‘Could do better’ - ‘Ineffective’ Compact has ‘little impact’

xPRESS Digest

12 June 2008

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New research claims that only one in four councillors, local authority and primary care trust staff think the Compact has had a significant impact on how they relate to the community and voluntary sector locally. Based on your feedback through Xchange Groups, this news will not suprise. The report supports other research by the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (Navca) which concludes that 40% of chief officers of voluntary and community infrastructure groups consider the Compact to be ineffective. The survey of over 420 local authority staff including chief executives and employees in PCTs, social care, housing and education, and 460 councillors found that more than half of councillors and local authority staff thought charities were able to provide public services as cost-effectively as local authorities. The research by consultancy nfpSynergy identified 25 per cent of councillors and 24 per cent of local authority staff that agreed with the statement ‘The local government Compact has made a big difference to our relationship with charities.’ According to the research the majority of councillors and local authority staff were unaware of the Compact or thought it did not make much difference. Sixty-three per cent of councillors and 59 per cent of local authority staff thought charities provided public services as cost-effectively as private companies. Both groups were strongly supportive of the idea that charities should be able to ‘campaign to change the policies of local government relevant to their work’. A key implication from the report, identified by nfpSynergy, is that councillors and local authority staff are behind the idea of the Compact and do want to work with charities. However because the Compact is not legally binding little significance is is given to it by local government and the public sector.

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