17 Public sector organisations in the UK are involved in approximately 5,500 different partnerships (Ref. 1). The total amount that these partnerships spend or manage is just under £4 billion. This report sets out the key governance principles that should guide public bodies and other organisations as they work in partnerships, in order to benefit service users and the wider community.
18 The term partnership can encompass a wide range of collaborative arrangements. We define partnership as an agreement between two or more independent bodies to work collectively to achieve an objective.
19 The current growth in various kinds of partnership working presents organisations with governance and accountability challenges, as partners and as corporate bodies. We define corporate governance as: the framework of accountability to users, stakeholders and the wider community, within which organisations take decisions, and lead and control their functions, to achieve their objectives (Ref. 2).
20 We support joint working to improve service delivery and the quality of people's lives. We are not certain in all cases whether or how partnerships add value. Partnerships may bring risks as well as benefits, because some public bodies or their partners are unable to govern successfully the increasing complexity of collaborative working arrangements.