Blogs

Since Dugald went to Bolivia, I’ve been helping Compact Voice with communications until Kelly, a permanent staffer, starts at the beginning of April. I’ll leave Kelly to introduce herself to you, so while I’m here for another six weeks, let me give you some insight into my background – the complex world of local government.

A new national Compact is a positive sign of government support for partnership, but Local Compacts are where the action (and inaction) happens. This is a message we have been hearing loud and clear as cuts test the strength of local agreements.  

At the risk of sounding like a South London gangster there isn’t enough respect around. I’m not talking about queue jumping here but the way some local councils treat voluntary organisations. At Compact Advocacy we speak to people on a daily basis who have to bear the brunt of councils’ budget cuts and poor decision making. We see it all; hasty decisions behind closed doors, reviews based on flawed data, demands for money to be paid back, retrospective Equality Impact Assessments and refusals to communicate.

I’ve recently come across a new online support project set up by Communities and Local Government called “Barrier Busting” (alliteration is a proven effective communication technique, okay?). Set up dually to help the government with its commitment to transferring power and influence to local authorities and communities and to help individuals and groups in the community flag up barriers in a centralised space, the barrier busting team claims to want to “help you get things done for your local community”.