Staff blogitorial

Compact Voice staff discuss national Compact issues and talk about our activities in this new, regular "blogitorial".

Compact Annual Meeting - our view of the day [02/02/2010]

By Dugald McNaughtan, Compact Voice

The tenth Compact Annual Meeting was held, somewhat controversially, at London Zoo on Monday 1 February. It was attended by a wide cross-section of the Compact world, there to discuss the refreshed Compact and progress made since the last meeting.

There were some surprises amongst the keynote addresses; Sir Bert Massie called on all voluntary sector organisations to publicly announce their commitment to their Compacts (local and national); Mark Davies from the Department of Health and Compact Voice’s chair Simon Blake announced they will be working together on new ways to ensure widespread Compact-compliant working and commissioning in the Department, and Angela Smith MP appeared only virtually at the event, in a pre-recorded video speech (due to her ethical objections to the venue), where she re-stated her own commitment to the Compact. We also launched our Impact Report for 2009.

The big message this year however was about the “implementation debate”, with all the speakers emphasising the importance of recognising and sharing real positive outcomes from Compact working. We’re calling for people to share these stories, whether big or small – see the Compact Stories section for examples.

A number of key questions emerged from the round-table discussions held in the latter part of the event, where the more practical aspects of implementation were dissected. These included:

1. How can smaller voluntary groups build relationships with Government departments – and are there examples of this happening?
2. How are voluntary groups involved in scrutiny of new local legislation? for example when brought in as advisers
3. Are there examples of “parcelling” contracts – for example getting a local voluntary group to run its local park, as it’s not only better connected within the community but more efficient and motivated than a private contractor
4. How will the next year’s Annual Meeting report a year of Compact successes, particularly around implementation and embedding? (if these sound relevant to you we're hoping you'll discuss them on the network forum)

Sir Jeremy Beecham, from the Local Government Associated also entreated the public sector to view voluntary groups as partners, not as “cheap alternative options” – recognising that the Sector gives greater value and efficiency, and that such relationships represented good investment in local economy and local skills. Another key issue was the lack of Compact champions in National organisations, who ultimately help their own organisations achieve their aims – Compact Voice is encouraging people to sign up now.

In the meeting, Dawn Butler MP stated that “actions speak louder than words”, and called for next year’s meeting to enable us to celebrate the successes we achieve this year – so now’s the time to get the ball rolling!

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