Brighton & Hove: Promoting a Partnership Approach
Over many years Brighton and Hove council has led or supported an extensive range of partnerships.
As well as engaging with the local NHS bodies, the police, and the fire service, they also have close links with the local universities, further education college, arts organisations, voluntary organisations, and private sector organisations.
In addition they work with many partners beyond the city boundaries, such as the public and private organisations involved in the Greater Brighton Economic Board, as well as Surrey and East Sussex county councils.
The council’s partnership ethos has meant that many cross organisational innovations have been achieved, some initiated and led by the council, and some led by other organisations, with support from the council.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Some examples of the council’s partnerships and their innovations are:
Brighton and Hove Connected
Brighton and Hove Connected (BHC) is a long standing partnership created and supported by the council. It involves the key local public sector bodies as well as representatives from business and the voluntary sector. It is led by the ‘city management board’ and has many subgroups.
It agrees and implements strategies such as a local sustainable community strategy and a homelessness strategy. It institutes practical changes, like establishing shared public sector office bases. And it can demonstrate many achievements such as helping to dramatically improve the usage of local public transport and to develop a much more ‘age friendly city’.
The Greater Brighton Economic Board
The Greater Brighton Economic Board (GBEB) was initiated by the council. It involves six local authorities, as well as businesses and education providers, such as the two universities and the local further education college. The area has 40,000 business, including Gatwick Airport, and an economy worth £21 billion a year. GBEB aim is to bring jobs and prosperity to the area, and has brought in more than £150 million of direct investment into the local economies so far.
Orbis
Orbis is the largest local government shared service partnership of its kind in the UK. It was established by Brighton and Hove city council, East Sussex county council, and Surrey county council in 2015. Its services include procurement, property, finance, business operations, human resources and organisational development, information technology and digital activities. Its purpose is to deliver greater value for the three founding councils by generating efficiencies and exploiting the benefits of sharing people, resources and technology.
The Community Banking Partnership
The community banking partnership is an example of a partnership the council supported, rather than led. The council helped the partnership to understand the critical issues about local poverty and debt, so that they could plan effective co-ordinated ways of tackling them.
The Dome Arts Centre
The Dome is an arts and cultural charity which runs something like 650 events a year including the Brighton Festival, the second largest festival in the UK. It has a ‘lease and revenue’ agreement with the council, which used to run the building and still owns it. The council works closely with the charity, supporting its £20 million redevelopment project.
KEY LEADERSHIP ACTIONS
Building mutual trust by:
- Putting huge effort into building positive relationships with partners
- Being open and honest
Agreeing shared strategies by:
- Listening to creative ideas
- Investigating issues to fully understand them before planning action
- Agreeing clear and realistic priorities
Delivering Results by:
- Being resilience and determined
- Engaging with the public
- Implementing major changes gradually
- Supporting managers leading integration
- Tracking progress
CHALLENGES
Several interviewees described the difficultly of getting agreement and implementing significant changes in a vibrant and lively city where residents have a huge range of diverse passionately held opinions.
Others discussed the council’s and other public sector organisations’ severely reduced resources, limiting their capacity to deliver many major partnership innovations.
In addition, the council’s political leadership tends to alter at every election, making it more difficult to secure the long term members’ commitment required to fully implement major radical cross public sector innovations.
