The National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP), based in Dublin, Ireland, is an Irish government agency that was established in 2001 to promote and facilitate workplace change and innovation through partnership. By supporting the transformation of Irish workplaces into high-performing, high-quality places of work, the NCPP's goal is to contribute to national competitiveness, improved workplace productivity and performance, and a better Quality of working life for employers and employees alike. It combines research and advocacy to achieve these aims.
On 1 January 2007, the NCPP was placed on a statutory footing as part of the new National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO) [1]. NESDO’s other constituent bodies are the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) [2] and the National Economic and Social Forum (NESF) [3]
One of the NCPP's main tasks is to promote the National Workplace Strategy (NWS), the government's blueprint to transform Irish workplaces into 'workplaces of the future'.
Under Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern, TD, the NWS was adopted in March 2005, following a two-year Forum on the Workplace of the Future. The Forum brought together employers, trade unions, academics, government departments, state agencies and the community/voluntary sector to set out a vision of the workplace of the future. According to them, such a workplace would be: agile; customer centred; knowledge intensive; responsive to employee needs; networked; highly productive; involved and participatory; continually learning, and proactively diverse.
In June 2007, the NCPP launched a national public awareness campaign to promote the aims and objectives of the National Workplace Strategy, including a revamped NWS website [4]. By September 2007, the new site had received more than 10,000 hits following an extensive advertising campaign across TV, radio, internet and outdoor.
The NCPP is currently chaired by Peter Cassells, former General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and widely recognised as one of the architects of Ireland's system of social partnership (1987- ). Its Director is Lucy Fallon-Byrne. The board of the NCPP includes representatives of the social partners (IBEC, ICTU, CIF), government departments and state agencies.