Partnership Management

Successful partnerships are crucial to developing engagement projects, particularly when you are looking to sustain activity over a longer period of time with other organisations. These partnerships can be a catalyst for innovation, ideas, resources and funding opportunities. The following resources illustrate the key features of effective partnerships, as well as the common pitfalls, and provide practical guidance on how to approach partnership work.

Smarter Partnerships: Making the Most of Partnership Working

The Employers' Organisation for local government (EO) has developed this comprehensive toolkit to assist local authorities and their partners in achieving more effective collaborative working.  It offers a range of interactive tools for you to apply to your own situation, including a partnership health check and a review of learning and skills needed by partners.  The Smarter Partnerships: Partnership Tools section contains additional materials to help in the development of partnerships and in developing the skills for partnership around the themes of leadership, trust, learning and managing performance.

Top ten partnership killers!

Produced by the Improvement Network (the Local Government Association), this gives a really useful summary of how partnerships can go wrong, and how to avoid this happening.

Partnerships: Building creative learning partnerships

This Detailed Checklist is one of several included in the MLA's INSPIRING LEARNING: Improvement Toolkit for Museums, Libraries and Archives. 

Good Practice Guide: Working in partnership

This 2-page guide briefly outlines some of the approaches to working in partnership that have worked well for projects funded through the Big Lottery Fund's (BIG) Research Grants programme.  The benefits of collaborative research partnerships between third sector organisations and research institutions are presented. 

Partnerships and Participation

A comprehensive site created by participation expert David Wilcox.  The guidelines (1998) describe the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful partnerships, and will help you decide what sort of partnership you may wish to create, and how to make a start.  Building on case studies, the guide is intended for anyone interested in how local regeneration projects can benefit from the involvement of those with the greatest stake in their future - the people who live and work there.  Although the principles apply to a range of partnership situations, this is particularly intended for those involved in setting up a Community Development Trust or similar.  Comprehensive reference section.