Since before its election in 1997, the ‘New’ Labour government has emphasised a collaborative discourse (Clarence and Painter, 1998; Kirkpatrick, 1999; Painter, 1999; Huxham, 2000; Ling, 2000; Balloch and Taylor, 2001a). This collaborative discourse employs a wide variety of terms; policy documents across a number of fields use terms such as partnership, Compacts, inter-agency working, integrated delivery, joined-up government, coordination and seamless services. However, the term ‘partnership’ appears to be particularly widely used (Hudson, 1999, 2000; Lewis, 1999a; Fairclough, 2000; Ling, 2000; Powell and Exworthy, 2001; Powell et al, 2001). According to Balloch and Taylor (2001b, p 3), New Labour has tied its colours to the partnership mast, in proclaiming its intention to move from a ‘contract culture’ to a ‘partnership culture’. Partnership represents a ‘Third Way’ – ‘a new model for a new century’ – which is distinctive from both the centralised bureaucratic hierarchies of Old Labour and the market of the Conservatives. Moreover, New Labour's collaborative discourse extends beyond simply improving the linkages between government departments and statutory services. It also encompasses government at local, regional and national levels, acting in partnership with the private sector and with agencies in civil society (Giddens, 1998; Powell, 1999b, pp 19-21).

This new discourse of collaboration has parallels with academic debates about changes in the relationship between the state, welfare institutions and civil society and, ultimately, the means by which the state governs. For example, it has been argued that the dominant mode of government has shifted from hierarchies to markets and, most recently, to networks (see Exworthy et al, 1999, for a critical account). Moreover, this governance narrative (for example, Rhodes, 1997, 2000) asserts that networks are interdependent and are characterised by a significant degree of autonomy from the state. Their central coordinating mechanism is trust, in contrast to the commands and price competition that articulate hierarchies and markets respectively.

The aim of this book is to examine critically whether the partnerships advocated and created by New Labour represent a new and distinctive form of welfare governance. The book arose out of a seminar on ‘Partnerships’, which was held at the University of York in April 2000 as part of a series of ESRC Research Seminars on ‘New Labour and the Third Way in Public Services’.