Local Evaluation of Children's Services Learning from the Children's ...

38. Conditions reinforcing effective partnership working include: sharing a visionof the purpose of the initiative; transparency of decision making; clarity aboutstakeholders’ responsibilities; good communications between groups ofstakeholders including members of the partnership board, Children’s Fundstaff, service providers and service users.39. Evaluators reported that some collaborative arrangements and networksbetween Children’s Fund projects had been facilitated by partnerships,although many suggested that such arrangements are relatively unevenacross partnerships’ activities. Other collaborative arrangements and networkswere reported as having been established by the organisations themselves.40. A number of evaluators commented that statutory agencies tended to leadstrategically, whilst voluntary and community organisations tended to provideChildren’s Fund services. However, within some partnerships voluntary andcommunity organisations had been strategically influential, indeed, theChildren’s Fund had raised the profile of the sector. Some stakeholderspredicted, however, that the voluntary and community sector would bemarginalised in the next phase of integrating children’s services.Executive Summaryix