How to support partnership working: learning from the Healthy Communities Together programme

Overview

• Over the past three years, The King’s Fund and The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) have been working together to support five local areas in England to develop partnership working between the NHS, local authority, and voluntary and community sector organisations through the Healthy Communities Together programme.

• The aim of the programme was to support these partnerships to develop new ways of working that would be better able to meet the needs of local communities.

• This report shares our learning from setting up and running the Healthy Communities Together programme. It offers practical details and insights to support others who are seeking to develop partnership working within their local areas.

• The report covers three stages of developing a partnership programme: planning and design, delivery, and oversight, governance and impact. It also explores common learning from other partnership programmes and draws attention to some key issues and unanswered questions around leading systems change. 

• These findings will be useful for commissioners, organisations developing grant and funding programmes, and individuals or organisations developing or providing support to organisations to develop new approaches to partnership working. 

What we did?

Healthy Communities Together was built on three hypotheses. 

• Outcomes for communities (especially reducing inequality) are better served by VCSE sector and statutory bodies working in equal partnership towards a shared agenda. 

• Investment is required to support the participation of VCSE organisations as equal partners. 

• Effective and sustainable partnership working is an active learning process that benefits from expert support to work differently through shared leadership of change. 

The programme comprised a combination of leadership and organisational development support, guidance with the capture and sharing of learning, and grant funding, with oversight from a programme management group formed of members of both The King’s Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund.

What did we learn?

We learnt that there is no template for partnership working, and creating the conditions for it to flourish can be complex. 

• When establishing a partnership programme, take the time to consider understandings and assumptions around the design of the programme, and the impact of those design decisions on oversight and delivery. For example, programmes that aim to support organisations to work differently are inherently disruptive, while test and learn approaches benefit from some clarity around expectations while allowing flexibility to adapt and evolve.   

• It is important to ensure any partnership programme aligns with existing strategic plans and governance mechanisms. In addition, take the opportunity to build in learning with other similar programmes, and how you will evaluate your progress.   

• Partnership programmes need more resource than expected due to their inherent complexity.  Be realistic about budgeting so that it covers more than the individual components of the programme, while recognising there is no perfect model.   

• Partnership working is a balancing act with a focus on building both new ways of working and delivery of plans. Achieving a balance means there are choices about what you prioritise and when, ensuring that partnerships are able to evolve their ways of working while delivering on their planned outcomes.   

• Enabling and capturing learning is essential. We found that a blended approach to the offer of support is helpful, with a balance between tailored support and core learning activities.  Additional time and resource needs to be factored in, particularly where this relies on the involvement of people where this is not part of their substantive role.   

• Opportunities for communications and dissemination can be beneficial to partnerships by raising awareness of their work as well as sharing learning. Funders and support partners should consider how they support partnerships as well as using their own routes to influence.   

• It takes time to achieve transformational change in ways of working. Progress is often variable and takes unexpected pathways. It may be helpful to think of change as a series of phases, with active review points to assess progress, learning and plans.