Partnership – the buzz word of the party conference season

The party conference season is always a good opportunity to reflect on the position of the third sector and the issues likely to face us all over the coming months. Speaking to people across the sector on the fringe this year, I have been struck by one common theme – predictions of increased demand for charities’ services and busy times ahead for us all.

Partnership working will be crucial in helping us meet this increased demand and is certainly one of the buzz phrases that can be heard around this year’s fringe events. I firmly believe that for the third sector to thrive we must
recognise that we are greater than the sum of our parts, and that it is possible for like-minded charities to add real value to the services they provide by combining to utilise the different skills and capabilities that they possess.

Reassuringly, there is growing evidence that charities are increasing their efforts to collaborate with others for the
benefits of their service users. According to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations‘ latest survey, 72 percent of charities are expecting to collaborate more with other organisations over the next 12 months, with not a single respondent expecting to collaborate less.

Only last week, RNIB, Action for Blind People and SeeAbility announced a high-profile collaboration to combine their resources and expertise, in another sign that the trend towards partnership working is growing.

Our charity, Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), has recently established a new partnerships team to further explore ways we can work together with other charities and voluntary groups and we have been encouraged to find a real enthusiasm from others in the sector to work with us for the benefit of service users.

Earlier this year we entered a key partnership with Citizens Advice which sees CCCS act as the preferred provider of debt management plans for users of 80 bureaux, and we are looking forward to further developing this pilot scheme for the benefit of struggling debtors across the UK.

There are, of course, many factors that can often be a barrier to partnership working. A fear of loss of  independence, the risk of ‘mission creep’ and the time and resource cost of administrating a partnership effectively can all inhibit charities from taking the plunge.

However, with clear goals and a shared understanding of the different perspectives and organisational cultures of each partner, collaboration can and does work. As CCCS and others are showing, working together can deliver
real benefits in these difficult times and investment in partnership working will be crucial for the sector in the months and years ahead.

I believe that the will is there and that the rewards for our service users could be enormous.

Delroy Corinaldi, external affairs director, CCCS