During the COVID-19 pandemic, voluntary and community sector organisations became more visible than ever before. With deep roots into the communities they serve, these organisations were able to draw on local knowledge and existing infrastructure to reach those who needed help the most. A report by Locality (2020) highlighted the role of community organisations as ‘cogs of connection’ enabling well-functioning local systems to emerge at pace, using existing social infrastructure to meet urgent needs. For example, research by the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) identified the vital role community organisations played in tackling loneliness and social isolation during the pandemic and the enabling factors supporting this response.
Although before the pandemic there was sometimes felt to be a divide between community and public sector organisations – whether this was related to different ways of working, different language used, or different priorities – during and after the pandemic, multisector collaborations seemed to thrive. In many areas, it seemed almost as if the barriers preventing collaboration simply melted away. New relationships were developed or strengthened between local government, health, and community sectors, marking a shift towards whole system working (Locality, 2020; Havers et al, 2021; Kaye & Morgan, 2021). The role of local government in supporting community action was identified as ‘make or break’ in place-based collaborations (Pollard et al., 2021).
New research – what makes collaboration work?
New research, which was co-produced by the WCPP and the Resourceful Communities Partnership (RCP), explores not just what factors make multisectoral collaboration effective, but crucially, how collaboration can be achieved across different contexts and why. The research found that a shared sense of purpose was a key driver to successful multisector collaboration. The crisis of the pandemic provided a clear central purpose to bring agencies together to support community action and wellbeing. Another key driver was flexibility – how many times did we hear the words ’pivot’ and ‘agile’ during the pandemic?
During this recovery period, as we are battling several crises including the cost-of-living crisis, the fiscal constraint on public services, and the climate emergency, supporting community action is still a top priority for wellbeing – yet there is a danger we will slip back into our old silos. With this in mind, the RCP and the WCPP co-produced this research to discover what meaningful and tangible actions can be taken to develop multisector collaboration that supports community action.
The research comprises reviews of pre-and post-pandemic literature, a synthesis of learning from practice, and a workshop which adds further practice-based experience and context to the evidence base.
Summary of research
The research first identified key features of and factors supporting effective collaboration, before focusing on tangible actions to support the development of multisector collaboration in different contexts. These are organised into three themes:
Activities for developing shared purpose: The research found that collaboration was more effective where there was a shared wellbeing aim beyond collaboration itself. Activities for developing shared aims and understanding were grouped into these categories: information gathering; big picture systems thinking; long-term planning and macro-goals; training and mutual learning; pooling and sharing information; defining outcomes and how to measure them; shared oversight to coordinate services.
Governance arrangements: These included roles, responsibilities, processes and structures that helped rather than hindered multisector collaboration and were grouped into these categories: liaison/ coordination roles and referral pathways; mutually agreed responsibilities and boundaries; leadership and shared decision-making; policies and procedures; the role of regional and national bodies and infrastructures; collaboration subgroups; supporting workforce capacity and consistency.
Financial mechanisms: Supportive approaches to funding work and initiatives in ways that support multisector collaboration were grouped into these categories: flexible, long-term participatory grant funding; commissioning; community wealth building; infrastructure/ estates; fundraising; convening resources; reporting impact.
You can read more about what works to support multisector collaboration in the report. In addition, the research findings have been developed into an interactive Framework for Action that can be used to support multisector collaboration in different practice and policy contexts, by identifying tangible actions that can be taken in these three areas.
Reflections
Multisectoral collaboration to support community action and wellbeing is a hugely important yet complex mechanism in delivering a socially just and equitable society which supports health and wellbeing for all.
In the UK, a report from the Institute of Health Equity highlighted multisectoral collaboration between all levels of government and civil society as a requirement in ‘building back fairer’ societies in terms of health and social equity following the pandemic (Marmot et al., 2020). The report stresses the need to take the opportunity afforded by the crisis of the pandemic to build on the lessons learned, to do things differently for a fairer and more just society. One of the aims, they say, should be to build a wellbeing economy that puts health and wellbeing, rather than solely economic goals, at the heart of government strategy.
However, multisectoral collaboration cannot work if it is solely a top-down directive; it has to also be led from the grassroots and mutually agreed. This is recognised to some extent in a recent report from WHO Europe, which underlines the importance of relationships between people, government and other institutions in building economic and social resilience to crisis and a socially just recovery from the pandemic (WHO Europe, 2023). Their policy recommendations endorse the principles of multisector collaboration that are espoused by the RCP and WCPP in this research, particularly the principles of democratic governance, partnerships between government, community and public sector organisations, involving communities in developing place-based strategies for health and wellbeing, mutual learning, and monitoring and evaluation of impact for accountability.
While the pre-pandemic literature identified a range of models of collaboration and had lots to say about the intricacies of sharing power and responsibility between organisations and sectors, the post pandemic literature has a common theme of the importance of shared purpose. The pandemic provided a shared purpose for collaborations to rally around, and the power sharing issues identified in the pre-pandemic literature didn’t seem to be as prominent. Going forwards, identifying shared goals for a multisector collaboration seems to be a vital ingredient for success, and doing this collaboratively could help to avoid some of the barriers to success that existed pre-pandemic.
The learning from practice emphasised the importance of developing appropriate outcomes and indicators to measure and report the success of the collaboration, as well as practical ways to make collaborations work. Lots of examples in different contexts are provided in the report.
Flexibility is a common element across all three major themes in the research literature, and this was reinforced by the learning from practice. Even the models identified in the pre-pandemic literature were recommended to be adapted to specific policy and practice contexts, recognising that different combinations of organisational strengths and specialist knowledge exist in different geographical areas and for different wellbeing goals. All the actions outlined in the research report and Framework for Action are context dependent and can be seen as a menu from which multisector collaborations can select the most appropriate combination to meet their local needs.
In summary, these resources – that have been co-produced by multisector stakeholders from research, policy and practice – will be very useful to anyone looking to develop a new or existing multisector collaboration. Please do have a look and adapt them to your own circumstances.
Professor Anne-Marie Bagnall,
Centre for Health Promotion Research, Leeds Beckett University
