The partnership approach has been part of the UK government’s wider agenda for a number of years, driven to some extend by Government commitment to joined-up working at regional and national levels (Cabinet Office Performance and innovation Unit, 2000) and there are examples of initiatives from many government departments including ‘Partnerships with People Initiative’ (Department of Trade and Industry, 2000), Arts into Health Partnership (Department of Health, 1999) and more recently ‘Partners for Success’ which is a partnership initiative between Government and farmers (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2005). Whilst in health and safety a strategic review carried out in 2000 (Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, 2000) identified that ‘The Partnership Principle’ promoting partnerships between stakeholders in the health and safety system would be a valuable approach to facilitating voluntary compliance (Moore, 2000) and ensuring that the UK approach to health and safety regulation remained relevant to the changing world of work. Partnerships are actively encouraged and a large number have been established between stakeholders at both local and national level. The partnerships take many forms and there are examples of partnerships between employers and employees (Spiller and Buirds, 1999), professional organisations and small firms (Walker and Tait, 2000a) and large firms assisting small firms through the ‘good neighbour scheme’ (Borley, 1998).
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