Compact Week 2013
Compact Week takes place across England, and aims to promote and celebrate the Compact: the longstanding agreement that sets out shared commitments and guidelines for partnership working between government and the voluntary sector.
Compact Week 2013 will be running from 4 – 8 November.
- Compact Week 2013 theme
- Practical ways your area can get involved
- Free logos, materials and speaker service for your events
- Further information and guidance
Compact Week 2013 theme
The theme for Compact Week 2013 is: 'The Compact 15 years on: the power of partnerships'.
This year, the national Compact is 15 years old, providing a perfect opportunity to reflect upon some of the changes, challenges and successes that have taken place over this period of time.
It’s also a chance to celebrate the Compact’s many successes, and the positive impact the Compact continues to have in many local areas.
Compact Voice will be announcing the winners of the 2013 Compact Awards during Compact Week, and Compact Voice will be promoting the winning entries widely.
We’ll also be publishing a compendium of some the best examples of good practice gathered in the case studies we’ve published recently, each exploring a particularly successful element of partnership working in areas across England, as well as an update from some government departments about their progress on implementing the Compact.
Practical ways your area can get involved
There are many benefits to signing up to a local Compact, and Compact Week can be an excellent time to encourage new organisations to get on board, as well as reiterate its usefulness to existing partners.
Host a Compact Week event
We encourage local Compact partnerships to host their own events during Compact Week, to help raise awareness of their Compact, and familiarise new members of staff with what it is and how it works. Compact Voice can provide free speakers and materials for your events – more information on this is below.
It can be useful to invite organisations who may be involved in cross-sector partnership working, but who have previously not signed up – such as Police and Crime Commissioners, Local Healthwatch groups or representatives from the Fire and Rescue Service.
If you think these organisations may be not be convinces about the value of a local Compact agreement, take a look at our briefing ‘the case for statutory support for local Compacts’, which outlines some of the benefits of supporting a local Compact, as well as highlighting that the Compact is a powerful way to establish relationships, and not just a tool to be used if things go wrong.
You can also adapt the national Compact Week theme to your event. Compact Week activities can be an opportunity to reflect on the successes of your local Compact since its inception, and where you hope to be in the future.
Put the Compact on the agenda
Many areas also use Compact Week as a way of getting their local Compact ‘off the shelf’ and onto the table.
An easy, low cost way of doing this is to include the Compact as an agenda item at an existing meeting, either during or in the lead up to, Compact Week. Many areas will take the opportunity to attend a cross-organisational meeting and provide a short overview of what their Compact is, who is involved with it and what its benefits are.
Again, Compact Voice is able to provide information and resources on this. See the ‘further information’ section below for details on how to get in touch.
Enter a Compact Award nomination
Update: the nomination period for the Compact Awards has now come to an end. Many thanks if you sent in a nomination. Winners will be announced during Compact Week.
Winning a Compact Award can be a great way of raising the profile of your local Compact.
If you have worked on a successful project delivered in partnership this year, we encourage you to enter – it is quick and easy to do so.
Winners will be invited to a ceremony in London, which is held during Compact Week (further details to follow).
All winners are presented with an engraved glass award and framed certificate, and are given free use of professional photographs taken during presentations.
More information about the benefits of entering a nomination can be found at www.compactvoice.org.uk/compactawards2013.
Using Compact Week to raise your Compact’s profile
There are numerous low cost ways to utilise Compact Week as a way of raising the profile of your local Compact – here are some ideas other areas have used:
- Put together a flyer about the Compact and place it on your reception desk, in staff areas or on noticeboards for the duration of the week (alternatively, we can provide materials or flyers – see below).
- Send an email to your local council members telling them what the Compact is and how it is relevant to them.
- Recruit ‘Compact champions’ in your local area, who can help to raise awareness of the Compact and induct new staff all year round.
- Undertake a ‘Compact Challenge’ for the period around Compact Week: Insert articles about your local Compact in internal bulletins, magazines and on websites – organise informal training or lunchtime learning session for new staff and colleagues to find out what your local Compact is.
- If you’re looking for further ideas – do contact us, we’d be happy to help.
Free logos, materials and speaker service for your events
If you’re running an event during Compact Week, or just providing an update on your local Compact at a meeting (which we would encourage you to do!), we can provide a selection of materials free of charge.
We can provide free notebooks containing the text of the Compact, branded pens and copies of publications like ‘Local Compacts: A User Guide’ (subject to availability).
Numbers are limited, but if you are interested in distributing any of these materials in your organisation or to partners and colleagues, please get in touch.
You can also request a speaker from Compact Voice to attend your event and discuss the Compact – find out more about our free speaker service here. Please provide 3 weeks’ notice prior to your event, as our staff will be busy in the lead up to Compact Week. Speaker requests will be addressed in the order they are received, so the sooner the better!
You can download a Compact Week logo below – in either large high resolution format or as a smaller size suitable for use on web pages.
There is also some copy available to download below, which you can tailor for use in newsletters and on websites.
Further information and guidance
More information about Compact Week activities will be added to this page over the coming weeks. If you’d like to find out more in the meantime, please email us.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Compact Week logo – Large (.JPG) | 217.8 KB |
| Compact Week logo – Small (.JPG) | 18.33 KB |
| Promo copy for newsletters and websites (.DOC) | 736.32 KB |