Most voluntary organisations will have experience of partnership working at a basic level: networking, information-sharing and referral, joint events; perhaps also through involvement in joint strategies or delivery plans or through co-location of front-line staff.
Some voluntary organisations may have gone a further step by engaging in:
- pre-tendering consortia (joint quality standards etc established in anticipation of tendering opportunities which may or may not materialise)
- delivery consortia (joint service delivery)
In the face of a funding crisis, organisations may need to consider deeper forms of collaboration. There are two main areas to consider:
- shared inputs or resources
- joint service delivery
Where both aspects of collaboration are being considered, it may make sense to consider full organisational merger.
Sharing resources may take the form of:
- Sharing management or administration (transfer, secondment, contracting)
- Sharing specialist functions (IT, HR, book-keeping, pay-roll etc)
- Sharing premises
- Sharing equipment and other resources
NB Staff-sharing may incur VAT liability. Check with your accountant.
Subject to the rules of any specific procurement exercise, joint service delivery may take the structural form of:
- Lead contractor and sub-contractor(s) – where overall responsibility and control lie clearly with the lead contractor. This is the simplest option, and it may be particularly suitable for smaller organisations seeking ‘shelter’
- Consortium with steering group – where strategic planning and scrutiny are shared, but there is still one partner acting as the body accountable to the commissioners and exercising ultimate control. (This has a different ‘feel’ to the previous option, but the objective difference is debatable)
- Special purpose or special delivery vehicle – where a separate legal entity is created under joint ownership to deliver one or more services. The lack of a formal track record may be a disadvantage under procurement rules
For more detailed guidance see: