La Trobe

Collaborative Networks in Chronic Disease Prevention: What Factors Inhibit Partnering for Funding?

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journal contribution
posted on 2021-03-30, 23:26 authored by L Hopkins, Daniel ChamberlainDaniel Chamberlain, F Held, T Riley, JZJ Wang, K Conte
© 2019 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Inter-organisational partnering is seen as an effective mechanism for improving the delivery of chronic disease interventions in communities. Yet even in communities where organisations across multiple sectors are well connected and collaborative in other ways, when it comes to partnering for joint-funding, multiple barriers inhibit the establishment of formal partnerships. To understand why this is so, we examined quantitative and qualitative data from organisations in an Australian community and compared the findings with a review of the published literature in this area. We found that even organisations which are well connected through informal network arrangements face pressure from funding bodies to form more formalised inter-organisational partnerships. Community based organisations also recognise that partnerships are desirable mechanisms for service improvement; however, barriers to joint-funding partnerships exist which include restrictions imposed by funding bodies on the way grants are designed, implemented, and administered. Additional barriers at the community level include organisational capacity for partnership work, intra-organisational restrictions and timing issues. Policy makers must recognise and address the barriers to partnerships which exist within funding structures and at the community level in order to increase partnering opportunities to improve service delivery.

Funding

This work was supported by the ACT Health;Department of Health, Australian Government;HCF Research Foundation; NSW Ministry of Health;National Health and Medical Research Council [GNT9100001].

History

Publication Date

2021-01-01

Journal

International Journal of Public Administration

Volume

44

Issue

2

Pagination

9p. (p. 91-99)

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

ISSN

1532-4265

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