partnership planning into practice

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Why bother?

• Deliver new, improved or more integrated services
• Make efficiency savings through sharing costs
• Develop a stronger, more united voice
• Share knowledge and information
• Others?

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Risks and obstacles

• Resource and energy intensive
• Loss of flexibility, autonomy, brand
• Lack of awareness, information and experience eg
  legal obligations
• Stakeholder confusion
• Personalities
• Competition between partners
• Resistance to change
• Cultural mismatch between organisations
• Lack of consistency and clarity on roles and
  responsibilities

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Overcoming challenges

• Good personal relationships
• Compatible cultures or an understanding of
  different cultures
• Written agreements
• Experience of change management, leadership and
  vision
• Resources
• Clear and agreed mutual benefits
  and collaborative advantage
• A focus on the big picture
• Careful planning

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Types of Partnership

• Networking
• Joint work on activities, service delivery or
  functions
• Shared staff or resources
• Shared accommodation
• Organisations offer assistance to other
  organisations
• Other funding related collaboration
• Influencing and campaigning activity
• Joint business planning
• Form a new organisation for joint work
• A group structure a 'parent' organisation
  governs a group of 'subsidiary' organisations /
  sub-contracts / consortium
• Merger to form a new organisation

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Networking

• Who do you want to meet and why?
• What networks are you involved in?
• What benefit does this bring?
• What networks should you be involved in?
• What networks can we recommend to each other?

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Planning for Partnership

• Identify
• Plan
• Implement
• Review

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Examples

• Commissioning and public service delivery
• Culture of partnership
• Possible working agreements
• Exploring merger

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1. Commissioning and public service delivery

• Partnership in Public Services the public
  services action plan
• 8 principles of good commissioning
• National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning
• Guidance around working in a consortium
• Guidance on social clauses for commissioners
• Identify and promote the value of the third
  sector
• Streamline contracts and monitoring performance
• Sector knowledge to feedback on commissioning
  experience
• Commissioner for the Compact www.thecompact.org.uk
  
• www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/public_servi
  ces

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1. Commissioning and public service delivery

• Is commissioning right for you?
• Do you have the capacity to deliver?
• Are you prepared to collaboration around
  commissioning, with who and are you well-matched?
• How will tendering and delivery work?
• Management and decision-making
• Skills and competencies
• Systems and processes
• Tender evidence checklist
• www.bassac.org.uk/our-programmes/collaboration

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2. Tools to create a culture of partnership

• Draw up a memorandum of understanding
• Develop a confidentiality agreement
• Have a session on how you will share risks
  liabilities
• Take time to get to know each other and develop a
  method of working
• Delegate small groups to work on practical issues
  such as policy/procedure reviews, structures and
  standards
• www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/collaborativeworking

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3. Possible working agreements

• Collaborative working, joint working or
  partnership agreement or protocol
• Memorandum of understanding (MoU)
• Service level agreement (SLA)
• Contract
• Joint venture agreement

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4. Exploring merger

• Legalities
• Staffing
• Risk management
• Political or brand implications
• Assets
• Governance
• www.modernisationfund.org.uk

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Putting planning into practice

• Identify  Thinking carefully beforehand. Is
  collaborative working appropriate for you
• Plan  Developing the collaboration will involve
  a whole range of tasks to help you draw up shared
  aims, structures and agreements
• Implement  Developing effective management
  processes into your collaboration will ensure it
  functions successfully
• Review  Learning from the experience and
  evaluating the collaboration will help you decide
  to lead to decisions of whether to conclude or
  continue

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Resources available

• General guidance on looking for and finding
  project partners
• Specific guidance on developing working
  agreements
• Collaborate for commissioning worksheets
• Cabinet Office Working in a Consortium Summary
  Guide
• Case study Ealing One Stop Job Shop

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Closing thoughts

• Feedback for me or the panel
• Questions
• Comments
• Thank you!
• Sally Hiscock
• Chief Executive, CVSF
• sally_at_cvsectorforum.org.uk
• 01273 234044