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 took place on the 6th March 2008. And our 'Creating exceptional partnerships: working together to build upon our success' was a big success, and the publication can be viewed in our publications section which you can reach by clicking here - Hard copies can be ordered here.

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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