What is a Compact?
Quite simply, a Compact is a
framework for partnership working between public agencies and the voluntary and
community sector.
A Compact is a formal document signed by all partners after a period of consultation. It sets out best practice princeples and a framework against which each partner will relate to the other.
A Compact History
Compacts were inspired in Scotland by the 1997 Kemp Commission Report on the Future of the Voluntary Sector, which recommended formal partnerships between government and the sector.
A National Compact was actually endorsed by the Scottish Parliament as far back as November 1999. It contains commitments on the part of the Scottish Executive and the Scottish voluntary sector to improve the way they work with each other, set out in five categories:
- Recognition
- Representation
- Partnership working
- Resources
- Implementation
In 2003, the Executive made a strong re-commitment to Compacts, and laid out an implementation strategy. With that renewed energy behind the initiative, the different towns and cities around Scotland begun to explore the possibility of implementing a local Compact.
Glasgow begun the process in 2004, when Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector was mandated at its AGM to pursue negotiations on a Compact.
In 2006 Glasgow Community Planning Partnership agreed to fund a post, based within GCVS, to look into the various issues around a Compact, including structures, actions, resources and a timeframe.
A report summarising the findings and recommendations of this work went to the GCPP Board in May 2007, and by the end of June there was agreement and a budget to take forward development of a full Compact.