home » the service » policies » partnerships » partnership policy
The Service
Policies & Initiatives
Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service (HFRS) defines a partnership as:
“a voluntary relationship between two or more free and independent bodies which is designed to secure shared objectives.”
HFRS believes that working in partnership provides enhanced opportunities for the Service to develop with likeminded organisations its service delivery to the community.
Some of our strategic objectives can only be met by working in partnership with others, and partnerships contribute to the delivery of the IRMP. The Service aims to be actively involved with key partners in a co-ordinated and results driven approach to community safety.
Partnerships are a significant feature of public service delivery in the UK. As part of the Local Government Act 2000 principal local authorities have a duty to prepare a community strategy to promote “the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their areas.”
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 brought in the requirement for local authorities and police to work in partnership to:
The Police Reform Act 2002 established the Fire and Rescue Service as a statutory partner from April 2003, and Primary Care Trusts from April 2004, for the joint approach to combating crime, disorder and drugs.
The 2005 Audit Commission report “Governing Partnerships” in 2005 concluded that:
“Partnerships can bring significant benefits. They are a response to the complex and multi-faceted problems that face society and that cannot be tackled effectively by any individual body working alone. They can provide flexibility, innovation and additional financial and human capital resources to help solve problems. These are powerful incentives for organisations to work with others”.
The Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2006/2008 identifies that working in isolation “does not have the capacity to provide the most efficient, effective and economical response” to meet some challenges. HFRS fully accepts this and embraces the opportunity to work with others.
Working in partnership with others allows the Service to tackle difficult policy and operational challenges. Partnerships can provide an effective use of resources to save duplication of effort. Partnerships can provide a joined-up approach to working which facilitates:
HFRS will only enter into partnerships that contribute to its corporate aims and strategic objectives. Partnerships can be long or short term addressing specific areas of mutual interest. Partnerships can also be of a statutory, formal or informal nature.
Statutory partnerships are those that HFRS are required to be a member of by law. An example would be the crime and disorder reduction partnerships whose membership was set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
Formal partnerships are often seen as a separate entity, whose members act as steering group that direct their activities to the common objectives of the partnership. Formal partnerships may often have budgets and resources allocated to them.
Informal partnerships may exist where the style or type of work being undertaken doesn’t necessitate such formality or where there is a large degree of trust and history of joint working already in place. Examples of these may be:
Partnerships can be formed with local authorities, the voluntary sector, and private enterprise. Examples of organisations that HFRS has formed partnerships with include:
HFRS is also involved with Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs). These are multi-agency bodies which match local authority boundaries, and aim to bring together, at a local level, the different services offered by the public, private, community and voluntary sectors. Local Strategic Partnerships are key to addressing the multi-faceted and complex problems facing communities.
Partnerships may not always be the best solution to solve a problem. The Audit Commission provide a list of key considerations when developing partnerships with others. They also recommend before setting up a partnership some basic issues need to be considered.
For more information on this see Section 1 “Audit Recommendations to Assess Partnership Suitability” within the Partnership Toolkit .
Partnerships need to strike the right balance between the need to protect public money and to ensure value for money, and the innovation and flexibility that can result when organisations collaborate.
Partnerships should be set up to achieve a specific purpose. There should be clear measurement and evaluation criteria in place to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of the partnerships to ensure the Service is putting resources into appropriate projects. All partnerships should contribute into the Service corporate aims.
If the partnership does not set out to achieve this, the question should then be asked why does the partnership exist?
The Local Government Employers Organisation suggest there are eight tests for a healthy partnership:
Effective risk management is integral to delivering a successful partnership. Delivering services through partners can bring significant benefits, but there is less direct control. Partnerships can lead to higher levels of uncertainty and introduce different (and therefore unfamiliar) risks into the organisation.
For more information see Section 2 “Risk Management Approach for Partnerships” in the Partnership Toolkit.
Where outstanding results have been achieved though partnerships, these should be shared and celebrated to provide examples to stimulate the creation of other partnerships that might lead to improved performance.
Alternatively, a partnership may fail to deliver its desired outcome, even though the partners have worked well together. It is important in such circumstances that lessons are learnt from the experience and are used to inform future projects.
Partnerships should be regularly reviewed in accordance with the Partnership Review Schedule - see Section 3 “Partnership Review Schedule” in the Partnership Toolkit.
An exit strategy should be discussed as the partnership is set up. This will allow for clear guidelines on how to handle the event of any partner wishing to leave the partnership arrangement – for more information see Section 4 “Disengaging from a Partnership” in the Partnership Toolkit.
Successful partnerships often take time to achieve results and the process may sometimes be difficult. In order to aid the introduction and assessment of a partnership a Partnership Toolkit has been established to provide guidance and advice.
All partnerships need to complete a Partnership Registration form (see Section 5 in the toolkit). This will be held in the Partnership Register maintained by the Performance Review Team. All partnerships between the HFRS and any third party must have their details registered using the partnership forms.
For more information about Partnerships please contact the Performance Review Team.
partnership policy
partnership toolkit
