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The Lobbying Act – Where are we now, and what’s next for voluntary organisations?

The Lobbying Act (officially the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act) finally concluded this January after an eventful journey through Parliament.

Here we provide a bit of background into the Act, to accompany a new short briefing we’ve produced. The briefing is aimed at people who may not work in a policy role, but are concerned as to whether their organisation may be affected by the Act.

1: Partnership working

Researching local data transparency

Recently, Compact Voice concluded a piece of research looking at how local authorities in England spend on, and engage with, the voluntary sector.

We wanted to understand how transparent local authorities were able to be with their spending data, how they were consulting with the sector and if they were cutting funding to the sector disproportionately.

2: Designing policies and services

Partnership working in practice: celebrating Volunteers' Week

It’s Volunteers Week – I’m sure that hasn’t escaped your notice – but what I hadn’t realised is that Volunteers Week is now 30 years old.

With a milestone birthday for Volunteers Week and last year’s 15th anniversary of the Compact, it’s a good time to reflect on volunteering and the Compact. It’s also a good time for a sneaky peak at the future of volunteering, as well as taking the opportunity to celebrate the enormous contribution that volunteers make.

DWP celebrate the power of partnerships with internal Compact Awards

I have been working closely with different government departments for the last six months, and what has struck me the most is that a) departments are very big and as a result b) there is good partnership work happening somewhere in every department.

Sometimes, departments' willingness to include the voluntary sector isn’t promoted widely, it just happens as part of day to day activities, beneath the radar.

Busting myths about the Compact

Following the conclusion of the research we commissioned recently into perceptions and insights on the Compact and Compact Voice (some details of which we’ve shared in another recent blog), Compact Voice have been doing a bit of reflecting and reviewing.

Helping you get to grips with social value

This February marked the one year anniversary of the Public Service (Social Value) Act, more commonly known as the Social Value Act.
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The picture is still very mixed across the country as to how local authorities and voluntary sector organisations understand social value and the Public Services (Social Value) Act.
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As a result, we've published a new, easy-to-understand guide to help organisations and Compact groups to get on board with it.

Sharing the findings of our survey

Compact Voice recently conducted an online ‘Satisfaction Survey’, as part of a wider research project into our work and future direction. I’d like to take the opportunity to share some of the findings.

Latest on our spend and engagement research

Back in October 2013, Compact Voice initiated a piece of research into how local authorities engage with the voluntary sector, and how much they spend on it.

This blog provides a bit of background as to why we undertook the research and where our findings are leading us.

Building partnerships through sharing unwanted 'stuff'

In this guest blog, Daniel O’Connor from WarpIT talks about his service (free for voluntary organisations) that allows them to take advantage of unwanted furniture, resources or kit for their offices.

The partnership WarpIT formed with Sunderland City Council was awarded the Compact Innovation Award at the 2013 Compact Awards.

Here, Daniel explains the benefits of the programme.

"Can I just ask..."

This is often followed by ‘I know this may sound daft but…’ To which my reply is ‘no question is daft if the answer clears up any doubt’.

As an Engagement Development Officer at Compact Voice, my role and that of my colleagues Monika and Hilary is to support local areas to redraft or refresh their local Compact - or to help local areas to implement them better. Therefore, we always encourage people to ask us any questions they might have, no matter what they are, to help them gain a clearer understanding.

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