Working in Partnership

There's an increasing amount of talk about "working in partnership" - so much, in fact, that it's  sometimes difficult to be clear about what this means. What for example is the difference between a "partner" and a "stakeholder"? Is there a difference between "working in partnership" and simply “working together”?

MACC is increasingly involved in supporting "working in partnership" at a number of levels. Much of the rest of this website talks about Strategic Partnerships - where the focus in on the statutory and voluntary sectors thinking and planning together at a city-wide level.

More and more voluntary sector organisations are getting into Delivery Partnerships - which is about organisations agreeing to work together to deliver their activities or services. The reasons for this are obvious: being stronger by joining forces, sharing benefits and sharing risks. This is different from simply working alongside each other.

• Clear shared aims
• Identified shared benefits
• Incentives to promote co-operation
  
• Disincentives for failure to co-operate
• Sharing confidential information
• Pooling resources (money, people, skills, ideas, etc.)

• A practical guide to working with partnerships (PDF)