Local Authority Partnerships & Best Value - An Overview of the First Year, 1999

DETR/Newchurch Partnership Series, Paper 7, November 1999

Introduction

1. For the majority of Elected Local Authority Councillors and Officers of the late 1990s the statement in the 1998 Local Government White Paper: Modern Local Government - In Touch with the People:

"Where the relationship between the council and its essential local partners is neither strong nor effective, that council cannot hope to lead its community successfully"

is well understood and accepted.

The partnership approach to local service delivery and leadership which that statement underlines is complex and varied. Defining the core characteristics of partnerships and how to identify them is complicated enough. Finding out what kinds of partners and partnerships work in different parts of local government and for different services is another layer. On top of both there are the practical questions of how well do partnerships succeed in doing things by comparison with other methods.

2. Those questions have a timelessness about them, but there is now an urgency about finding new ways to provide better, more relevant and more cost-effective services to our communities. The 1998 Local Government White Paper stressed the pace of change which is required and the determination to create a new and better framework within which Best Value, Governance and Performance linked to the community's real needs are seen as paramount.

3. It is the combination of the need to understand the meaning of partnership in local government and the intention to exploit partnership as one of the vehicles for better public services which form the fundamental objectives of the Partnership Research Study which underscores much of the agenda for the National Conference on Best Value (22 November 1999). The outcomes of both the Research and the Conference may have a profound bearing on future Government and Local Government policy and actions.

4. In September1998 Newchurch and Company were commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) to undertake this 3 year study of Partnership Working in Local Government in England. The study was to reflect on existing knowledge of partnership, take stock of the scale of partnership working within English local government and consider, in the context of Best Value, the role that Partnership working could play in the new management of local government.

5. Concurrently with the commissioning of this study the Minister for Local Government & the Regions, Hilary Armstrong MP, announced the Best Value Partnership Pilot Networks (PPNs) of new local authority partnership project initiatives with a focus on Best Value. The observation of the development of these partnerships over a three-year period (starting in the autumn of 1998) is a major element of the Study.

6. PPNs offer the chance to understand more completely the relationship between Partnership and Best Value. What works and what doesn't. In the early stages of their study valuable lessons can be learned about the inception of partnership and the favourable pre-conditions. As the PPNs progress the structures and management of Partnership can be explored and the Best Value measurement of the benefits of partnership can be better defined.

7. The Partnership Study as a whole enables an examination, for the benefit of Best Practice advice, of what makes for sustainability and longevity in partnerships and what obstacles lie in the way of the formation of partnerships with a Best Value focus.

8. The observation of PPNs is complemented within the Study by a:

• Working definition of partnerships (agreed in November 1998: see Figure 1)
• Review of relevant literature (completed in Spring 1999)
• Major postal survey of existing Partnership Working in local authorities (conducted in the Spring and early Summer of 1999)
• Further and more detailed mapping study of a sample of the postal survey respondents (to be conducted in November and December 1999)
• Case Study observation of a sample of local authorities' existing partnership working (commencing in March 2000).

All of these reports can be obtained from Newchurch by contacting Vikki Everett at:

Newchurch
25 Christopher Street
London EC2A 2BS
phone 0171 422 0222
fax 0171 422 0234

9. The Study has the benefit of the ideas and contributions of an Advisory Group appointed by the Minister for Local Government & the Regions. Its members are:

• Chair

Richard Footitt
Head of Local Gvt. Competition & Quality Division DETR

• Members

Peter Fanning
Chief Executive 4Ps

Carole Hassan
Chief Executive Watford BC

Malcolm Iley
Partner, Nabarro Nathanson Solicitors

David Robinson
Managing Director Atmos Ltd

Mick Graham
National Secretary (Public Services) GMB

Lee Digings
Head of Best Value & Procurement Islington LBC

Michael Jennings
Director Partnership and Community Affairs Surrey CC

Richard Grice
Policy Officer NCVO

Bernard Knight
Chief Executive Bolton MBC

Denise Caudle
Director of Education, Skills & Enterprise G.O. North East

• The Newchurch Study team is lead by Roger Taylor and Brenda Setchell and the Project Manager at Newchurch is Vikki Everett. Appendix 1 provides details of the publications that are available from the study so far.

10. One of DETR's objectives for the study is the promulgation of good practice on partnership working. In this context Newchurch are already contributing to the LGA hearings on aspects of partnership and intend to contribute to the work of the Institute of Public Policy's Commission on the future role and contribution of Public Private Partnership. Newchurch would be happy to discuss the study with any other interested parties. The National Best Value Conference in November, where this report will be presented, is one major step in that direction.

11. The Study has now been running for one year and this report is an overview of the work so far:

• Considers the historical and policy context for partnership in local government - Drawn from the Study's Literature Review
• Describes the various elements of the study - Drawn from the Study's Terms of Reference and Methodology
• Discusses the main findings that have already emerged from the Study and considers them in the context of Best Value - Drawn from the Study's baseline evaluation of the PPNs and Postal Survey
• Lays out some early and tentative Findings, Potential Pitfalls to avoid and Hypotheses - Drawn from the PPN Baseline evaluation and the Postal Survey
• Looks further ahead to consider the outputs from the study and the future impact of partnership working within the local public sector - Drawn from wider consideration of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda related to the Study findings so far.

A Working definition of partnerships

Right at the start of this Paper we exhibit the working definition of Partnerships that has been adopted for the purposes of this study.

It is important to note that this is not definitive, nor is it a definition that has been endorsed on a wider basis by DETR. Its primary purpose is to enable boundaries to be drawn and to create a common understanding to underpin the whole study. At the conclusion of the study it will be necessary to return to this definition in the light of the study findings.

It has been drawn from the consideration of the substance of the Literature Review and drafted by Professor Paul Joyce of the University of North London, working with Newchurch.

Figure 1: The Study's working Definition of Partnership

Local Government's Partnerships -A Working Definition for the Study

"A local authority partnership is a process in which a local authority works together with partners to achieve better outcomes for the local community, as measured by the needs of the local stakeholders, and involves bringing together or making better use of resources. This working together requires the development of a commitment to a shared agenda, effective leadership, a respect for the needs of the partners, and a plan for the contributions and benefits of all the partners. The dynamic aspect of the process requires specific goals of partnership working to be identified, performance to be evaluated, and the assessment of the continuing fit between partnership activities and community needs and priorities."