The council is committed to working with other organisations such as public sector bodies, businesses, voluntary and community groups, social enterprises and faith groups to support the delivery of high quality services and achievement of borough priorities.
As part of our collaborative working arrangements, the council has identified those contracts and partnerships that are important to the delivery of key services and operations and where, if not managed effectively, there is a high risk they could negatively impact on delivery of outcomes for our communities. These are defined as our key contracts and partnerships and are subject to additional monitoring and scrutiny. As part of the shared services with South Ribble Borough Council, a Key Contracts and Partnerships Framework has been developed to support this process and ensure consistency across the councils.
Contracts and partnerships have been assessed against the Key Contracts and Partnerships Framework 2024 which set out the following criteria for determining if a working arrangement is a key contract or partnership.
3 or more criteria must be met.
- Financial – the contract costs the council £100k or more per annum
- Corporate Priorities – the contract or partnership will significantly impact the delivery of one or more of the council’s corporate priorities
- Risk - there is a high amount of risk associated with the contract or partnership e.g. significant disruption to core services and systems availability; financial impact over £100k
- Length – the contract or partnership is for five or more years
- Resource – there will be a large reliance on the proposed partner/contractor for service delivery.
It should be noted that the framework has been recently refreshed with revised criteria for a key contract or partnership. The new criteria will provide the benchmark for future assessments.
A register of key contracts and partnerships is maintained by the council. Key contracts and partnerships are managed and monitored at a service level through ongoing operational meetings, board meetings and updating executive members as general good practice. In addition to this, formal monitoring and reporting takes place through bi-annual reviews to check that the working arrangements remain relevant and effective.