1. It’s a partnership
While one agency takes the lead, all occupants:
- sign up to the same commercial terms and are bound by those arrangements
- pay a fair share of the establishment and operating costs, based on their area allocation
- make joint decisions about the project and the operational aspects of the building
- respect each other’s business needs and work together to solve issues
- put a governance framework in place to manage the partnership at both an operational and strategic level
- act in a transparent way, particularly around their changing needs and financial constraints.
The lead agency should take an objective view of the project and building, not an agency-centric view.
2. You’re creating a community
This means:
- engaging with local people about the co-location solution
- focusing on how agencies will work in the building
- putting agency-neutral building support in place at the co-location site
- putting agency-neutral procedures for raising operational issues in place
- demonstrating and promoting the shared use of space between agencies
- acknowledging that some individual agency policies and procedures may need to be adjusted to work in a particular site.
3. It’s an opportunity to innovate
This means:
- exploring where agencies' priorities and work plans might overlap, and how you could work together to achieve your goals
- exploring opportunities to integrate agencies' service delivery processes
- considering ways to share your learnings and knowledge with other agencies.
