The National Youth Agency: Comment - The cheese scone society

I attended the celebration of his life and talked with humour to others about the cheese scone society. Ken knew where the best cheese scones were sold and conducted many a meeting on neutral territory over a cup of tea and said delicacy. He maintained different levels of negotiation and levels of friendship - we always knew we were part of the inner circle if we were invited to the best cafe! I was lucky to be invited. I worked for the local authority; he worked for the voluntary sector.

We both wanted to make improvements for young people. We had different roles, different stakeholders, different contributions to make - but our goal was shared. We knew when we stood on common ground that we understood and respected our areas of difference. Who needed contestability? Partnership to achieve good outcomes for young people was what we were about. Our discussions concentrated on how, together, we could achieve the best outcome. When my colleague retired, we had to rethink the partnership and develop a systems approach rather than one centred around consumption of the ubiquitous score. Apart from the guide to local cafes, there are some important points to draw out here.