Partnership Working Research Report: Social and Economic Partnership Project

Partnership Working Research Report: Social and Economic Partnership Project

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS

1. Introduction

2. This chapter seeks to draw out some of the implications and possible conclusions to emerge from the findings of the research undertaken.

3. Strategic Considerations

4. There is a range of different interpretations of the meaning of partnership. It would be helpful to promote a broad view of partnership in order to maximise the benefits of the partnership approach in a range of policy development and service delivery areas. The Executive should be looking to take a lead in seeking to demonstrate the relevance of partnership working to public policy across the board.
6. The Executive's commitment to partnership is sometimes felt to be unclear. How the Executive sees its own role in partnership can also be an area of confusion. It might therefore be beneficial for the Executive to develop a clear, strategic vision of how it sees the role of partnership, and to make explicit its commitment to partnership working. This message could then be articulated clearly and promulgated throughout the Executive and partners alike. Executive staff might benefit from the corporate leadership that this would provide. External partners would also have a clearer sense of the parameters of partnership - where they stand in relation to the Executive and what they can expect.
8. There is some ambiguity about the extent to which working in partnership can and should extend towards power-sharing. Discussion of partnership begins to expose some deep differences of opinion in relation to governance issues. Greater involvement in developing policy raises important issues around democratic accountability. In the context of the Consultative Steering Group (CSG) principles, this represents complex challenges in terms of participation, access, accountability and democratic legitimacy. In post-devolution Scotland, we are still in the early stages of this debate on governance, and the more widely it takes place - from Executive and Parliament, social and economic partners, to communities and civil society - the more fruitful the dialogue will be.
10. There is currently limited cross-fertilisation between the different partnerships that the Executive has with individual sectors and organisations. Thus there is scope for greater bench-marking and sharing of good practice, and perhaps even for rationalisation of partnerships. Both the Executive and partner interests would benefit from greater knowledge of the broader partnership landscape, so there might be a case in the first instance for the Executive mapping the main relationships across the different sectors in order to improve communication about partnership activity. Greater co-ordination of the Executive's overarching approach to partnership would help facilitate clearer messages in this regard.
12. Despite the range of experiences and partnerships, some generic principles and good practice emerged through the research process. This could be capitalised on more. It might be useful for it to be drawn together into one place, as a general framework for partnership working, which could be referred to or used as a touchstone for a variety of partnerships. This would need to have a light touch, but could include a generic set of guidelines - for example the need for joint development of the terms of the engagement, clarity over roles and remit, and the need to mutually evaluate any given partnership regularly against its aims. Of course, if such a framework were to be developed it would need to be done in reference to, and draw on, existing sources and expertise.

13. Cultural Change

14. Commitment to partnership at the surface level is easy. However, in order to make that commitment real there often needs to be change at a deeper level. Investment of staff, time and resources is often a requirement of partnership working if it is to be successful. True partnership is embedded culturally, rather than added on as an after-thought, and there still appears to be a need across organisations and sectors for capacity-building for this.
16. There is no one size fits all model of partnership that can be adopted across different Executive departments, policy areas, sectors or circumstances. Therefore it is appropriate for a range of different methods to be able to be utilised and to be seen to be legitimate. Partnerships should be fit-for-purpose. Both the Executive and partners have been seen to be open to new techniques and to innovate in some situations, yet can also both be prone to falling back on traditional modes of operating which may no longer be the most appropriate approach. Therefore, the Executive and other partners should continue to proactively explore the use of a range of different techniques and approaches to working in partnership
18. Regardless of the variety of different mechanisms or arrangements for partnerships, there are some partnership behaviours which can be applied universally. These are often what determine the success or effectiveness of any given partnership relationship, and there is some way to go in building these up. Good partnership skills, attitudes and behaviours need to be recognised and promoted across the board.

19. Scottish Executive Internal Change

20. This study finds strong endorsement of the messages for change which are already permeating the Executive. Changing to Deliver and other related workstreams represent key drivers for change within the Executive, and are already reaping rewards. It will be important for this momentum be maintained. External interests appear to be largely unaware of either the existence of the internal change programme in the Executive, or of its detail, but express interest in knowing more. Communicating its messages more widely and would help to inform stakeholders of what is being done, and of the corporate commitment to such change. It was clear throughout the research process that external interests have valuable insights into the way the Executive works, so ensuring their future involvement in Changing to Deliver would also ensure that the programme's benefits are maximised.
22. The benefits of partnership working to the policy development process can sometimes be lost or go unrecognised if partners do not see the part their involvement has played. This applies not only in terms of formal feedback on how consultation responses have informed policy decisions, but also at informal levels in terms of 'showing the thinking' more generally. The Executive has already made moves to improve the feedback loop and to open up its processes, and this should continue to be built on. Involvement of external interests should be brought into the policy development process as an integral part of the work that officials do.
24. Currently, partnership often fails to succeed in including community interests, users, silent voices and citizens in the broadest sense. This is recognised as a real challenge to all organisations, and perceived as a weakness that the Executive and partners need to continue to seek ways to address. Involvement of people who are not in organised groups or self-selecting can be done through for example citizens' juries, surveying, visioning groups or deliberative polling. This should complement other forms of consultation with 'core' partners. There is still much to be done. It is also recognised that there is a need for greater capacity-building in communities to help people be empowered to take part in decisions which affect their lives.

25. Improving Partnership Working Mechanisms

26. There is a great deal going on in terms of partnership working across different policy areas and sectors. Much improvement activity is already being taken forward, for example the reviews of the Voluntary Sector Compact and of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Executive and the STUC. Participants stressed the point that upheaval and a culture of constant change is not helpful when things are actually working, and new processes often take time to reap rewards. This is particularly true of partnership working arrangements. Therefore in some cases there is no additional action to be taken, and partners and the Executive should simply seek to consolidate existing partnership arrangements.
28. There are some areas for improvement of existing partnership arrangements. These tend to be specific to particular partnership arrangements. Where this is the case, it is likely that improvement is most effectively channelled through existing processes in the first instance.
30. There is a sense from the study that partnership mechanisms which are set up to tackle particular issues should have a limited life-span, as these types of partnership can outlive their usefulness if and when policy priorities develop and circumstances change. It would therefore be useful for partnerships to embed evaluation processes as standard, for example to periodically review their aims and operations to ensure continued relevance and effectiveness. Sometimes ending a partnership will be the most appropriate action to be taken.
32. The study registered a view shared by many that partnership is only sought by the Executive at the operational/ delivery level, but that they wished for partners to be involved further 'upstream' in the process. They asserted that there is a gap at the level of engaging partners on the strategic issues that face Scotland. It might be worth consideration being given as to whether such a gap exists, and to providing such a joint opportunity for partners along with the Executive and Ministers to discuss the high level strategic issues facing Scotland.
34. This study found a lack of consensus around whether any new mechanisms or systems for partnership working would be desirable. This may be partly due to the small size of the sample but also because the debate is still in its early stages. Whether participants were positive or negative often turned on considerations such as how any new mechanism might be designed, how it would fit with other arrangements and how its aims would be constructed. It was emphasised that, regardless, the quality of engagement and the need for it to add value should be the central considerations in any such debate. It seems from the views gathered that the door is certainly not closed to such a debate in the future. However, it would be very important that it be conducted in an open, inclusive and constructive way. Partners would need to be involved from the beginning in order for any possible outcomes to be widely owned and endorsed.