The Whitehawk Inn

THIRD SECTOR INVESTMENT PROGRAMME 2017-2020

JOINT AND SEVERALLY LIABLE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

<INSERT dates dd/mm/17 to dd/mm/20

EXAMPLE – This document aims to provide guidance and pointers as to content of a partnership agreement. It is not a legal agreement or a template to be adopted wholesale. We advise that ALL partners work carefully through the detail and cross-reference with the funding agreement they receive as appropriate

This agreement is made between the following organisations:

Partner 1 / Organisation Name:
Address:
Main contact:
Signed:
Date
Partner 2 / Organisation Name:
Address:
Main contact:
Signed:
Date:
Partner 3 / Organisation Name:
Address:
Main contact:
Signed:
Date:

Changes to personnel

All partners will keep each other informed (via the nominated lead or admin lead) of any changes to the staff involved with the project, or changes to contact details.

Contents

1.Context

2.Partnership Model and accountability

3.Description of partnership project

4.Roles and responsibilities of ALL partners

5.Partnership activities

6.Branding & Publicity

7.Financial arrangements

8.Policies and procedures

9.Approach to equalities

10.Administration, meetings and record keeping

11.Monitoring and Reporting

12.Confidentiality and Data Protection

13.Conflicts of interest

14.Resolving disputes

15.The duration of this agreement and termination

16.Changes to this agreement

17.Sustainability

1.Context

This partnership agreement is designed to provide for effective partnership working practices and thereby enable the partners outlined above to meet the requirements made of them as recipients of funding from the Third Sector Investment programme. As a document it sits alongside and supplements Funding Agreements between the Lead Organisation and its partners.

The Third Sector Investment Programme (TSIP) Partnership outlined here responds to and is bound by the terms and conditions of the TSIP as laid out by Brighton and Hove City Council and Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group.

All partners will be aware of, and act in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of the funding agreementwith BHCC.

Should there ever be conflict between the Terms and Conditions of the contract and any other guidance in this partnership agreement, the TSIP Terms and Conditions take precedence.

2.Partnership Model and accountability

The Council and CCG require all bidders to be working in partnership and/or in collaboration. For legal and for contracting reasons the word consortium is used to illustrate the type of partnership/collaborative arrangements that can be entered into between two or more Third Sector organisations when applying under this prospectus.

2.1Partnership model

This partnership adopts a ‘joint and severally liable’ consortium model. In this model:

The Council will have a relationship with all members of the consortium.
The Admin Lead is for administrative purposes with respect to bid-coordination and is not solely liable for the delivery of the whole funding agreement as regards the whole partnership
All members of the consortium are equally responsible for the delivery of the project
Thus all members are jointly and severally liable
As such, if one of the members of the consortium defaults, the Council is able to recover from the other members of the consortium.

Organisation name> is the nominated Admin Lead in this partnership arrangement

2.2As joint and severally liable, the partners in this agreement will take the following measures to ensure that the activities of the funding agreement comply with issues relating to quality, safeguarding, inclusivity and financial accountability:

Example – the partners will share safeguarding policies and support partners organisations without them to develop them over the life of the funding agreement

Example – a space for service feedback will be agended at partnership meeting spaces to share and problem solve items arising

Example – the partners will schedule space to bring partners together for the purposes of service development and future planning

2.3The responsibilities of the Admin Lead will be:

egTo co-ordinate submission of the funding bid and represent the partnership in the bidding process
egTo communicate with BHCC and NHS in relation to the project during the bidding process
egAnything else ongoing???

3.Description of partnership project

This partnership has been brought together to jointly deliver on the following outcomes

Outcome 1: <Insert>

Outcome 2: <Insert>

Outcome 3: <Insert>

Outcome 4: <Insert>

Each of the partners brings specific expertise to this project which will be made use of in the fulfilling of the projects outcomes as follows:

Organisation name / Brief overview of activities

4.Roles and responsibilities of ALL partners

In this ‘joint and severally liable’ arrangement

4.1Eachpartner organisation will take responsibility for the receipt and management of funds through this programme

4.2Each partner organisation will be responsible for carrying out monitoring and evaluation activities as stipulated in this agreement

4.3Each partner organisation will take responsibility for supplying information required by the contract in a timely fashion either to the admin lead, each other, and/or funder

4.4Eachpartner organisation will take responsibility to employ and/or deploy the staff and/or volunteers necessary to fulfil the activities outlined above including effective performance management

4.5Through the duration of this project, all partners will take the responsibility to engage in their on-going business in a way that does not have a detrimental impact on the overall aims of the partnership

4.6Each partner organisation commits to use funds received through this programme for the purposes of delivering on the partnership outcomes agreed only

4.7Each partner agrees to notify the other partners in this agreement of any changes to their financial position, operational environment or prospects that would impact on its delivery commitments

5.Partnership activities

The outcomes of this work will be achieved through a partnership approach. The following outlines how the partners will work together to achieve this.

