Today we are going to look more closely at strategic work in the probation partnering ecosystem. It’s the third of my five things a CRC needs to do well for success.
Previous posts have looked at the operational areas where CRCs lead work or contribute to partner led work. This post is looking at the areas of work that have a more strategic focus and include board work involving partners locally as well as regional and national group work. Local examples include Criminal Justice Boards, Crime & Justice Groups and Community Safety Partnerships.
If there is one thing you can be sure of in public service there is a board or working party for something. Across criminal or social justice the amount of meetings and investment of time to align interests locally and nationally is significant, mainly because of the complexity in the ecosystem. One of our small customers calculated that their staff attended over 2,000 multi agency meetings in a year. You can imagine the costs for all partners in that approach at a small county level let alone a large area.
Of course much of what goes on now still needs to happen in a world of CRCs, but new owners will be looking to simplify approaches. They will want to avoid senior staff getting caught up in these sessions if they just ‘talk shop’ and don’t see benefits. Relationships with a purpose and accountability for results will be common mantra in future.
Regionally and nationally its more about sharing and exchanging knowledge for the greater good. As we have heard in the Scottish referendum, there may be costs and consequences from a fragmented service, so better together might also be a message for a national CRC alliance in future. It’s a great opportunity to have that local delivery with its freedoms and flexibilities, within a framework that still gives rise to some common standards, values and proven practices. Just think of your communications connectivity; where would we be if all the key competitors had not agreed the Bluetooth connectivity standard?
When should a CRC collaborate and when should it compete with the same parties? There is a word for it called coopetition. You can find out more about its relevance for alliances and wider collaboration work by reading my book, or going direct to the authors who made the term popular: Brandenburgh & Nalebuff.
We anticipate there will also be initiatives that emerge from a national agenda that are best coordinated regionally, perhaps in line with the NPS Regional Director boundaries or via new owners that acquire multiple CRCs.
New ways of working are needed and a platform such as pam can help strategic alignment on Boards and bodies in the same way it does for coordination of offenders and other subjects. Probation doesn’t have to look far of course for good practice given many of the old Trusts used pam for their board work and strategic activity. Whether it is a Criminal Justice Board plan, minutes of meetings, or a shared project improving something around Community Safety, pam has a role to play.
Whilst probation in its old guise could not be described as completely joined up there were strong leaders and people in the community who wanted to share best practice and work for the greater good. The new Probation Institute has an opportunity here and it will be interesting to see how that unfolds as the new CRC model emerges. National Probation Service (NPS) too needs to show that it is a good responsible commissioner/partner too and equips its own staff to work well for collaboration internally and externally.
A common platform for common goals is needed despite different parents and players. In addition to CRCs using pam for their local work, pam can be the digital ‘little Switzerland’. It’s great for regional and national initiatives as a complement to the Probation Institute approach, keeping parties informed and engaged for no extra cost.
Give us a call to learn more about how we can help.