Top tips on partnering
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Theme 1 - Partnering Top Tips
1. Engagement
- ‘Get out there' at the earliest opportunity - do not wait for people to come to you. Take responsibility for the legwork.
- Face-to-face communication adds much more value.
- Avoid making assumptions about who your stakeholders are, and make sure that stakeholders know they are just that.
- Engagement needs to take place at all levels
- ‘Sell not tell' - selling the benefits of MHIP and negotiating outcomes with partners
- "Communicate, communicate, communicate - even if there has been no change"
- Clarity of expectations and outcomes in order to achieve shared aims
- Create a common/shared framework for everyone to work within
- Engagement process must be clear and accountable
- Important to respect the complexity of the programme and ensure enough time is agreed at the start in order to build relationships, engage partners in a meaningful way and to communicate the purposes and processes involved.
- Non -statutory partners do not have the capacity to attend meetings - we need to go to them
- Non statutory agencies wanted hard copies of documents not electronic.
- PCT input and leadership was valuable in seeking to engage GPs and clinicians
- Having a partnership agreement doesn't mean that they were working in partnership. There were benefits to having a partnership agreement but it is important to explore the notion of ‘partnering' as a cultural change as well as ‘partnership' as a formal agreement (contract.)
- Be clear about what the partnership does and doesn't involve (even if it changes later)
- The requirements of section 11 of the Health and Social Care Act and the Guidance for Overview and Scrutiny Panels had a positive effect on relationships between partners.
2. Understanding
- Wants and needs of partners - Common agendas need to be highlighted to ensure full participation. It should be seen as an opportunity for agendas to become transparent
- Values, agendas and cultures of partners to create a mutually shared and accepted set of agendas
- Sharing needs trust- trust takes time to develop- help may be needed with this (Role of Client Manager)
- Honesty and transparency
3. Differences
- Recognise that everyone brings something to the partnership
- Don't underestimate personality issues - don't let one person become responsible for everything; celebrate diversity and challenge attitudes
- Old and existing partnerships can create some tension where new relationships mean shifting the balance of power
"You can only do on the outside what you are on the inside" - Practice what you preach by partnering internally