SPF

Workbook 12

Objectives of collaboration Collaboration in public services

• Ongoing pressure to reduce the cost of public services and demonstrate good value for money.
• Over no. of years a range of models have been developed that involve some form of collaboration and integrated care and service delivery between orgs and sectors. (Huge example at the moment in the NHS forming Integrated Care Boards to bring providers ccg's gp's etc together.
• reducing resources available people are focused on service redesign rather than cutting services- transformation etc

The drivers for collaboration:

• to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness
• political ideology
• perception that significant financial savings can be made.
• When done well, a successful collaboration should yield service improvement, minimise duplication of effort and present a more joined up approach for the customer.

With collaboration it can bring:

• new and complex relationships that are not always formally governed by legal contracts
• result in complicated accountabilities
• lead to some arrangements eg targets and incentives that may lead to poor service delivery or extreme cases fraud

Since 2010 in the UK, there has also been a greater emphasis on collaboration as a result of:

• Statutory and social responsibilities which the public sector has no choice but to deliver; for example assisting a community to recover from a major flood.
• Increasing public expectations eg. expectation of school and public health
• Integration of services to individuals that often involve many different partners. eg multi agency approach to safeguarding adults and vulnerable children- school, social services nhs
• Spend public money accountabily. An overriding requirement to protect the public purse and to do this in a transparent and accountable way.
• Limitations in the traditional public sector commercial approach and capabilities. eg lack of expertise in effective contract mgmt
• Fiscal consolidation to balance the deficit- who is responsible for PS and how they are delivered
• The localism agenda and changes in local/central government relationships and central government reorganisation.

Lead-organisation networks model

Agencies forming a relationship with one leading organisation selected by public funding agencies to manage the relationships. eg govnm may need to choose an org that has some local mandate or can represent the local community 

Partnering or collaborating models

A partnership can be assessed from different perspectives, as there are different stakeholders. However, a specific network should be assessed on the outcomes of the specific relationship. So, in every partnership, it is important to have a clear, achievable goal. Success depends on the fit between the goal and the way to achieve it.

Legislative duty to collaborate

• 2 PSO's where there is specific legislation regarding their duty to work together

1. Police

• The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 placed new duties on Police Crime Commissioners and chief constables to keep opportunities to collaborate under review and to collaborate if it is in the interests of the efficiency or effectiveness of their own or another police force.
• To do this they removed the requirement to tell the Home secretary about plans to set up large scale collaboration.
• allowed…