• Effective joint working needs active leadership and purposeful relationship management.
• The leadership styles of the chair, and of the council, affect how others see an LSP. Councils must ensure that partners see local leadership: not domination or control.
• Social network analysis can strengthen working relationships.
• Delivery chain analysis can strengthen the links between LSP objectives and partners' action.
• Partnership working is more complicated in multi-tier areas where there is often less experience of collaboration.
• LSPs need systems to support a culture in which performance is tested and challenged.