3.4 Purpose: The Government believes that the relationship between the public and private sector in a PFI project must always ultimately be contractual, but should be overlaid with partnership working to ensure that operations are effective. There is a genuine benefit in ensuring that the public and private sector have a clear understanding of how they should work together and communicate in order to manage the project effectively. The Government encourages projects to develop a partnership agreement, or shared vision document that sits outside the PFI contract. The document should spell out in some detail how the contract will be managed in practice.
3.5 Useful documents: The OBC and the procurement documents will set out the objectives of the project. Authorities will need to consider how objectives will be measured.
3.6 Areas to consider: It is important that both public and private sector parties are aligned in accepting the objectives and values of the project. The contract manager should consider holding a joint workshop or away day with the Contractor prior to contract signature to put together a list of mutually understood objectives. It would be desirable for the project manager to attend such an event.