Costs of Partnership

2.17 It is widely recognised that partnership working is a relatively expensive and highly resource consuming exercise. A very limited number of responses to the EPU mapping exercise provided information with regard to the time commitment of NICS staff to supporting partnership. However, these totalled almost 62,000 working days per year, and while the actual time spent by NICS staff supporting partnerships is likely to be significantly higher, this is still a considerable figure. In addition, the Audit Commission estimated the direct and opportunity costs of operating some typical partnerships in 1998 as outlined below in Figure 1.⁹

Figure 1: Type, Scale and cost of Partnerships

2.17 It is widely recognised that partnership working is a relatively expensive and highly resource consuming exercise. A2.18 If partnership working is to be good value for money, the benefits achieved must outweigh the costs involved in making it work. Evaluation of partnerships in this regard requires the development of measurable performance indicators and evaluation procedures at the outset.

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9 Audit Commission, 1998, p 35