Partnerships can be testing !!!!!!

I wonder how many times have I heard organisations use these words when the partners they work with prove challenging.
Well the position we (DVSC) are in requires us to have many partners to ensure we can offer the very best service to 1100 plus voluntary and community organisations throughout Denbighshire. Maintaining harmonious relations with partners is not easy particularly when a case I went to see today happens. Clearly in an attempt to maintain good relations with the statutory body, and I don't believe in negotiating in public, I won't reveal the name but suffice to say that the voluntary organisation was telling me today how close they are to the brink i.e. going bust and this is due solely to one of our partners not doing the right thing. I call the problem we have as social injustice and unfairness. Maybe the partner isn't aware of the impact that their actions have had but somehow I find that hard to believe having seen the correspondence sent by the voluntary organisation .

So where does that leave me and DVSC. Simple really we will seek to open discusssions with our partner to see how the voluntary organisation can be saved and their debts cleared so that they can continue to deliver much valued services to the vulnerable people in our society. I don't expect a quick solution but who knows I might go into the office on Monday the 10th to find the partner on the phone with a deliverable solution - who knows. What I do know we will persevere with this case until such time as we secure a result even if that means we draw the Welsh Assembly Government into the discussion because they do believe in Social Justice in fact they have a Directorate named Social Justice and so I do expect a positive result.
Luckily I don't have many cases like this but I do get them from time to time which does mean working in partnership does come under the microscope and at such difficult times the value of a partnership does come to the fore. Namely do your partners run for the hills at the first sign of trouble or do they stand shoulder to shoulder with you and sort out the issue. So far I have experienced the latter which is why I was able to say to the voluntary organisation, with a degree of confidence, don't worry it will get sorted it may take a while but it will be sorted.
And lets not forget we also have partnerships with the third sector and they can also prove equally challenging and so this is not a sector specific issue as sometimes it is so easy to target and criticise the statutory sector without taking a long critical look at organisations a lot closer to home.