EUKN - United Kingdom - National Evaluation of Local Strategic Partnerships - Issues Paper: Leadership in Local Strategic Partnerships

National Evaluation of Local Strategic Partnerships - Issues Paper: Leadership in Local Strategic Partnerships

Introduction

The report discusses concepts and practices of leadership within the context of LSPs, drawing on research evidence and concluding with a model for taking forward issues of LSP leadership.

Description

This paper briefly brings together evidence from a number of sources to:

explore recent literature on leadership, and specifically on leadership in partnerships
highlight findings from the evaluation case studies, supported by a small number of additional ‘scoping’ interviews and findings from other studies.
explore emerging themes and the implications for the development of leadership in LSPs. It sets out recommendations for strengthening leadership capability, leadership processes and the ‘system capability’ that makes leadership in LSPs possible.
set out a model for thinking about leadership in LSPs and draw out some tentative conclusions.

Background information

This issues paper is an output from a programme of evaluation and action-research sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Department for Transport, as part of a wider evaluation of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs).

The overall aim of the research programme is to facilitate and support the development of LSPs, to evaluate implementation processes and to inform policy. As part of the programme of research, policy clients identified a series of issues of current interest, where additional issues papers would be helpful to inform discussion. Leadership was one of the issues chosen.

Methodology

The paper is based on a literature review along with a small number of additional ‘scoping’ interviews.

Conclusions

In the context of LSPs, leadership needs to be exercised in three parallel fields: political leadership; leadership from partner organisations; leadership within the community.
Effective partnership working requires a successful transition through three stages – from dialogue, to strategy formation, to delivery.
While most local authorities play leading roles in LSPs, leadership cannot be secured simply by the Local Authority ‘leading from the front’.
Political leadership has been under-estimated and under-examined.
LSPs can be successful with different ‘balances’ of leadership.
Central government has a crucial role to play in creating supportive conditions for LSPs.

Contact info

Communities and Local Government
Analytical.Services@communities.gsi.gov.uk

Publication date

Project finished

//2005

Researcher

Sue Goss, Office for Public Management

Links

Visit the Communities and Local Government website

Download the "National Evaluation of Local Strategic Partnerships -Leadership" Report (PDF, Eng, 556 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration

Keywords

Community development