National Compact
The Compact is a Government-led initiative and
stands for better partnership working and creating better outcomes
for individuals and local communities.
The Compact is a longstanding
agreement, originally introduced
in November 1998, setting out shared
principles and guidelines for effective partnership working between
government and the voluntary and community sector in
England.
The 1998 Compact agreement, with five codes of practice, was
replaced in December 2009 by a new and shorter document,
with its commitments divided into three areas
covering involvement in policy development; allocating
resources and commissioning and achieving equality.
New Compact for working in partnership
The
Coalition Government and civil society organisations working
effectively in partnership for the benefit of
communities and
citizens in England.
At the heart of the Coalition Government’s
vision of the Big Society is the drive
to give people more power and control over their lives and their
communities, to reform public services and to champion social
action over state control and top-down Government-set targets.
A flourishing civil society is fundamental to
achieving this “power shift” and the Compact is seen as a vital
part of achieving this goal, by laying the foundation for
productive working partnerships between the Government and civil
society organisations (CSOs).
With this in mind, a new Compact has been
published by the coalition government in partnership with
Compact Voice – the voice of the voluntary sector
on the Compact.
The new Compact is shorter and more focused
than the previous agreement and aims to create the right
environment for partnership working. It is backed by a robust set
of accountability and transparency measures outlined in a new
guide.
The new Compact is split into the five
outcomes that an effective partnership between the Government
and CSOs will help achieve:
- A strong, diverse and independent civil
society
- Effective and transparent design and
development of policies, programmes and public services
- Responsive and high-quality programmes and
services
- Clear arrangements for managing changes to
programmes and services
- An equal and fair society
Promoting the Compact
The role of promoting the Compact has been
taken over jointly by the
Cabinet Office and Compact Voice, following the
closure of the Commission for the Compact
(archive
versions of the site are still available through the
UK Government Web Archive).
Compact Voice is the key
representative body for the voluntary sector on Compact matters. It
is the co-signatory to the national Compact, which it developed in
partnership with the Office for Civil Society in the Cabinet Office
in 2010. Compact Voice is a membership organisation whose members
represent more than 20,000 civil society organisations.
The National Audit Office has recently
published its report on a one-off study into the operation of
the Compact across government, which will be reported to parliament
(available from 09 January 2012). Please see
Compact Voice News for further information.
Contact
Tel: 01304 872314
Email: policy@dover.gov.uk
