FAQ's

If you have a question you think might interest other people, e-mail it to compact@dacvs.org.uk for possible inclusion in these FAQ's.

Q1 What is a Compact?
A: More and more voluntary organisations and community groups are working closely with statutory agencies to deliver services that people need. A Compact is simply an agreement between the voluntary and community and the statutory sector on how they will conduct their relationship.

Q2 Whose idea is it to have a Compact?
A: The government realised how essential VCOs are in providing a huge range of services that people need. It agreed a national Compact with larger VCOs which was published in 1998. It then began to encourage regions and districts to create their own local Compacts to cater for the particular needs of their areas.

Q3 That's 5 years ago. Why has it taken Devon so long to get a local Compact?
A: In fact, Devon was one of the first parts of the country to have a local Compact, the Working Together for Devon Partnership Agreement, which was agreed to by around 90 organisations in 1999. Quite a bit has changed since then, and experience has shown there are things that weren't in the original Compact that need to be, so a major review has taken place to bring it up to date.

Q4 What if organisations in Devon decided they don't want or need a Compact?
A: That's not an option. The government has decided that partnership working is so important that it has now required statutory agencies to negotiate and agree Compacts with their local VCO partners. Some (Primary Care Trusts and local councils) were obliged to have a Compact, or at least be well on the way to getting one, by April 2004. The rest (such as Police, Learning & Skills Councils and Connexions) will need to have theirs in place by April 2005.

Q5 If all these organisations have to have a Compact, won't that mean a number of different Compacts in Devon?
A: One of the benefits of a Compact is that it can save everyone a great deal of time, allowing them to concentrate on delivering services. If all Devon's statutory agencies work on a Compact with their voluntary and community sector partners, then one Compact will cover all their needs whilst allowing districts to adjust parts of it for particular local requirements.

Q6 How does a Compact 'save everyone a great deal of time'?
A: Without a local Compact, decisions have to be made about how to work in partnership every time, for example, a district Social Services department asks a local voluntary organisation to provide day care for older people. If both organisations have signed-up to a Compact, most of those partnership issues (like quality standards, monitoring and evaluation, accountability and consultation periods) have already been dealt with. This just leaves specific details to be arranged - such as how much money is involved, and how many people will get the service.

Q7 What was wrong with the Compact we already had in Devon?
A: Much has changed since the Working Together for Devon Partnership Agreement was agreed and published in 1999. For example Primary Care Trusts, Local Strategic Partnerships, Connexions and the Learning & Skills Council, plus any number of voluntary and community groups, didn't exist then. Also, the previous Compact was weak in certain important areas such as compliance, monitoring and evaluation. But perhaps most important of all is that the previous Compact was, to a considerable extent, just a document (even if quite a good and useful one). Most stakeholders now agree that a Compact needs to be an attitude towards partnership working, of which the document is an expression - something the revised Compact hopes to achieve.

Q8 How and by whom has the Compact for Devon been reviewed and updated?
A: Originally, the driving force behind Working Together for Devon was Devon County Council. While that's OK, it seemed to some stakeholders that there might be a way of dealing with the Compact that included more stakeholders at an early stage. For the recent review, Local Strategic Partnerships were the obvious starting-point, as they are already partnerships which represent a broad range of interest. Devon's eight district LSPs each nominated a statutory and a voluntary sector Champion who, with two more from the Devon Strategic Partnership, formed a Hub group. The Hub's task was to decide in detail how to conduct the review, as well as to come up with the content of the Compact itself.

Q9 Are there local Compacts in other places that Devon could learn from?
A: First of all, the national Compact has a great deal in it that pretty well all local Compacts use as a basis for what they say. Also, part of the work of the Devon Compact Team was to research local Compacts from other areas and to feed the information gathered in to the Hub meetings.

If you would like to find out more about the Compact in Devon or about the Hub; if you have information that you would like to contribute; or if you have questions that you would like answers to... either contact the Compact Development worker or the Hub Administrator at Exeter CVS on 01392 202057 or via email at compact@dacvs.org.uk or contact one of the Hub Champions - either one of the Champions for your Local Strategic Partnership, or a Champion who works in the same agency as you.