Partnerships: panacea or pretence?

This article seeks to explore the centrality and reality of partnerships or partnership working in current British social policy. The article will investigate the rhetoric and reality of partnerships using research based on the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) as an exemplar to critically question whether partnerships have become more pretence than panacea? In so doing the article will suggest that partnerships are deserving of greater critical analysis and research as their rhetorical force potentially represents another metaphor for social control.