Partnership working in Regions: reflections on local government collaboration in Wales

Set against the established political mantra of partnership working, this paper considers the conceptual framings of the local authority partnership agenda in academic debates and concurrent empirical research. We compare and contrast the changing formal territorial remits of political intervention with the spatial constructs understood and employed by those stakeholders responsible for delivering childrens services. In so doing, we illustrate the uneven nature of local government partnership working and reflect on the ways in which organizational asymmetry, cultural connections, shared material experiences and historic rounds of local authority restructuring enable and constrain collaborative practice.