<List the ‘partnership’ aspects of your delivery and each organisations responsibility towards it. Think about the things that will make the partnership meaningfully work – what arrangements will you have around communicating?

For example:

Partnership activity / Partner commitment
We will co-deliver services/activities / Each partner organisation will commit to providing necessary staff/volunteer/other resource to deliver the service/activities
We will refer to each others’ organisations and support users to access each others services/activities / Each partners will ensure staff/volunteer awareness of services/activities and referral/signposting procedures/processes
We will upskill each other’s people by mentoring/peer support/reflective practice activities / Each partner organisation will commit staff or volunteer members to participate in 4 x peer learning activities
Each partner will host 1 x peer learning activity
We will pool intelligence so as to inform the development of services / Each partner organisation will deploy a staff representative to 6 weekly meetings to share progress and intelligence and take back to their organisation
Each partner organisation commits to ‘keeping in touch’ with others in the partnership with information relevant to the contract
We will share space/back office function / Each partner organisation will make available a hot-desking space for one other member of the partnership

6.Branding & Publicity

6.1Each partner organisation commits to referring to the wider partnership <called?> when referring to delivery that falls within this partnership agreement.

6.2Each partner commits to reading and complying with the ‘acknowledgement and funding’ commitments outlined within the accompanying TSIP funding agreement including:

6.2.1 acknowledging the Funding in its annual report and accounts, including an acknowledgement of the Council/CCG as the source of the Funding.

6.2.2 participate in and co-operate with activities relating to the Services that may be instigated and/or organised by the Council/CCG.

6.2.3 comply with all reasonable requests from the Council/CCG to facilitate visits, provide reports, statistics, photographs and case studies that will assist the Council/CCG in its promotional and fundraising activities relating to the Services.

7.Financial arrangements

This agreement covers the period from <INSERT dates dd/mm/17 to dd/mm/20

7.1Each partner organisation will be individually responsible for all funds received from the TSIP

7.2Each partner organisation will keep accurate records of income and expenditure for the funding received through the TSIP programme

7.3Each partner organisation will meet its obligations to supply this information to the funding body as per the funding agreement

8.Policies and procedures

8.1Activity will be delivered in accordance with the terms and conditions of TSIP.

<Insert: how will you all know that others are doing this?> eg All partners will supply a signed declaration listing the above policies that confirms their compliance with this arrangement

8.2All partners are responsible for maintaining the following operational policies and to work within the parameters of these policies when delivering activities funded through TSIP monies:

Equalities Policy

Safeguarding

Health and Safety

Insurance as appropriate: public liability, employers liability and professional indemnity

<Insert any ‘exceptions to the above’ here

Partner organisation ‘x’ does not require a professional indemnity policy

Partner organisation ‘y’ will be supported to develop a safeguarding policy by ?date

8.3All partners will be responsible for keeping such policies and procedures up to date, and ensuring that all staff associated with this project areaware of them.

8.4All partners will be responsible for maintaining any necessary insurance to cover their own professional and public liabilities, premises, staff and assets and supplying this information to the funder as specified in the funding agreement.

8.5All partners will be responsible for maintaining a risk register that addresses the health and safety of its staff and volunteers and supplying this information to the funder as specified in the funding agreement.

8.6All partners agree to meet the expected safeguarding procedure/practices to fulfil funding agreement requirements.

9.Approach to equalities

9.1All partners are committed to creating services that meet the needs of the city’s diverse communities and to ensuring that those that are most often excluded are able to access services in a way that works for them.

9.2All partners will work closely with organisations representing those that are most often excluded to ensure that they are involved in the project and benefit from the resulting structures and working arrangements.

9.3All partners will adhere to their own existing policies and procedures with regards to equal opportunities.

9.4The partners and the project will ensure that it promotes equality in all its work and is active in ensuring that work undertaken meets the needs of the full diversity of the city’s communities.

