Policy areas

Key issues:

• Creating and maintaining networks and relationships requires a specific skill set, one that even experienced practitioners are rarely trained in.
• Sustaining networks and support organisations requires resources and capacity. Engaging practitioners can also be challenging, especially when there the direct short-term benefits are not clear.
• Where support does exist, it is often focused on specific sub-sectors such as community food growing. This can mean a lack of resources and structures for collaborating outside these silos on cross-cutting issues
• Conflicts around values, ideals, goals, representation, governance, funding and alliances can derail attempts at collaboration.

What needs to change:

1. Internal conflicts need to be understood and dealt with as a core part of engagement with diverse groups. There need to be better governance structures and facilitators, and clarity of shared aims, objectives and values.
2. Practitioners need to acknowledge the value of network and relationship-building across different sectors, embrace strategic and identify support needs.
3. Support organisations can help practitioners hone their network-building skills. Projects like Power to Change’s Peer Networks programme can help organisations’ develop the necessary skills to create strong and sustainable networks.
4. Funders can support collaboration between organisations by funding collaborative projects.
5. Public commissioning should actively support networks to coordinate bids from smaller land-based social enterprises

Our projects

• Power to Change’s Peer Networks Programme: we are convening a Community of Practice to share learning and experiences, and come up with innovative models of developing networks.
• We previously worked with the Tudor Trust to provide support and advice to land-based social enterprises.

Further resources

• Power to Change
• Social Change Agency

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