Public and Third Sector Collaboration - Can It Really Work?

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 requires public bodies to involve and collaborate with the third sector. Third sector organisations want to work more closely with public bodies. But collaboration even within the public sector is underdeveloped, and third sector organisations express disappointment at the level of their involvement with public bodies.

However, the Act’s national well-being goals and principle of integrated working may provide the conditions for greater levels of collaboration which have the potential to transform the way the two sectors jointly deliver public services in Wales. If third sector organisations can show how their activities contribute to the well-being goals then public bodies can see how this fits with their own contribution, motivating them to work together.
If in addition third sector organisations can show how their activities not only meet their own aims, such as improving wildlife habitats, but also meet public bodies’ concerns, such as increasing how much exercise people take, then public bodies have an incentive to support or even do those activities themselves. In order to understand the full contribution of the third sector to well-being public bodies may need to work at the conditions for effective communication between the two sectors.

This new research project works with North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT) and public bodies in North Wales to understand what those conditions for effective communication may involve. The project helps NWWT to understand how its activities contribute to the well-being goals and how they affect people’s feelings of well-being or life satisfaction. It works with public bodies to develop ways of communicating with the third sector so that its contribution can be taken into account in the public bodies’ strategic well-being planning.