During 2010, the Third Sector Research Centre will be conducting research on Third Sector Partnerships for Service Delivery. The collaborative agenda has emerged in the context of the changing role of the state. Due in part to a perception in the 1990s of crisis in the UK public sector, the authority of state bureaucracies has been increasingly decentralised, through contracting out to the private and voluntary sector and to arms-length public agencies. Consequently, the third sector is now a major force in public service delivery. It works in partnership with public sector commissioners and with providers in the public sector, private sector and rest of the third sector.

There is, therefore, a need to develop a better understanding and a critical assessment of how partnerships and collaborative relationships actually work, what they offer to service commissioners, and what implications they have for the future of the third sector.

Key themes which will be explored in this project include:

Long-term partnership working between third sector organisations (TSOs) with public and private sector organisations
Partnerships, strategic alliances and mergers within the third sector
Innovation and learning from partnership working, including lessons from international experience

In addition, the research will provide insights into other research issues in Service Delivery which will be explored in TSRC during this period. These include the role of the third sector in service commissioning, governance issues arising from third sector involvement in public services partnerships, and the role of the third sector in enabling user and community co-production of public services.

Research questions include:
• What are the different types of inter-organisational collaborative relationships involving TSOs?
• What are the main drivers of collaboration and partnership involving TSOs?
• How is partnership building affected by the policy environment?
• What are the impacts of different types of third sector partnerships on service outcomes and the quality of service experienced by users?
• What are the impacts of different types of third sector partnerships on organizational efficiency and service costs?
• What are the relative advantages of TSOs forming collaborations and partnerships with each other, compared with merging, as ways of improving service outcomes, quality of service, efficiency and cost?
• To what extent has service innovation and inter-organisational learning been enhanced by TSO contributions to collaborative and partnership working, and by merger between TSOs?

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