2.15 In light of the factors outlined above, partnership working has become an imperative in the development and delivery of effective policies and services across a fragmented public sector.
2.16 However, partnership working is not easy. Where partnership working is not effective nor appropriate, the potential benefits are lost and the risks or disadvantages of the partnership approach become clear. The challenge for the public sector is to manage those risks in order to realise the advantages. A significant volume of work has been undertaken with regard to the value of partnership working and a number of particular advantages and disadvantages have been identified. These are summarised in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Benefits and Risks of Partnership Working
Benefits | Risks |
Partnerships provide a means of addressing cross cutting issues that single agencies cannot address on their own. | Partnerships often find it difficult to develop a common approach and can contribute to increased fragmentation. |
Partnerships help organisations to come together to better align the services provided by the partners with the needs of users. | The growing number of partnerships can create confusion as to roles and responsibilities, making it more difficult for users to access services. |
Partnerships offer a means by which the partners can make better use of resources and achieve more acting together than individually (synergy). | Partnerships are expensive, resource consuming and are more likely to fail than succeed |
Partnerships help to build relations and coalitions between partners. | Powerful interests can dominate partnerships, creating conflict between partners. |
Partnerships, through engaging a wide range of stakeholders, can stimulate more creative approaches to problems, and access to a wider range of skills. | Through the inclusion of a wide variety of interests, partnerships are prone to conflict and often find it difficult to agree a common approach to problems. |
Through empowerment at the local level, partnerships improve local democracy and offer a means of engaging traditionally excluded groups. | Partnerships are un-elected bodies and increase the power of appointed members at the expense of locally elected politicians, thereby undermining local democracy and accountability. |