Understanding the development of strategic service partnerships

Strategic Service Partnerships (SSPs) are complex Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that have become increasingly popular amongst British local authorities. However, SSP’s remain poorly understood. The existing research on these partnerships has neglected to locate SSPs within the wider discussion of public-private partnering and has tended to describe the operations of SSPs rather than considering the process that underpins their creation. This paper considers these issues and presents an exploratory case study of the efforts of an English local authority to establish an SSP.