Understanding social capital within community / government policy networks” Social Policy Journal of New Zealand 22:1–18

There is an increasing need for joined-up government and joint working between agencies and across sectors in order to address “wicked ” social problems and improve policy outcomes. Consequently, it has become imperative to understand the nature of policy network settings, and also the endogenous and exogenous factors that positively and negatively impact on interagency and intra-agency collaboration. From senior managers to front-line workers needing to work collaboratively to achieve outcomes, knowing the types of relationships people have with other agencies may assist in identifying where greater time could be spent improving existing relationships or making new ones. While it is easy to assume that more coordination and cooperation will automatically lead to better and more efficient policy outcomes, collaboration can often be resource intensive, slow the whole process down and actually inhibit the achievement of policy outcomes. Therefore, if agencies are going to invest time and money in collaborative efforts, they need some assurance that such investment will pay dividends. The policy implications for using network analysis within a social capital framework to study policy networks and partnerships are discussed in this article. This paper concludes by describing how a policy network/social capital framework approach could be used to examine the Strengthening Families interagency case management process used in New Zealand