Introduction

Intra- and intersectoral collaboration is now an established feature of the UK public policy landscape evidenced in a mosaic of different permutations between the public, private and third sectors. This form of working can be traced back over 50 years and during that time it has altered in its shape, breadth and depth. As illustrated in Table 2.1, the early focus was primarily directed towards the alleviation of poverty, social malaise and the inner cities, through a combination of area-based and community development approaches.

This was succeeded in the Thatcher years by partnerships concerning economic regeneration and urban development, coupled with some joint working around the health and social care interface. The involvement of business in economic regeneration initiatives was the forerunner of a much greater role for the private sector in the design and delivery of public services in subsequent years. The election of a New Labour administration in 1997 heralded a proliferation of collaborative initiatives across a wide policy front amounting to a distinctive public policy paradigm. This approach, typically referred to as ‘joined-up government’ (Pollitt, 2003), has been rolled out and practised in most areas of social, economic and environmental policy – crime and community safety, health, housing, education, transport and urban regeneration (Sullivan and Skelcher, 2002) – and has continued unabated albeit with frequent changes in emphasis and approach. Since devolution in Wales and Scotland, a similar range of partnerships have been developed across most policy areas. The goals of joined-up government are essentially to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of policies, to create synergy and foster innovation through joint production of effort and expertise and to secure seamless and integrated services at the point of delivery. The true extent and complexity of this phenomenon can be gauged by an audit of partnership arrangements in Cardiff undertaken in 2010 that revealed the existence of over 118 partnership groups with 560 individuals involved (see Figure 2.1).

Dowling et al (2004, p 309) reflect that: ‘it is difficult to find a contemporary policy document or set of good practice guidelines that does not have collaboration as the central strategy for the delivery of welfare’.