Forming, developing and sustaining social partnerships

Social partnerships are local networks connecting some combinations of local community groups, education and training providers, industry, and governments for the purpose of working on local issues and community-building activities. They are becoming an increasingly widespread organisational form and are considered to work well in expressing and responding to local needs and building decision-making capacity at the local level.

• Through studies of ten social partnerships involving vocational education and training (VET) in Queensland and Victoria, this research demonstrates that social partnerships are established and maintained because participants engage in ‘partnership work’—the interactive and collaborative process of working together to identify, negotiate and define goals, and to develop processes for realising and reviewing those goals.
• A key finding is that this is complex work, demanding significant skills in cross-cultural and interpersonal communication. Although this issue was identified in earlier research, this study has enabled these complex activities to be further examined and defined.
• Partnership work is underpinned by a set of principles that vary for different types of work at different stages of the partnership. The principles include developing or maintaining: the partnership; shared goals; relations with partners; capacity for partnership work; governance and leadership; and trust and trustworthiness.
• Given that vocational education provision is often supported by social partnerships, as reflected in many of the partnerships canvassed in this study, the nature of partnership work is of interest and relevance to vocational education and training, and particularly in relation to achieving objective 3 of the National Strategy for VET 2004–2010, which is concerned with strengthening communities and regions economically and socially through learning and employment.

Aims of project

This project investigated the principles and practices underpinning the effective operation of social partnerships. The aim was to identify those principles and practices most beneficial in social partnerships supporting vocational education and training (VET).

The project builds on prior research into social partnerships by examining the processes involved in social partnerships.

The specific aims of this project were to investigate the:

• key principles and practices that underpin the formation, development and maintenance of the social practices effective in assisting localised decision-making and capacity-building
• effective enactment of these principles and practices as shaped in different ways across these social practices
• ways in which these principles and practices are associated with establishing and developing social partnerships robust enough to manage changing circumstances, tasks and goals.

This project is phase 1 of a two-phase project. Phase 2 will investigate the application of these principles and practices to vocational education and training in specific regions.

Methodology

Phase 1: Retrospective study of existing social partnerships

The project involved reviewing ten social partnerships in Queensland and Victoria during 2005–06, specifically those which had shown some history of operation and success. This review process aimed to understand their formation, development and progress; determine internal and external factors influencing their formation and development; and identify principles and practices that have sustained these social partnerships and their partnership work over time.

Data were collected from these ten partnerships through interviews with up to three key informants in each, and focused on specific events in the development of the partnership in order to identify factors that either contributed to the development of, or served to undermine the partnership and partnership work. An analysis of the data gathered through the interviews identified guiding principles in developing and sustaining partnership work. The findings were returned to each social partnership for comment, elaboration and verification. The informants in the social partnerships overwhelmingly endorsed the principles and practices identified in this first phase.

Social partnerships

Social partnerships are localised networks that connect some combination of local community groups, education and training providers, industry and government to work on local issues and community-building activities (Seddon & Billett 2004; Billett & Seddon 2004).

In Australia and throughout the world, governments, civic organisations and global agencies, including those associated with vocational education and training, are increasingly recognising the value of social partnerships as a means of identifying and responding to local and regional concerns, and for building social capital.¹ Social partnerships have the potential to engage communities with government and non-government organisations in solving local problems, to involve communities in making decisions, and to negotiate cooperatively the outcomes desired by these communities. They are seen as a way to assist collaborative decision-making and to build local capacity in ways that support economic, social and civic goals, and development attuned to local needs and circumstances. By its very nature, a partnership requires partners to collaborate in achieving common goals. However, the process of working together is complex and challenging. It requires partners and participants to understand that effective social partnerships work in specific ways.

Findings

The findings reported here cover the identification of different types of social partnerships; the central role of partnership work in the development and continuity of social partnerships; the principles and practices associated with partnerships and their development; and the types of partnership work.

Types of social partnerships

The partnerships reviewed were of three different kinds:

• enacted partnerships, which were initiated by external agencies, but whose goals are of relevance to, or are shared by, the community
• community partnerships, which originated in the community to address local concerns, but worked with external agencies to secure adequate resources and support for dealing with identified problems and issues
• negotiated partnerships, which were formed between partners with reciprocal goals to secure a service or support, and required negotiation between various interests and agendas.

However, despite there being different kinds of social partnerships and instances of diverse goals, purposes and histories, the key common enabling activity across these partnerships was the quality of the partnership work undertaken in the partnership.

Partnership work

The data show that social partnerships develop and are sustained because participants engage in partnership work. Effective partnership work embraces and harnesses the contributions of local partners and external agencies, their interactions and the changes they make in the collective work of realising shared goals. The processes of working together allow:

• communities to identify and represent their needs, and to secure quality partners and partnership arrangements that will enable them to achieve their objectives
• government and non-government agencies to understand and respond to local needs, to utilise local resources and to enhance capacity for local governance.

Partnership work embraces a wide range of processes that enable partners to work together. These processes include:

• maintaining shared purposes and goals
• developing mature and reciprocal relationships among partners
• identifying and accessing resources to assist in realising goals
• supporting individuals who engage effectively in the community to secure partnership goals, and to avoid the negative consequences of burnout and a high staff turnover
• focusing on the partnership goals, rather than on operational issues, in order to foster close and trusted relationships among partners
• participating in and maintaining commitment to the partnership process by recognising
• achievements and seeking opportunities to demonstrate achievement
• welcoming, facilitating and sustaining commitment and trust within the partnership
• identifying a range of measures for evaluating achievement.

From analyses of the interview data, a number of principles and practices of partnership work were identified as contributing to the initial development of social partnerships and their continuity over time.

Principles of partnership work

Five principles were identified as guiding the initial stages of effective partnership work.

• Building shared purposes and goals involves identifying the partners’ interests and concerns, and developing a framework for collectively realising goals.
• Building relations with partners involves building trust and commitment, encouraging participation, and developing inclusive and respectful processes.
• Building capacities for partnership work involves engaging partners in the collective work of the partnership, through developing the infrastructure and resources needed to achieve goals.
• Building partnership governance and leadership involves formulating and adopting consistent, transparent and workable guidelines and procedures for the partnership work and practice of leadership.
• Building trust and trustworthiness involves establishing processes that engage and inform partners, and which encourage cooperation and collaboration.

Principles required to sustain social partnerships

Similar principles are required to sustain effective partnership work over time and through changing circumstances.

• Maintaining shared purposes and goals involves the partners actively reflecting upon, reviewing and revising goals, identifying achievements, and renewing commitment.
• Maintaining relations with partners involves endorsing and consolidating existing relationships, recognising partners’ contributions, and facilitating new and strategic relationships.
• Maintaining capacity for partnership work involves securing and maintaining partners who engage effectively with both community and external sponsors, and managing the infrastructure required to support staff and partners.
• Maintaining governance and leadership involves developing and supporting close relations and communication between partners, and effective leadership.
• Maintaining trust and trustworthiness involves focusing on partners’ needs and expectations, and ensuring that differing needs are recognised and addressed.

These principles are evident in a wide range of practices across a variety of successful social partnerships. Where these principles were absent, the partnerships resulted in unsatisfactory practices and outcomes. They can be identified in the initial stages of partnership formation and building, as well as in the work that maintains the partnerships. It was these principles that were broadly ratified by the social partnerships in the feedback process.

Dimensions of partnership work

Partnership work can be understood as having five aspects. These aspects or dimensions emerged as participants described their partnership work and are:

• cultural-scoping work (establishing a culture within the partnership which develops from the values each partner brings)
• connection-building work (acknowledging connections among partners)
• capacity-building work (building the capacities of partners to engage in the complexities inherent to social partnerships)
• collective work (establishing processes for collaborative action within the social partnerships)
• trust-building work (establishing an ethic of trust within the social partnership).

Together, these five dimensions and the principles and practices that support them were identified as comprising effective partnership work. Partnership work will adopt particular variations and emphases within social partnerships over time, but will still be consistent with the identified principles.

Phase 2
This framework for understanding partnerships work as it applies to vocational education and training will be appraised in the second phase of this project. It is expected to involve further work with particular localised communities and/or skills ecosystems that will have their social partnerships appraised in terms of the framework.

1 Social capital is defined as the accumulated benefit accruing to individuals and communities as a result of their engagement in community and civic activities and the consequent networks established.