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Partnerships should focus on service, not finance, says report

Governance | Jonathan Last | 19 Oct 2012

A Third Sector Research Centre report has warned that a fixation on financial efficiency often leads to charities losing sight of their social effectiveness obligation when entering into partnerships.

The report entitled Partnership Working, which is released today, is based on research studying partnerships with and between voluntary sector organisations to deliver public services.

It finds that both service commissioning and partnerships are often driven by a fixation with ‘economies of scale’ (cost reductions gained through expansion) rather than developing the personal relationships that can mean better outcomes for service users.

Economies of scope

TSRC argues in its report that more attention could be paid to ‘economies of scope’, wherein organisations increase the range, rather than volume of their activities. Such relationship-orientated activities include customer empathy, team-working, and partnership-building, and TSRC found that these are often also undervalued by commissioning frameworks.

The report found benefits of partnerships were sometimes limited and hard to generalise. It suggests that the pros and cons of such a move be weighed up on a case-by-case basis, rather than justified by broad notions of ‘efficiency’, ‘joined-up services’ and ‘economies of scale’. 

The research was based on five case studies of organisations involved in public service delivery in different policy fields including housing, welfare, and employment services, preceded by a period of scoping research with national interviewees.

Among the conclusions it draws are that service users should get more of a say in the establishment of partnerships, and that voluntary partnerships are more successful than those that are mandated or enforced, since they emerge organically from trust-based relationships.

TSRC’s James Rees conducted the research with David Mullins and Tony Bovaird, and said: “The private sector may be better at doing some types of partnerships because of the single bottom line, but public services deliver multiple bottom lines.

“Trust, user engagement, co-production and relationship approaches are needed to deliver value in these spheres.”

Today's report builds on an earlier TSRC literature review, Working Paper 60.

Directory: Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC)