Partnership development

Socitm Consulting has worked with numerous partnerships - many originating in response to the e-government funding initiative, and many of these continuing to grow in strength and scope. But all too often, partnerships exist in little but name, and any attempt to achieve consensus on a way forward is likely to be unsuccessful.

In response to this, Socitm Consulting has developed a range of management tools which help it to assess the state of maturity of partnerships and to highlight the next steps in the development of the partnership.

Now, more than ever,  community development is a priority for local authorities, and the Total Place initiative emphasises the need for local public services to be coordinated and joined-up. Strategic planning at an area level must embrace community needs, and how the many different agencies need to work together to meet them.

With an increasing number of partnerships emerging through Local Are Agreements (LAAs) and Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) how do you bring together stakeholders who have different aims and objectives to ensure cohesive service development and delivery? Do you understand the combined needs of the community whilst ensuring individual needs continue to be met? Can you effectivel;y develop shared services working? How do you secure commitment from within - staff and members alike?

These are just a few of the examples of the key questions that you must address. Socitm Consulting can help: 

• With an effective methodology to support partnership development, we have helped many authorities and stakeholders to come together
• Developing the strategic vision, business case, strategy and delivery models to support shared services delivery that works
• Providing programme and project mangement to deliver the required change

Case studies (endorsed by the clients concerned) for partnership working include:

Harrow LB - joined up health and social services programme management
North West e-government Group - Single assessment programme
Northamptonshire Connects Partnership - Roadmap development

Examples of other recent projects for partnership development include: