Bridging the accountability gap - Audit Commission

Governing partnerships | Introduction 7
Introduction
17 Public sector organisations in the UK are involved in approximately 5,500 different
partnerships (Ref. 1). The total amount that these partnerships spend or manage is just
under £4 billion. This report sets out the key governance principles that should guide
public bodies and other organisations as they work in partnerships, in order to benefit
service users and the wider community.
18 The term partnership can encompass a wide range of collaborative arrangements. We
define partnership as an agreement between two or more independent bodies to work
collectively to achieve an objective.
19 The current growth in various kinds of partnership working presents organisations with
governance and accountability challenges, as partners and as corporate bodies. We
define corporate governance as: the framework of accountability to users, stakeholders
and the wider community, within which organisations take decisions, and lead and control
their functions, to achieve their objectives (Ref. 2).
20 We support joint working to improve service delivery and the quality of people’s lives. We
are not certain in all cases whether or how partnerships add value. Partnerships may
bring risks as well as benefits, because some public bodies or their partners are unable to
govern successfully the increasing complexity of collaborative working arrangements.
Why the Audit Commission is looking at this now
21 New government policies and legislation frequently involve partnership working. The
major policy initiatives within the seven shared priorities for local government (Ref. 3) all
depend for their success on effective joint working at a local level. There is a growing
policy focus on area governance at regional, sub-regional and the neighbourhood level;
this may involve local authorities and a variety of partners at each level.
22 The government has introduced a number of initiatives to improve the governance of
partnerships locally. For example, the development of local area agreements (LAAs)
should help to improve horizontal accountability, align budgetary and other processes
and streamline decisions on service planning and delivery.