A lack of relationship continuity between PPP partners can impact upon the successful achievement of planned outcomes. For example, effective working relationships between service delivery personnel and public partner contract managers evolve over time. Building these relationships can be important as personal influence can be used to obtain information and resolve day-to-day issues without having to resort to more formal means. This approach can save partners time and money over the long-term and potentially prevent small issues from escalating into larger ones. However, when new staff are appointed in partner-facing roles, they are unlikely to have the same level of situation-specific understanding of the operating environment or ease of relationship with their partner counterparts - knowledge must be gained and relationships built anew.
Moreover, staff departures can result in vital knowledge being lost due to discontinuity (Jones and Noble 2008) e.g. a lack of continuity when transitioning from / into each lifecycle phase, or from information asymmetries (Hoppe and Schmitz 2013). The former example relates to a research finding that demonstrates that once the procurement and delivery phases have been completed, project managers tend to return to their 'day jobs' before operations begin (Arthur Andersen and Enterprise LSE 2000: p.38). This may mean that partnership knowledge that could be used during operations is not being fully harnessed or shared across other PPPs (Arthur Andersen and Enterprise LSE 2000: p.50). Furthermore, it is claimed that public partner oversight is most effective when the experience learned in other PPPs is used to inform decision-making (Cambridge Economic Policy Associates 2005: p.34). It has been argued, that to address such shortcomings, a "Centre of Excellence" for government could be established to act on behalf of agencies to manage PPP transactions (Bowditch 2007: p.5; Parliament of Victoria Public Accounts and Estimates Committee 2012: p.87, p.196). The intended benefits could therefore extend to the consolidation of better practice and process as well as tapping into and sharing existing pockets of expertise that may reside within individual agencies and may lead to improved relationships between partners (Bowditch 2007: p.5). This could also lead to economies of scale resulting from an established "critical mass" of projects (Parliament of Victoria Public Accounts and Estimates Committee 2012: p.87, p.196) thus potentially making the transfer of knowledge and skills between people more effective. While public and private partner staff changes are inevitable given the long concession periods of most PPPs, the negative impacts of such changes should be mitigated as far as possible. Appropriate exit interviews, induction / orientation training and succession planning can all help.