Collaboration Across Sectors

Abstract

The underlying purpose of public policy collaboration is to add value to activities that either would not occur or would not be as effective if left to an individual organisation. Collaboration, from this point of view, becomes a means to an end and therefore stands outside ideological debates about the role of the state and the involvement of non-public organisations in shaping, managing and delivering collective objectives. Whether the resulting partnerships are with business, the voluntary sector or other public bodies is of no relevance; what matters is whether collaboration is the best means to deliver the stated policy. Yet we are bound to question this pragmatic approach and ask whether a focus on consequences entitles us to ignore the means that are used, especially in relation to issues of public policy.