Bedfordshire Partnership: Looking Forward

What was the stimulus/ need?

The Bedfordshire Partnership is a strategic service delivery partnership formed by Bedfordshire County Council (BCC) and Hyder Business Services Group Ltd (HBS) to deliver a range of core support services, including IT, Human Resources, Finance, Facilities Management and Social Services Business Support. The agreement setting up the Partnership was signed in May 2001, with implementation following on 1st June 2001. Early to mid-term projects include: service reviews of training, administrative support, social services systems, and contract and facilities management; the introduction of a SAP system to provide PC users with the ability to interact with a common corporate database for a comprehensive range of applications; and a new customer contact centre.

The drive for setting up the Partnership came from the County Council's desire to make a step-change in performance, drawing in the additional resources needed to transform processes, especially involving IT. HBS was chosen as its partner, entering the arrangement as a business proposition, looking to deliver their contract successfully and use the venture as a springboard for other work with local authorities in the South of England.

The agreement is long-term, for a minimum of 12 years, and is underpinned by service level agreements with associated Key Performance Indicators. There is a payment mechanism that penalizes poor or late delivery, an agreed risk allocation matrix, and a procedure for swift resolution of disputes.

The partners recognise the need to pay attention to partnership processes in order to achieve sustained partnership results. While the Partnership Agreement sets out much good partnership practice (eg, in a set of 14 well-argued Partnership Principles), it is one thing to have this in writing, another to ensure it is put into play effectively. Most people now involved in implementing the Partnership were not involved in drawing up the agreement, either as new staff or not party to the original negotiations.

An initial survey of partner views in May 2002 showed many positive signs that the Partnership was progressing satisfactorily (eg, in relation to relationships and information flows) but the experience of managing and working in the Partnership left many involved feeling that more substantial progress and innovation was needed.

It was therefore decided to hold a review workshop in February 2003, a timely stage two years after the partnership agreement was drafted.

How did the Partnership tackle the need?

The approach adopted was to organise a participative workshop for service/ functions heads from BCC and HBS, drawing on Smarter Partnerships materials.

Pre-workshop

Three of the facilitation tools on the Smarter Partnerships website were adapted and used as a short and snappy exercise, which participants were asked to complete in advance from the perspectives of their own area of work (see www.lgpartnerships.com/resources/tools.asp). The tools were:

• Eight Tests of a Healthy Partnership (a simple health check)
  
• Partnership Life Cycle (which illustrates the stages of partnership development and their characteristics)
  
• Five Degrees of Partnership Working (which sets out a spectrum of partnership working from 'co-existence' to 'co-ownership')

Responses were analysed to provide basis for discussion in the first part of the workshop which invited participants to discuss the Partnership's progress, its strengths and weaknesses. There was a very high return rate, and the exercise successfully encouraged participants to think about critical issues beforehand.

Workshop

Workshop objectives were to:

• review Partnership progress and critical issues affecting performance
  
• develop a shared view of how the Partnership is to be developed
  
• review values and behaviours required for effective partnership
  
• identify practical steps for improvement

The programme covered:

• Workshop objectives and participant introductions
  
• Taking stock: Where is the Bedfordshire Partnership now?
  
• Bedfordshire Partnership Vision and Principles: What do they mean in guiding how we work together? Which principles should we work on as a priority? What do we need to do to practise them effectively?
  
• Action planning: what needs to be done, by whom - within partner organisations, within functional areas and in the Partnership as a whole

The workshop was designed throughout to identify practical improvement actions partners could take, in keeping with the approach behind Smarter Partnerships: it is one thing to diagnose needs for change, it is another to tackle these.

The workshop drew on other Smarter Partnerships website content, eg, Benefits of Partnership (used in reviewing partnership added value) and What Makes a Good Partner. Evidence from use of the 'Digging Deeper' interactive tool on the site was used to provide a benchmark for other partnerships.

What were the outcomes?

In providing feedback on the event, participants identified a range of benefits including the 'time out' to discuss important issues and build bridges, and the open dialogue. They made some progress in working through tensions caused by different partner cultures and priorities, including the issue of 'give and take' in negotiating new areas of work.

Actions identified included needs for:

• raising sights within the Partnership, with more focus on its strategic development
  
• more joint working (eg, in tackling shared challenges in personnel management)
  
• developing performance measures shared by BCC and HBS
  
• embedding partnership working throughout functional areas

Outcomes of the event are being considered alongside results of a Customer Satisfaction Survey, which is seeking views of users of the services provided by HBS and BCC Central Services.

What was learnt?

The main areas of learning through the workshop were:

• greater understanding of the issues facing the Partnership and the route it needs to take
  
• a more informed appreciation of the distinctive partner agendas
  
• the need to work on partnership development: success is not something that just happens

In relation to the approach to the workshop, participants felt that they needed more time for action planning an important recognition when there were fears beforehand about how much time managers would be prepared to devote to the workshop. Participants, however, have committed themselves to following through the actions they identified (including further joint planning), and recognised that the event was but part of a process of improving the effectiveness of partnership working.

Contact

Peter Smethurst
Partnership Advisor
Bedfordshire County Council
County Hall
Cauldwell Street
Bedford
MK42 9AP

Tel: 01234 228764
e-mail: peter.smethurst@bedscc.gov.uk
www.bedfordshire.gov.uk

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