10.Administration, meetings and record keeping

Meetings(this might include steering group, partnership meetings, working groups)

The partnership will hold the following meetings:

<What type of meeting is it?

<How often?

<Where?

<Who will coordinate meetings happening?

<Who will attend each meeting type?

Papers

<Who will send out meeting papers and by what date?

<By what date will minutes/records be circulated?

11.Monitoring and Reporting

11.1All partner organisations in this agreement agree to comply with the data gathering arrangements agreed when developing the bid and as finally agreed within the funding agreement.

11.2All partners organisations will take responsibility for gathering accurate information on progress against the agreed outcomes and to supply this information to the funding officer by the agreed dates.

11.3Any changes to data gathering arrangements will be discussed and agreed by ALL partners in this agreement and will be subject to final approver by the funder.

11.4Where alterations to monitoring and evaluation activities are instructed by the funder all partner organisations will comply accordingly.

11.5All partner organisations will supply information and participate in this as per the following schedule as follows:

What / Deadline for monitoring/evaluation data / Format/Approach and to who
Eg. Interim delivery updates / <insert partner meeting dates> / Verbal update to partnership members
Eg. End of year monitoring report / <insert date> / Written report to BHCC
Eg. Progress review / <insert date> / Site visit by BHCC staff

12.Confidentiality and Data Protection

12.1All partners of this agreement will act within the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 in the gathering, storing and sharing of information relating to this funding agreement.

12.2Partners of this agreement agree not to share information/data held relating to TSIP activities with third parties that fall outside of the funding agreement attached to these activities without prior consent of ALL partners.

12.3All partners to this agreement will observe the safeguarding responsibilities of the TSIP funding agreement.

12.4Partners of this agreement agree to inform all other partners in the event of any safeguarding concern arising as relates to this funding agreement.

13.Conflicts of interest

13.1All partners agree to declare any conflicts of interest that will jeopardise the partnership achieving the outcomes outlined in this partnership agreement

14.Resolving disputes

14.1Each partner organisation has entered into this agreement in the best possible faith to work constructively and collaboratively to achieve the joint outcomes they have agreed.

14.2As such, all partners will take the opportunity to address problems at the earliest opportunity and all efforts will be made by the whole partnership to problem-solve and find a constructive and productive outcome to disputes and if necessary organisational complaints procedures followed.

14.3In the event of a serious dispute, all the signatories of this agreement commit to undertake reasonable steps to resolve the conflict and if needs be to pursue a resolution through an independent mediator.

14.4Partners will keep the funder informed of disputes that risk the delivery of the project outcomes and partner organisations reserve the right to independently notify the funder of disputes where they consider the dispute to jeopardise the delivery of the funding agreement. This will be done with notification to the partner organisations.

14.5Partners agree that, as per the funding agreement, should the complaint or dispute remain unresolved within 14 days of the matter first being referred to the funder (Authorised Officer or other nominated individual), either party may refer the matter to the [Chief Executive] of the Council/CCG and the [Chair OR Chief Executive] of the Recipient.

14.6In any conflict situation, or in the event of irresolvable conflict, this partnership agreement and the terms and conditions of the TSIP Fund will hold precedence.

15.The duration of this agreement and termination

15.1This partnership agreement will expire at the same time as the end of TSIP funding agreement with the partner organisations.

15.2If any partner wishes to terminate the agreement they must write to the other partners, giving clear reasons why there are no further steps that can reasonably be taken to resolve the difficulty.

15.3The organisation that wishes to terminate the agreement will be responsible for keeping the funder informed of any problems that could result in the termination of the partnership as per the requirements of the funding agreement.

15.4In the case of one of the partners withdrawing from the partnership, or being unable to fulfil its obligations under the agreement, the other partners will attempt to negotiate a new agreement with BHCC in order to enable the activity to continue.

15.5Having exhausted all other avenues, partner organisations agree that they can notify the funder if, for any reason, they believe another partner organisation in this agreement is unable to meet its obligations of the TSIP activity to which they are party.

16.Changes to this agreement

16.1The partner organisations in this agreement agree to review the agreement on an <how often?> schedule.

16.2Changes to this partnership agreement will be made only in compliance with the funding agreement and subject to agreement by ALL partners.

16.3No partner will change the detail of the service specification or their delivery without the agreement of ALL other partners AND subject to final agreement with the funder.

17.Sustainability

17.1During the course of the project, all partners will work jointly and individually to plan for the continuation of the work beyond the life of the TSIP funding.