Performing Governance Partnerships, Culture and New Labour

Partnership was an important feature of the New Labour government's approach to the modernisation of the governance of British society. Yet despite substantial investments in the partnership agenda, there is little evidence that this significantly improved outcomes. Adopting a rather different approach to mainstream literature, Performing Governance sets out a new framework for comprehensively assessing the performance of partnerships and examines what these actually delivered.

The author applies this framework to three different important areas of New Labour's welfare policy; child safeguarding, urban regeneration and the modernisation of health and social care. In doing so, this book makes an important contribution to understanding governance under the New Labour government. The book also contains a number of recommendations about the kinds of factors that make collaboration work in practice.

Helen Dickinson is Associate Professor of Public Governance at the Melbourne School of Government, University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests include the governance of public services, the future of the public service workforce and medical leadership. Helen is editor of the Journal of Health Organisation and Management and the Journal of Integrated Care.

1. Introduction
PART I: SETTING OUT THE FRAMEWORK
2. Governance and Why It Matters
3. New Labour, Modernisation and Partnership
4. Performing Partnership
PART II: CASE STUDIES
5. Child Safeguarding
6. Urban Regeneration
7. Modernisation of Health and Social Care
8. Concluding Discussion