Response Rate

3.7  A total of 584 partnerships were identified, 354 in the returns to template 1 and 230 in the returns to template 2. However, upon initial consideration of the returns it became clear that a number of the bodies identified by departments could not be appropriately referred to as partnerships. This included New Deal Consortia and a number of PPP projects which are more appropriately considered as contractual arrangements or an alternative to partnership. In light of this departments were asked to reconsider their initial returns with a view to excluding the following:

•   bodies established for the purposes of consultation, where a single agency retains responsibility for decisions and actions;

•  personal and professional networks which do not involve organisational commitment; and

•  contractual arrangements such as those established under PPP, and New Deal consortia

3.8  Subsequent returns resulted in 31 organisations being excluded from further analysis. This included 25 New Deal Consortia and a number of PPP projects, operating primarily at a regional and local level, and accounting for expenditure of some £13m per annum.

3.9  As a result, the total number of partnerships identified was reduced to 553. The breakdown by Department can be seen in table 4 below. Given the information requested, there is a small degree of duplication when the responses to templates 1 and 2 are compared, with a number of Departments engaged in the same partnership, though with only one in the lead. This was particularly the case with regard to Local Strategy Partnerships, Community Safety Partnerships, and to a lesser extent Investing for Health and Surestart Partnerships.

Table 4:  Responses by Department to Templates 1 and 2