Shared Values: The Foundation of Successful Employability Partnerships

2026 has been a significant year for the employability sector, bringing a wave of ambitious opportunities and major programmes designed to reshape how people are supported into sustainable employment. From Connect to Work and the Jobs Guarantee, to the emerging landscape of Future Employment Support, the scale and ambition of what lies ahead is considerable. 

As we await the outcomes of the applications we have submitted at Better Connect, it feels timely to look beyond the contracts and reflect on what makes an employability partnership truly successful.  

At the heart of our partnerships are shared values. 

Winning contracts is challenging. Building partnerships that deliver lasting impact is even harder.  Contracts create opportunity; however, it is the strength of the partnerships behind them that determines the impact they can have.   

With increasing numbers of employability and related tenders being released, many VCSE organisations are being approached by multiple lead bidders and are having to make important decisions about who to partner with. These decisions cannot be made lightly. They can have significant implications for organisations seeking to engage with these opportunities.  

Too often, difficult conversations about finances, risk and delivery expectations happen after contracts are awarded rather than during partnership development. Looking beyond contract values and delivery volumes is therefore essential.  

Partners need to understand how risk will be shared, how delivery organisations will be supported, what influence they will have over delivery, whether payment terms are fair and proportionate, and whether the lead bidder has a track record of building genuine partnerships based on trust, transparency and mutual benefit. 

A genuine partnership starts with understanding how each organisation works, whether values align, what pressures it faces and what it needs to remain financially sustainable.  

Partnership is not simply about what one organisation can deliver for another. It is about understanding what each brings to the table and creating the conditions for both to succeed.  

Shared values are key. When delivery gets tough, trust, transparency and collaboration become more important than contract clauses. 

Strong lead providers do not just monitor performance. They support, develop and help their partners succeed. They help partners capture and demonstrate the impact of their work, ensuring the value of VCSE organisations is visible to commissioners, funders and wider stakeholders. 

The best partnerships balance challenge with support, creating space for honest conversations and continuous improvement.

A Mutual Partnership Checklist

So, what does a genuinely mutual partnership look like in practice?  

There are many strong lead partners and delivery organisations across the employability landscape. The challenge is finding the right fit, with organisations that share values, understand each other’s strengths and are prepared to take shared responsibility for success.  

Building the right partnership, with the right organisations is fundamental to the success of all employability programmes.  

Before committing to a delivery partnership, these are questions that both lead providers and delivery organisations should be prepared to ask and answer together: 

• Do we share the same values?  

• Are we clear about what we each bring?  

• Are expectations realistic and shared? 

• How is financial risk shared? 

• How will we support each other to succeed? 

• How will we capture and demonstrate impact?  

• Is communication genuinely two-way? 

• Are we committed to long-term sustainability? 

• Is there evidence that we can trust each other?  

The full checklist can be accessed here.

It is important to not simply to ask, “what will this organisation do for us?”, but “what can we achieve together that neither organisation could achieve as effectively alone.”  If things were to become difficult, would we trust each other to have the difficult conversation, share the risk and work through the challenge together?  

At Better Connect, we believe relationships come before contracts, transparency comes before targets, and partnership means taking shared responsibility for both success and challenge. 

Trust is earned through fairness, openness and consistency. It is built when partners understand each other’s pressures, recognise each other’s strengths and are prepared to have honest conversations when things don’t go to plan. 

For us, a successful employability partnership is one where both organisations are stronger because of the relationship, and where that collective strength translates into better outcomes for participants and communities. 

Shared values are therefore more than a statement of intent. They are the foundation for how partners should make decisions, share risk, challenge one another, learn and deliver. 

When partnerships are genuinely mutual, everyone has a stake in making them work and ultimately, participants and communities are the ones who benefit most.