Compact

The Manchester Compact between the City Council and the local voluntary sector was signed in 2003. Compacts are a Government initiative to develop partnerships between the voluntary and statutory sectors by making a formal agreement about co-operation on issues such as funding, consultation, etc.

Although not legally binding, the Compact is intended to apply to all partnerships between the sectors, whether formal or not.  The basis of the Manchester Compact was developed during 2001 and aims to promote good practice in the way we work together. The Compact includes several codes of practice designed to set out the how the relationships between the sectors should work:

• To improve communication, understanding and trust between partners on all funding issues
• To clarify the funding relationships between the council & the voluntary & community sectors recognising:
• the sector’s desire for greater security
• the council’s desire for genuine accountability
• the users’ desire for good quality services

• To ensure that decisions affecting the voluntary and community sectors take into account the views of groups and that these groups, in turn, consult public sector agencies wherever appropriate

• To provide a framework of good practice for recruiting and managing volunteers that will benefit both service users & the volunteers themselves
• To promote volunteering as a valued contribution to service delivery and improvement, as an important community activity and an opportunity for personal development

• To provide Compact partners with good practice guidelines for:
• Ensuring their efforts deliver the maximum benefit to people who suffer the greatest social and economic exclusion
• Ensuring that policies and practices encourage the active involvement of these people
• Working in partnership to achieve equality of opportunity sharing examples of good practice and celebrating success
  

• Manchester City Council Compact web pages

• Scarman Trust provide updates on the implementation of the local Compact:
  www.thescarmantrustmanchester.org
  

• Some of the background to the Compact's development can be found on Voluntary Action Manchester’s website (note - the page is no longer kept up-to-date): http://www.vamanchester.org.uk/Developing/compact.htm

• For a comprehensive national update on Compacts, visit the Compact website: http://www.thecompact.org.uk/

To coincide with Compact Week 2008, the Commission for the Compact has published a new,  simplified Guide to the Compact. It's available on their website here: Compact Concise Guide