Sandwell Council of Voluntary Organisations - SCVO. Supporting the Growth of Community Action in Sandwell.

Compact

Overview

The Compact is an agreement between Public Sector agencies and Voluntary and Community Sector agencies. The Compact recognises and sets out a series of shared values, principles and commitments that if followed, should improve the relationship between the two sectors. A National Compact was established in 1998 and to help agencies to work towards the values, principles and commitment a series of Codes of Practice have been developed around the main these of the Compact:-

• The BME Code

• Community Groups Code

• Consultation and Policy Appraisal Code

• Funding and Procurement Code

• Volunteering Code

A copy of the National Compact and Codes of Practice can be accessed here.

Following the development of the National Compact, there was an expectation that local Compacts would be developed to help relationships at a grass roots level. In response to this expectation, Sandwell has developed a local Compact setting out the principles governing the relationship between the voluntary and statutory sectors. The Local Compact sets the tone of the relationship, supporting them to work together to do good things for the people of Sandwell. Whilst the Compact is not a legally binding document it is a statement of intent and aspiration.

Sandwell Compact was developed by a cross-sector group and the document was recently updated. The revised changes to the Compact were put out for consultation for all voluntary and statutory sector stakeholders in March 2008 for a 12 week period. Following this consultation, the Steering Group brought together all the feedback in a report which provided guidance on where revisions and changes need to be made.

As of February 2009 the Compact was formally adopted by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Sandwell Partnership, Sandwell Primary Care Trust, West Midlands Police and SCVO. Other voluntary and community sector organisations are now invited to sign up to the Compact commitments, and this can be done using page 9 of the main Compact document.

In addition to the Compact document itself, in line with national developments, Sandwell has also produced some Codes of Practice.

The key documents are:-

Sandwell Compact (main document)

Funding Code of Practice

Governance Code of Practice

Sandwell Compact – Glossary of Terms

Between the months of March 2010 and May 2010 some further Codes of Practice were developed and consulted on.  Around 700 consultation questionnaires were sent out to Voluntary and Community Groups and 47 responses were received with 29 organisations signing up to the Compact as part of the process.

The feedback on these Codes was extremely positive with only minor comments and suggested amendments being made.  These have been taken into account and the final Codes of Practice can now be accessed below:

Communication and Consultation Code of Practice

Volunteering Code of Practice

Capacity Building Code of Practice