425.Section 166 enables the Welsh Ministers to make regulations which specify partnership arrangements to be made between local authorities or between local authorities and Local Health Boards. The partnership arrangements are for carrying out social services functions or LHB or NHS Trust functions. The regulations must specify the form of the partnership arrangement and must make provision for the operation and management of the arrangement and for sharing information.
426.Local authorities and LHBs can establish formal partnerships with or without pooled budgets under existing legislation. Section 33 of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 allows NHS bodies and local authorities to develop formal partnerships and enables the partners to delegate functions from one to another with certain restrictions. The powers in this section will enable the Welsh Ministers to direct partnership arrangements at local, regional and national level in Wales. There are some services, for example, which need to be commissioned and provided at the regional or national level because the numbers of people who would benefit from such services are small and their needs very complex.