Establishing Effective Partnerships Jayne Taylor (SHU) & David Broomby (TUOS)

Outline of session Welcome to the session and introductions Our experiences of partnership working Successful partnership building Practical workshop – How can you develop links? Feedback and close

Our history....

What we do...

Why it works for us

Who we work with... Local authorities Looked after children/care leavers Universities nationwide Care provision teams Education support teams Designated teachers Teachers/heads/head of year FE co-ordinators Mentors External organisations (Titans, Sheffield Now etc) Colleagues internally but within other departments Buttle UK National initiatives (NCAS)

Practical partnership building... Important to build and develop trust Support their agenda Small gestures can help Support their events (sponsorship/attendance) Nominations for awards

What we don’t do together... Our work with care leavers is less of a joint approach Our offer to students (bursaries etc) is very different Our transition work is separate from one another We have different scheme’s set up for care leaver’s (Compact) Can we incorporate this into our joint work?

Advantages of collaborative working... Young person’s experience is much wider/varied Gives an important message Expertise and experience can add value and quality Flexible approach Opens up your network and contacts Increased efficiency Develop student experience/expectations Funding opportunities (STEM/Titans)

Disadvantages to collaborative working... Can be difficult to communicate Can’t always be as assertive as you would like to Priorities can differ Organisations can become too reliant on you Can be time consuming Easy to over commit. Open and honest relationships to ensure there are no hidden agenda’s. This is not always straightforward.

Challenges we face... Recruitment issues No specific lead person in charge External organisations can be unsure who the best person to contact is. External organisations unable to recognise which university is which. Not always understanding of the fact that we are two separate institutions Can become reliant on other institution Sometimes difficult to concentrate on other areas, as you are committed to partnerships. Local authorities that don’t buy in to the work that you are doing, don’t see your work as their priority.

When things go wrong...

Next steps... We know that these relationships are vitally important for the future of our work. We need to embed and sustain the work we do. We need to develop more opportunities for young people. We need to continue our collaborative work. We need to build new relationships, continue our existing ones and develop better cross sector communication.

Workshop activity University partnership working

Collaborative work with your partner Remember to consider: How will you make initial contact, what are the steps you will take? What is the best way to develop your contacts? What measures can be taken to ensure that your partnership is a two way thing? What barriers do you envisage? Who are the stakeholders that you need to contact in order to achieve success in your chosen activity? What is the ultimate goal with your chosen activity? What impact do you hope to make? How can you ensure that your chosen activity will be sustainable?