Minimum Contract Level Support Programme Partnerships ‘Beyond the Honeymoon’ 13 December 2011 Caroline Wilkinson - LSIS Partnership Adviser 1

Partner responsibilities in strategic partnerships - audit Reading and influencing the environment - reviewing trends and opportunities, partnership strengths and weaknesses, consulting stakeholders

Responsibilities audit Developing strategy and gaining commitment - setting and securing support for mission and objectives … Planning, securing resources, implementation - developing proposals and plans, allocating and attracting resources, delegating authority, communications Monitoring and evaluation

Using the tool … Take stock, work through the table one responsibility at a time and consider … Is this something we need to do? Who is responsible? Is it a responsibility we share? Is the responsibility clearly allocated? Do we need to carry out the responsibility better? What action is needed? By whom and by when?

Your voice … AELP Research Report 750 AELP members and contacts – 93 responses 83% independent/private training providers Larger organisations - Increased staffing levels and restructure of roles Smaller organisations – decrease in staffing and restructuring, increase in need for specific expertise, changes in contractual arrangements Providers over £500K increased resources: MI, developing sub-contractor systems, improving marketing

AELP Research … Providers under £500K resources reduced, take more streamlined approach, because of management fee they more frugal and not able to refurbish or upgrade resources – being stretched Large providers – increase in learners Smaller providers – reduced learner numbers Attitude change with smaller providers: “cut costs wherever possible and just do the minimum required – not a great learner experience” “less willing to work with hard to reach”

AELP Research … Smaller providers with an exemption and those with contract under £1m anxious re: potential increase in future Some building capacity, others building relationships Provider good practice: looking for win:win, maintaining autonomy, robust contracts, developing frameworks and monitoring tools, on-going communication links

Word on the ground … Negatives: Ending up with less funding and more work Difficulty with pushing apprenticeships to older learners Specific qualifications and funding for particular sectors Time taken to sort out the contract Response times Red tape … VAT being charged on management fees Provider factor changes …reduction in funding as determined by the lead Losing good providers

Word on the ground …. Positives: Able to spend own allocation how we wish Partnering with a well-known brand Larger allocations Added value re other courses and funding opportunities Benefits gained in terms of working with partners with higher quality ratings Sharing good practice

Any questions? Sharing actions you will be taking away ….

Resources Support for Collaborative Contracting Case Studies Toolkits: Managing Risk Partnership Planning and Working Shared Leadership and Governance Shared Services Sub-contracting Quality Management Sub-contracting (Nov 2011) Annual planning and operations cycle (Nov 2011) http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=MCLsupport

Wrapping Up We’ll send you evaluation form and a link to the recording Slides from the seminar will be on the Excellence Gateway You may be be interested in further support from the LSIS MCL Support Programme. A range of resources are available on the Excellence Gateway site www.excellencegateway.org.uk/MCLsupport  Further web seminar events are planned,  you can find details and registration on events.lsis.org.uk/Pages/Event/Stage1/Events.aspx If you would like to talk to an MCL Partnership Adviser please send an e-mail to mclsp@lsis.org.uk