Partnership & contracting

The search for workable, mutually satisfying partnerships between government entities and community organisations grows year on year. Not all succeed, for the very good reason that partnership is not always the easy option, especially when the relationship revolves around contractual funding and service delivery. Yet the benefits of successful partnerships and partnership-based (relational) contracts, in terms of improved services to the community, make the effort worthwhile.

Issues we can help you address include:

• Critically evaluating the added value of partnership and contract approaches.
• Choosing the right form of relationship – when to seek a partnership, when use an enhanced contract.
• Producing partnership agreements designed to work in practice.
• Identifying the prerequisite conditions required to make the partnership or contact work for both (or all) parties.
• Ensuring partnership agreements and contracts meet today’s accountability requirements.
• Developing a plan for implementing the partnership or contract including planning to avoid unintended consequences.

Feature project: Good Practice Guide for Local Authorities

Recognising the growing importance to local authorities of their relationships with the community organisations they support, Local Government New Zealand commissioned MDL to produce the Good Practice Guide for Local Authorities in the Resourcing and Funding of Community Organisations (see library for synopsis). Two factors motivated the need for such a guide. One was the trend occurring in a number of local authorities towards a partnership approach in their relationships with the local community sector. The other was the shift in public management towards more rigorous and demanding requirements for accountability and sound management.

The guide provides local authorities with a comprehensive menu of suggested good practices to address the practical issues many deal with in the course of developing and implementing community funding programmes. It puts a strong emphasis on recognition of the complementary roles of local government and the community sector, the importance of making the best use of inevitably scarce resource and on having a ‘culture of co-operation’ to make these happen.

The guide has found favour also with community organisations who are able to use it to enhance their relationships with local authorities.

In the course of producing the guide MDL worked closely with local authorities and community organisations, synthesising their wealth of experience, views and forward thinking into a readily accessible reference covering principles, policies and management practices.

The published guide is available from Local Government New Zealand for $20.