Supporting Partnerships

How Can We Help?

We offer a range of different support tools and services to help waste partnerships move from a state of co-existence towards greater degrees of collaboration and co-ownership, thereby achieving higher efficiency savings.

Levels of Partnership Working & Associated Efficiency Savings

Co-ownership
Collaboration
Co-ordination
Co-operation
Co-existence
	Ref: IESE 2010

• Partnership Health Check

  Understanding the current status of a partnership is crucial in determining a way forward. This includes:

  • collation of local authority waste data and intelligence in relation to services, systems and equipment, contract end dates, planned procurement, staff training needs and requirements etc.
  • identification of success to date in terms of extent of partnership working
  • mapping and visualisation of baseline
  • perception survey of key stakeholders to provide an assessment of views and opinions
  • comparison of performance and potential with good practice case studies

• Options Appraisal

  For those who have a clear understanding of what the partnership has (or has not) achieved to date and are ready to explore potential opportunities for greater partnership working, an options appraisal will generate the evidence and information required for decision making. This includes:

  • development of an appropriate assessment framework
  • identification of potential opportunities to work in partnership e.g. joint training, procurement, marketing and customer services, collection operations and contracts
  • viability and appropriateness of potential partnership structures e.g. full partnership, clusters or pairs working in partnership
  • perception survey examining partnership ability to meet future challenges in terms of leadership, strategic direction, performance, partnership working, capacity, procurement and culture

• Governance Arrangements

  Governance arrangements are an important factor in the success of a partnership. However the key consideration is not to allow governance to get in the way of shared objectives but to ensure that it is fit for purpose and appropriate for the level of partnership required.

  First Stage and Advanced Stage Governance Options

  

  Support in this area includes:

  • evaluation of governance arrangements against aims, objectives and goals for the partnership
  • consideration of governance options and degree of formal and legal co-ownership required

• External Verification

  Where partnerships are undergoing internal review and development, external support can be invaluable in terms of providing verification of the business case and options being proposed. This can add value to the process, accessing external expertise and objective support, giving stakeholders increased confidence in the direction the partnership may be taking. Support can include:

  • review and validation of options appraisals, governance arrangements, business case development etc.

• Facilitation

  Effective and experienced facilitation can help identify and overcome any barriers between partners and stakeholders which may be limiting the effectiveness or progression of the partnership. Support includes:

  • development and delivery of workshops or briefing sessions
  • chairing and facilitating partnership meetings to inform, steer and direct
  • achievement of consensus on an agreed way forward or plan of action for the partnership
  • presentation of case studies or examples of good practice