14 Public bodies should:
a) Know the partnerships they are involved in, and how much money and other resources they invest in them. They should review each partnership, using the checklist in Chapter 1, to strengthen accountability, manage risks and rationalise working arrangements.
b) Establish clear criteria against which partnerships can be evaluated to determine that they help to achieve partners' corporate objectives cost-effectively (Chapter 2).
c) Take hard decisions to scale down their involvement in partnerships if the costs outweigh the benefits, or if the added risks cannot be managed properly (Chapter 2).
d) Agree and regularly review protocols and governing documents with all partners (Chapter 5).
e) Tell service users and the wider public about how key partnerships work, where responsibility and accountability lie and how redress can be obtained through joint complaints procedures (Chapter 4).
15 Regulators should:
a) Collaborate to ensure that they share audit and inspection information about how local public bodies work in partnership (Chapter 5).
b) Agree on joint programmes of work where appropriate to tackle weaknesses and reduce the regulatory burden on organisations working in partnerships (Chapter 5).
c) Make their findings available to the public and to service users (Chapter 5).
16 Central government should:
a) Within the context of local area agreements, make the rationalisation of partnerships easier by clarifying lines of accountability between partners and partnerships, with fewer, more outcome-focused targets that measure cross-cutting achievements (Chapter 5).
b) Ensure that the growth of regional and sub-regional partnership working does not add unnecessary complexity for bodies already in local partnerships (Chapter 5).
c) Consider how the remits of different ombudsmen can be aligned to provide more effective investigation of complaints from the public arising from partnership working (Chapter 4).
d) Improve the integration of financial accounting frameworks and regulations to enable organisations working in partnership to report on joint expenditure and financial activity. This will allow public bodies and their partners to align strategic and operational activity and will be essential for the development of effective performance management systems and processes. It will also provide a better basis for assessing value for money (Chapter 2).