Collaboration is king in solving today’s ‘wicked’ problems

When the public sector needs to achieve more with less, can collaboration be the answer? It’s true that collaboration can mean different things to different people and previous experiences of collaboration projects can leave a legacy of mixed appetite.

However, there is now a wealth of experience, opportunity and support available to make collaboration key in delivering across the most difficult landscape many of us have ever faced. As our chief executive, Adele Gritten, noted in her February LGC piece, “public and private sectors must work together to deliver synergies”.

The Energy Service in Wales is a great example of a collaborative service providing much needed capacity, capability and confidence to the public sector. Local Partnerships provides the strategic lead for this service, working alongside public sector leaders to help drive forward the 2030 public sector net zero ambition in Wales.

This collaboration encompasses technical support, project support, governance support, ambition raising and working on regional projects to support the target across multiple organisations and sectors.

A recent success was the collaborative procurement exercise undertaken by the Welsh government supported by the energy service. Technical advisers supported a pan-Wales procurement, evaluation and appointment of regional consultants who will deliver the local area energy plans. This project was started and completed within six months and involved regional work encompassing input from approximately 20 local authorities.

Projects like this show that where there is the ambition, a pathway can be found

Local Partnerships was at the forefront of that work delivering support, capability and capacity to the regions ensuring local, regional and national voices were heard in the development of the procurement documents, the evaluation methodology and ongoing support through contract delivery.

Projects like this, and so many more, offer hope for the future and show that where there is the ambition, a pathway can be found. Collaboration is evidently a key enabler in unlocking some of the most complex and ‘wicked’ problems we are solving today.

Local Partnerships helps organisations to build capacity in working towards net zero, bridging resource gaps and helping provide confidence and strength to local and combined authorities, and their collaborative partners. How might we support your organisation?

This article can also be found on LGCplus