4.3.2 Partnerships

Principles
Partnerships are mutually beneficial and co-operative relationships in which partners share values, objectives, resources (human, material or financial), roles and responsibilities in order to achieve desired outcomes.

Partnerships can bring together expertise from a range of sectors, foster a spirit of co-operation and provide a means of developing cohesive, integrated services.

Policy requirements
When planning, negotiating or implementing a partnering or collaborative arrangement, communication requirements must be taken into account to avoid any misunderstandings.

This includes establishing the communication roles and responsibilities of the parties involved; determining and delineating the corporate identity, visibility, publishing, marketing and promotional activities to be used in the partnering agreement; and communicating joint activities or initiatives in a manner that is fair and equitable to all parties.

The Media protocol for partnerships: template provides guidance in the development of a media protocol between two or more partners, including a partner(s) external to Government.

While advertising and promotional activities involving the media may be part of the partnership’s communication strategy, such efforts must not be a focus but rather an aide to informing the public.

In all partnering and collaborative arrangements, agencies must:

• ensure that appropriate identifiers are used to acknowledge and attribute the contributions of all participants eg. corporate names and/or logos
• use the Tasmanian Government logo when identifying their own participation in a collaborative arrangement, to enable public recognition of the contributions of the Tasmanian Government
• ensure that the parties involved acknowledge the Tasmanian Government’s contribution in their own communications with the public
• communicate the results of collaborative arrangements through normal audit, evaluation and performance reporting processes.