Purpose – This paper aims to consider whether there is significant divergence between the Welsh and English approaches to partnership working. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis reported stems from a research project, commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2002, which...

Purpose – Seeks to review policy and practice in the English National Health Service (NHS) to show the extent to which medically framed notions of cure act in opposition to attempts to enforce a duty of partnership in the delivery of health and social care. Design/methodology/approach – A...

Purpose – Partnership has become a primary organisational tool for achieving overlapping policy agendas in local governance. But evidence shows that partnerships underachieve if they are not integrated into, and supported by, mainstream governance structures. Now recent legislation, the Local...

Purpose – To present a perspective on partnership grounded in empirical management research. This paper is based on a keynote presentation by the author at a conference on partnership in Durham in 2004. Design/methodology/approach – It reflects on the particular challenges of realising...

Purpose – To review the current debates on partnership working and to examine whether a “fitness for purpose” test is an appropriate way of evaluating existing developments. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the conceptual frameworks within which the partnership discourse...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine a pan‐regional initiative, The Northern Way. The argument is framed within the on‐going city‐region debate to demonstrate some of the challenges and difficulties of working in collaboration and partnership across associational networks. It seeks to...