NAO report into government's implementation of the national Compact: follow up published
The National Audit Office has now published the follow up to their report examining government's implementation of the Compact.
The report looks at the extent to which departments have fulfilled the recommendations outlined in the original report, which was published in January 2012.
Compact Voice agreed with the initial report's conclusion that departments needed to improve their implementation of the Compact.
The report made a number of recommendations for all departments to consider to support improvement - much progress has been made with regard to taking the recommendations forward, but there is still more work to be done.
In summary, the follow up report's key findings are:
- The Compact remains a key document for guiding the relationship between central government and the diverse range of organisations that make up civil society.
- The prominence and quality of the Compact statement in departments’ Business Plans has improved.
- Looking across departments, progress in implementing the NAO's recommendations has been slow.
- Departments’ lack of progress in implementing the recommendations in the NAO's 2012 report is surprising because they did not report widespread barriers to their implementation.
- Most departments have made little progress in strengthening their arrangements for monitoring Compact complaints.
- The percentage of consultations running for less than 12 weeks has increased since our last report.
- Most departments did not have arrangements for monitoring and reporting the length of consultations.
- There is no central oversight of Compact non-compliance.
And finally, the Cabinet Office, who lead on Compact implementation across government, were found to have shown a continuing commitment to the Compact.
Compact Voice have published a blog outlining our thoughts on the report in more detail, which can be read here.
