Step One - Establishing the partnership

i.  Identify and engage relevant partners

Where partnership is appropriate, it is essential to identify and engage key groups that the partnership will impact upon. While there is no blueprint with regard to the number of partners, this should reflect the scope and role of the partnership and the need to ensure that all relevant parties have been engaged.

ii.  Recruit the right individuals

In the early days of the partnership the most important factor to consider in identifying the right individuals to involve is whether they have the necessary leadership qualities to convince other potential partners to participate and to secure the necessary resources to enable the partnership to function effectively. These people are often not the right people to lead the partnership throughout its life, but they have a vital galvanising role to play in the early days.

As the partnership moves forward, it is essential that the individuals involved have sufficient authority to take decisions and to influence the practices of their parent organisations. Recognising the proliferation of partnerships in recent years, consideration also needs to be given to the ability of individuals to attend meetings and actively participate in the partnership.

iii.  Agree the vision and mission

The vision and mission define the partnership. It should clearly describe what the partnership hopes to achieve and how it fits into the wider context. If the partnership is to function effectively and the potential for conflict minimised,  the vision and mission must be consistent with the aims and activities of the individual partners.

Step Two - Managing for Performance

i.  Team Building

A partnership is in essence a team. Successful teams take time and work to establish. A key aim of the team building process is to increase mutual understanding and trust between partners. This is more likely to happen where all partners feel valued, are able to contribute towards the realisation of objectives and where the role and objectives of the partnership are consistent with those of the individual partners. This may also require facilitation and training to ensure that all partners have the necessary skills to contribute.

ii.  Agree clear, measurable, achievable and relevant objectives and targets

As with any organisation, for partnerships to fulfil their purpose they need a clear set of objectives. Those objectives must be relevant to the environment and problems/issues the partnership seeks to address, they should be consistent with the objectives and activities of the parent organisations and to facilitate evaluation they should, where possible, be specific and measurable.

All partners must be agreed as to the objectives and actions and their role and responsibilities in taking these forward. Partners must also deliver on their agreed contribution and combine together effectively, integrating and co-ordinating efforts and jointly targeting resources.

iii.  Establish an effective means of making decisions and taking actions

A partnership cannot be effective if it cannot make decisions. To facilitate the decision making process, all partnerships need at least one body, a board or steering group, which all partners recognise as the decision making mechanism and where representatives have sufficient authority to take decisions on behalf of their parent organisations.

On occasion it may be necessary for members to consult their parent organisations. In such cases undue delays in the decision making process can be minimised through careful project planning.

iv. Ensure the partnership is resourced to achieve its objectives

A partnership cannot be effective if sufficient resources have not been made available to ensure success. Therefore, account needs to be taken of the human, financial, technical and organisational resources and support which need to be available to enable the partnership to achieve its objectives.

Step Three - Measuring Success

i.   Evaluate performance against objectives

Evaluation is one of the most fundamental management tools, yet it is often absent from partnership working. Partnerships must have some means by which to evaluate their performance and clearly demonstrate their value. The fundamental requirement of any evaluation is that it must relate clearly to the partnership's objectives.

Measuring performance against objectives can be difficult. However, as a first step, partners should identify and agree the objectives they intend to achieve. They should then turn these into specific outcomes and identify which of these outcomes can be measured by numerical performance indicators. Where outcomes cannot be measured numerically, other means of assessing performance should be identified, i.e. focus groups, surveys etc. It is critical that performance indicators are owned by and contributed to by all the partners. If only some partners can influence or contribute towards the realisation of indicators, others are likely to feel marginalized.

Evaluation enables a partnership to identify what it is doing well and where improvement is required. However, any evaluation process should be commensurate with both the costs and extent of the partnership relationship.

ii. Evaluate the health of the partnership

In addition to evaluating performance against objectives, the Audit Commission also recommend that partnerships should measure the efficiency of their activities and the health of the partnership itself11.