Blogs

Looking back at an eventful year for Compact Voice

2013 has been a busy and eventful year for us all here at Compact Voice.

We thought we'd say farewell to 2013 by looking back at some of the year's highlights.

Working together for open government

We’ve recently done quite a lot of work with the Open Government Partnership (OGP). I wanted to take some time to explain to you all in this blog exactly what the OGP is and what it has to do with Compact Voice.

2: Designing policies and services

Finding inspiration and meeting new organisations at the Locality Conference

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Locality Annual Conference in Leicester, which proved to be really interesting – so thought I would provide a bit of an update on some of the things I saw and interesting projects I learnt about. Having never been to a Locality conference before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, though the agenda and list of speakers had set my expectations high. I was not disappointed.

Why proposed changes to Judicial Review have us worried

On 6th September 2013, the Government opened up an eight week consultation on proposed reforms to the Judicial Review (JR) process.

The Government sees the proposed reforms as a way of speeding up the process of bringing and resolving a claim, thereby reducing the burdens on the court system and public services.

However, if the proposals are passed, there is a worry that these reforms could have a serious effect on the ability of the public and the judiciary to hold the Government to account.

How the OGP London Summit can make a difference

This guest blog is from Joe Powell the Deputy Director of the Open Government Partnership Support Unit.

Joe discusses the development of the Open Government Partnership and the potential impact of the London 2013 Summit.

A fond farewell

This week will be my final week working as manager of Compact Voice. To say a lot has changed over the last four years since I joined the team is an understatement.

Well, what a difference a year makes!

This time last year, after our 2012 survey of local Compacts was published, I wrote the blog ‘In defence of the North East'. There had been a noticeable lack of responses to the survey from the North East, with only 5 of the 12 local Compacts in the region represented.

Well, what a difference a year makes!

Local Compact Survey results: briefing 4 – Best Value Guidance and funding

This series of briefings explores some of the policy findings from our 2013 Annual Survey of Local Compacts in more depth. In our fifth and final installment, we look at the impact of Best Value Guidance, spending cuts and funding relationships.

This blog reveals results around how local authorities and voluntary sector organisations perceive that funding cuts are affecting them, how relationships between the sectors have fared and how they anticipate future funding and revenue will look.

Annual Survey

Navigating through the East, the South East and local Compacts

I joined Compact Voice six months ago as an Engagement Development Officer covering the South East and East of England.

I felt it was an auspicious year to arrive, as we’re celebrating 15 years of the Compact in 2013. I started my career as a project officer taking minutes at a local Compact development group back in the early 2000’s - and like the Compact, I’ve grown and changed a bit since then too.

Local Compact survey results 2013: Payment by Results

This series of briefings explores some of the policy findings from our 2013 Annual Survey of Local Compacts in more depth. In our fourth blog, we look at the impact of Payment by Results.

This blog reveals results around how well PbR is understood by both sectors and whether respondents believe it will improve services.

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