This is a partnership approach to policy making and is appropriate for cross-cutting issues involving more than one public body. It will involve working with stakeholders to come to joint decisions and may involve short term collaboration or the formations of more permanent partnerships with stakeholders.
It is suitable when the Council can not act unilaterally and requires the support of other organisations or individuals or where there are various interests involved and it is beneficial to work together on a solution.
All stakeholders need to be committed in terms of both time and effort to develop a partnership. Locally the Council leads the Local Strategic Partnership which is the most high profile example of the Council collaborating through a partnership approach.
Methods include: e-consultations, team building exercises, design exercises, regular meetings and presentations, the establishment of interest groups or steering groups.