Collaborative working
The importance of collaboration and cooperation between
agencies and organisations working with children, young people and
families is embedded in the Every Child Matters
agenda.
Children’s Service’s Commissioners have also outlined the
importance of VCS groups embracing partnership working and
submitting joint-commissioning proposals that bring together shared
knowledge and experience.
Collaborative, or partnership working, can come in many forms
and there is a growing recognition within the voluntary and
community sector that, if done well, it can offer many
benefits.
Whilst there is a lot of interest in collaborative working,
there is uncertainty within the VCS about the best methods to use
and how to go about exploring the process.
Our work
VCS Engage is working to identify and refine different models of
collaborative working and provide advice and guidance on how VCS
organisations can develop effective joint-working arrangements.
A seminar on collaborative working is scheduled
to take place on the 6th March 2008. Bookings for the event,
'Creating exceptional partnerships: working together to
build upon our success' are being taken now. To find out
more and to book a place, visit our training and events page.
The following reports commissioned by VCS Engage, explore two
very different methods of partnership working.
The first report, developed by Rainer and Rathbone is entitled
‘Joint working to meet the
needs of young people at risk of exclusion from mainstream
education’. It outlines how the two organisations worked in
partnership to develop, refine and market an integrated model of
service delivery.
The second report, ‘Collaborative working:
building a consortium’ tracks I CAN’s initiative to develop a
communications consortium and outlines the opportunities that the
consortium offered, as well as the issues pertaining to its
development. It provides key lessons on how to build a successful
consortium and offers additional tips for joint working.
VCS Engage has also developed a discussion document that
examines partnership working between larger (particularly but not
exclusively national) VCS organisations and smaller (particularly
but not exclusively local, regional or sub-regional) VCS
organisations.
It outlines the potential pros and cons of this type of
collaboration, explores issues of practicality and provides a brief
case study of its application.
You can contact the author direct (contact details in the
report).
Resources
We have collated a range of information from other
providers related to collaborative working in the VCS,
including frameworks and guides to the different types of
collaboration and partnership working. Click here to access
our comprehensive signposting page.
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