Developing effective partnerships

One of the strongest themes in effective employability delivery is local partnership action.  This is seen in:

• The DWP City Strategy approach across the UK. This approach is based on the idea that local partners can deliver more if they combine and align their efforts behind shared priorities, and are given more freedom to try out new ideas and to tailor services in response to local need.
• The Workforce Plus approach in Scotland, which focuses on the creation of local partnerships of employability funders and their alignment of funding, procurement and infrastructure

• The development of Multi Area Agreements in England and Single Outcome Agreements in Scotland, both of which require the key local agencies to work together in agreeing shared outcomes and how they will each contribute to their achievement. 

The approach in Scotland has been to focus on making the best use of existing resources and improving performance by:

• Developing shared objectives
• Creating a common understanding of the current infrastructure of support and drawing on this to create more complete ‘supply chains’
• Aligning funding and procurement to ensure that partners’ money is being used to buy services in a coherent and ‘joined up’ way
• Placing a stronger emphasis on effective performance measurement and management and in particular seeking to manage the local employability service as an integrated service, identifying and responding to strengths and weaknesses
• Drawing more effectively on the wide range of front line staff (eg in Social Services, Health and Community Development) who engage with priority clients, and help these front line staff and their managers understand the significant role they can play in the employability agenda.