Sheffield First Partnership

What Was the Stimulus?

Sheffield First Partnership is the high-level regeneration partnership which seeks to:

• identify and address the key issues facing Sheffield
• develop a widely supported vision for Sheffield and produce a strategy to deliver it
• present a united view to government to attract support and resources

Sheffield First has for some time placed great emphasis on accountability and continuous improvement. Progress reports on the tasks and targets contained in the economic strategy, "Putting Sheffield First - Achieving Excellence", are presented - "warts and all" - to a wide range of stakeholders, who are invited to take a critical view. The events, held every six months, are widely publicised and covered by print and broadcast media.

Partners wished to strengthen the Partnership to prepare for the coming of Local Strategic Partnerships.

How Was The Need Tackled?

Since the strategy was launched in 1999, board members have had regular awaydays which have provided opportunities to review progress and partnership effectiveness, and strengthen partnership direction and activities. Each event also tackles one particular theme, eg, relationships with the voluntary and community sector.

Fresh techniques have been used to encourage reflection and improve communication, understanding and trust amongst partners. These included, for example, an exercise to test the extent to which board members regarded Sheffield First's targets as achievable. All were asked to position themselves against a time line on the floor, to indicate when they thought the targets would be achieved. This drew out views about unrealistic targets which may have remained unexpressed, and gave everybody a strong feel for what was possible.

In January 2001, Sheffield First published a stakeholder survey through its newsletter readership. Respondents were asked to rate the partnership against a set of key words (championing, influential, trusted, effective. strategic, listening, identifiable, inaccessible, active, talking shop, ineffective). Analysis of responses showed that:

• the vast majority of readers knew what partnership did, who was on it and that it was independent
• a high proportion associated the words 'strategic', 'influential' and 'championing' with the Partnership (one half to three-quarters) …
• … but there was a significant proportion of doubters (25% associated the words 'talking shop' with the Partnership and 17%, 'inaccessible')

What Were the Outcomes?

Board development activities have helped strengthen the overall performance of the Partnership, and have contributed to the preparation of the Sheffield First 'Change Plan' setting out the route to becoming a Local Strategic Partnership. This was put out to consultation, March - June 2001, demonstrating that Sheffield as a city has been ready to respond quickly to the government's Local Strategic Partnerships agenda.

Objectives of the Change Plan include:

• bringing existing city-wide strategic partnerships together as a coherent 'family'
• co-ordinating priority setting, issue resolution and decision making
• improving the quality of engagement of the community, voluntary and private sectors within and into the family of partnerships
• developing a model of excellence in partnership working based on shared standards of practice.

The stakeholder survey held up a mirror for the Board members to look at how others see the Partnership. They concluded that, "It has developed a high degree of trust internally through effective team working, but a lower level of trust has been developed among organisations that are less directly involved with the Partnership".

What Was Learnt?

from Board development activities

Over the series of board awaydays, partners recognised some important needs in developing the partnership, for example:

• consider "what is best for Sheffield" at all times
• challenge and support each other, be open and consistent, and respect confidentiality
• adhere strictly to a strategic agenda, avoiding tangential matters which individual partners and outside bodies want to raise
• sharpen communications, by providing evidence of progress and celebrating the achievement of others in contributing to this

The board has also recognised the need to keep under review how their meetings are conducted. Agendas throughout the year are structured according to the four themes of the strategy (Education; Enterprise; Equity; Excellence). Each agenda item carries an objective, "to agree X" or "to decide Y". Information items are dealt with outside of meetings. Presenters are asked to focus on key issues for discussion and avoid repeating the content of their agenda paper. The Partnership strives to ensure that key decisions are based on sound evidence and analysis - such as in determining the single neighbourhood to be put forward for New Deal for Communities. The final decision was based on a detailed review of 12 areas; visits by partners to a shortlist of six; and the use of a weighted scoring system - which resulted in a clear "winner". The use of research and objective criteria significantly reduced the potential for difficulties within the partnership.

from the stakeholder survey

The Partnership used a pyramid diagram (below) to help interpret the survey findings. They concluded that they had developed a high degree of competence on the left hand side of the diagram and that more can and should be done to develop the right hand side, which relates to developing high levels of trust amongst a wider set of organisations and interests across the city.

They concluded that in moving to an LSP, they needed to:

• take better soundings outside of the partnership family, including possibly an expanded role for existing citizens' panels and other consultation mechanisms
• examine existing procedures, identifying good practice and gaps; explore problem-solving methodologies; ensure the processes address social inclusion and the wider community
• make creative use of the diversity of interests and opinion within the Partnership and be more open to well thought-out views that might not concur with their own, including perspectives that originate outside of the city
• consider ways of conducting more of their business in public in order to increase openness, transparency and accountability
• manage the transition, including introduction of new members (notably from the community and voluntary sector)

The review gave further impetus to plans for Continuous Professional Development for those involved in the family of partnerships, including:

• shared learning - individual members sharing what they have learnt from their own developmental activities (eg, leadership skills)
• skills for partnership - specific activities to develop skills and experience
• shared models of working - developing best practice methods across the partnership family
• think tanks - informal approaches to addressing new policy developments across partnership boundaries
• pathways - developing pathways of progression into and within the family pf partnerships, with opportunities for shadowing, mentoring and involvement

Contact

Vince Taylor, Director
Sheffield First Partnership
Room 308, Town Hall,
Sheffield S1 2HH

tel 0114 273 6318
fax 0114 273 5064

e-mail: vtaylor@sheffieldfirst.com
www.sheffieldfirst.com

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