Current Consultation

As you may be aware work has been progressing since July 2007 to develop a refreshed Compact for Sunderland. The period of formal consultation on the draft Compact and four supporting Codes of Practice ended in December 2008. However as envisaged, further Codes of Practice will be developed around the theme of equalities.

A new consultation period is now open and will run for 12 weeks until 22nd June 2009, as agreed in the key principles of the Consultation and Involvement Code of Practice. We welcome responses from all Voluntary and Community sector organisations and our statutory partners regarding two new Codes of Practice:

· Older People’s Code of Practice
· Disability Code of Practice

Each of the Codes of Practice have been developed through a working group of representatives from both the VCS and organisations of the Sunderland Partnership. By taking this approach we hope to have developed balanced documents which represent the views of both sectors.

We intend for this process to enable us to keep an open two-way dialogue with everyone involved in the consultation, providing opportunities to feedback to all concerned.

To take part in the consultation simply open the relevant document, which you can either print off and complete and return to:

Community Development Team, Jack Crawford House, Commercial Road, Sunderland, SR2 8QR, or complete online and submit to: mark.robbins@sunderland.gov.uk

Why we need the Sunderland Compact

The Sunderland Compact provides the basis to improve partnership working between Sunderland based VCS organisations and members of the Sunderland Partnership.

The implementation of the Compact will ensure Sunderland has developed a Compact way of working. This will ensure that organisations are Compact Compliant.

A Compact Way of Working is – fair, clear, honest, trustworthy, efficient and transparent – the way as individuals we would expect and want to be involved with others.

Click HERE to download the current refreshed Sunderland Compact

Process of Refreshing the Compact

We recognise that refreshing the Sunderland Compact may be a lengthy process.  The period to 31st March 2008 enabled us to look at the good practice from the original Compacts, learn from the areas that need improvement and respond to national Compact developments.  By the end of March we produced:

· the main Sunderland Compact text
· the draft Code of Practice texts
· the Code of Practice implementation action plans

The National Compact

The national Compact has developed five Codes of Practice on:

• Black and Minority Ethnic Communities
• Community Groups
• Funding and Procurement
• Volunteering
• Policy Consultation and Appraisal

Five Code of Practice working groups has been established and are co-led by a representative from the statutory sector and the voluntary and community sector.  The groups will consider the relevance of these Codes of Practice to Sunderland to ensure they are truly relevant to Sunderland’s relationship needs. In some cases the Sunderland Codes of Practices will be expanded, for example:

• Communities of Identity rather than Communities of Interest
• Community Groups to incorporate geographical communities

Download the National Compact Summary document