Communication is identified as a critical enabler for achieving desired cultural outcomes, both within contract management teams and between PPP partners (PT10). According to PF11, this is traditionally an area that the public partner can improve upon e.g. through expressing the importance of delivering services in line with public sector values and beliefs more clearly, as part of achieving desired partnership outcomes. PF01 states that trust is integral to good communication and understanding between partners:
"Ultimately, I think business relationships are based on trust and that people will do the right thing and that behaviours can be predicted. It's un-predictable behaviour that's difficult to deal with".
Developing trust can be useful in other ways. For example, by building a trusting relationship, the public partner may be able to engage its private partner in informal dialogue about contract variations before initiating formal contractual processes (RK05). The benefit of this is both partners will have had more time to consider benefits and risks of different approaches before a formal variation notice under the contract is issued (RK05), potentially leading to better VfM.