Bridging the accountability gap - Audit Commission

38
Governing partnerships | Governing partnerships for better accountability
Case study 5
Plymouth City Council
At Plymouth City Council, the leadership has endorsed a growing culture of interagency
working, extending beyond the work of specific partnerships. For example,
the Council has contributed resources to develop the Plymouth 2020 partnership
Plymouth Informed website. This provides a range of information about the city,
including statistics, the provision of local services and the strategies and plans of
partners. Members of the public and any interested organisation can access the site
at: http://www.plymouth-informed.org.uk.
Source: Audit Commission, Working in Partnership through Plymouth 2020, 2004
85 But cultural differences and tensions – real or perceived – remain a barrier to effective
partnership working. Difficulties may arise because of:
●
●
●
●
different management cultures;
failure to use the skills and experience of partner organisations and partnerships
effectively and to develop them to best effect;
poor communication and information sharing; and
uneven levels of support from partners.
86 Funding is another factor that has affected the culture of collaborative working – the main
factor determining some organisations’ involvement in partnerships has been the
availability of funding. Some partnerships have experienced deteriorating relationships
between the partners because of damaging disagreements about how they should
allocate the funding streams.
Systems and processes
87 In order to improve communication, it is important to develop formal protocols on the
sharing of information and knowledge within and between partner organisations. Even
where individual partners use their own internal and external communication channels,
there is sometimes uncertainty about the messages to send and partners can struggle to
keep abreast of partnership activity and developments.