Interactive Tools
Smarter Partnerships
The Smarter Partnerships website helps users improve partnership skills and performance.
You will find there:
You will find there:
- interactive tools to assist individuals, cross-agency teams and partnerships assess both (i) partnership development and (ii) individual and team learning needs. Work your way through the stages, and get advice for actions you can take, appropriate to your circumstances.
- on-line resources: case studies, tools and links to help users address learning needs and improve partnership working
Smarter Partnerships was one of the first partnership toolkits to be developed, and remains the only freely available one which is genuinely interactive, in allowing users to assess their partnership, and their learning needs in real time, and receive feedback on what they can do to address these needs.
The usefulness of Smarter Partnerships is recognised in the frequency by which other sites provide links - eg, Policy Hub (National School of Government), the Improvement Network and the Improvement Service (Scotland). It has also been used in other countries - the most recent case being by an aboriginal drugs and alcohol partnership in Perth, Western Australia.
Smarter Partnerships was developed by Educe for the Employers Organisation for Local Government - now part of IDeA, the Improvement and Development Agency for local government. The project was originally funded by the then Department for Education and Skills, and built on a 'state of the art' review in 2000 of partnerships and local government .
Five Vital Lessons: Successful Partnerships with Business
'Five Vital Lessons: Successful Partnership with Business' - interactive website featuring tools, good practice lessons and case studies relating to getting the most out economic development partnerships involving the private sector. Aims to help you achieve your common goals with less pain and more gain.
Tools include:
- High Performing Partnerships (how well is your partnership performing?)
- Partnership Life Cycle (work out how to make your partnership more productive)
- Involving the Private Sector (ways of maximising the benefits of business involvement in partnerships)
The tool was originally developed (with GFA Consulting) for the Department for Education and Skills in April 2001.