1 Local authorities and their partners work in a complex economic, social, and physical environment. They can deliver better outcomes by working together than they can separately. Joint working can happen at three levels:
• strategic: setting a vision or direction for an area, discussing concerns, agreeing common goals and priorities, and monitoring progress;
• executive or board: using the vision to allocate resources, set targets and oversee performance; and
• operational or thematic group: managing performance and delivering services to meet the agreed goals.
2 Councils have worked with one another and with other local organisations for over a century. Over the last three decades, government policy has moved from encouraging joint working, to effectively making it compulsory.
3 LSPs were recommended as a way of tidying-up joint working to support the local SCS (Ref.1).I The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (LGPIH) reinforced the role of LSPs, but did not make them compulsory. It introduced statutory LAAs and a duty on named partners to cooperate with the LAA (but not the LSP). LAAs focus attention on local SCS priorities that:
• are agreed with central government;
• have outcomes that can be measured by the national indicator set; and
• can be progressed within three years.
4 LGPIH also introduced CAA to review how local service providers worked together to improve local outcomes.
5 LSPs are developing and each has its own unique history and challenges. There is no one model that will guarantee future success.
6 The Audit Commission report Governing Partnerships (Ref. 2), noted three issues about local partnerships:
• they bring risks as well as opportunities, and governance can be a problem;
• they do not guarantee value for money so local public bodies should question whether and how they engage in partnerships; and
• partners must be accountable to one another and to the public.
7 This study reviews arrangements for performance, resource management, and governance. Since LSPs do not have independent legal or accountable body status, their arrangements will be different from those of their members. However, the principles of good performance and resource management still apply.
8 This study uses a whole systems framework to assess evidence gathered from a national survey of all LSPs (LSP managers and representatives of partners) and 17 case study site visits. These provided a cross-section of local authority experience. The framework includes leadership, culture, skills and synergies (transformational elements), as well as systems, processes and standards (transactional elements).
9 This study aims to:
• identify how well LSPs and their partners manage local public service performance and finances;
• explore opportunities for, and challenges to, improvement; and
• provide practical guidance for partners in LSPs.
10 This national report and supporting guidance are available on the Audit Commission website (www.audit-commission.gov.uk/lsp) and Improvement Network website (www.improvementnetwork.gov.uk/lsp). The guidance includes:
• advice on how to analyse delivery chains;
• examples of notable practice;
• a checklist for LSP improvement; and
• briefing papers on governance for LSP board members, and on scrutiny of LSPs for councillors.
11 The key messages in this study are that:
• LSPs have different histories and experiences - they are each on a unique improvement journey but there are important lessons to learn from one another.
• LSPs are voluntary unincorporated, associations, but they must recognise their strategic, executive, and operational roles and organise themselves appropriately. LSP success depends on the cooperation of partners with different interests, resources, and responsibilities.
• LSPs do not control local public service resources; they have to infuence partners' mainstream spending and activity.
• LSPs need to develop strong partnership cultures to achieve shared goals.
• LSPs in multi-tier areas face greater challenges than those in single tiers.
• LSPs are voluntary: government departments should not place bureaucratic burdens or expectations on them.
12 This report has five chapters:
• Chapter 1 discusses the evolution of partnership working.
• Chapter 2 introduces a whole systems evaluation framework and discusses LSPs' goals.
• Chapter 3 reviews the transformational elements of the framework.
• Chapter 4 reviews the transactional elements of the framework.
I The abbreviations used in this report will be familiar to most readers. However a glossary is included at Appendix 2.