Latest news and updates from NAVCA's Improving Local Partnerships team. For more information about our work visit www.navca.org.uk/infobank
79 third sector organisations and 3 interested individuals responded to the recent Compact refresh consultation. Compact Voice has summarised the themes and requirements that were put forward.
The final version of the new Compact will be launched on 19 December 2009.
The Place Survey website closed on 31 October 2009.
Place Survey background information and reports can now be accessed through the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) website:
Third Sector reports that the new Compact Plus for Solihull has won the Local Compact of the Year award.
Accepting the award, Faisal Hussain, head of community and voluntary relations at Solihull Council, said, “The original Compact didn’t have the credibility of the vast majority of the third sector… after a consultation between the voluntary, statutory and private sectors we came up with one that has been more widely accepted and has led to more external funding by showing we have well-developed partnerships that can work together.”
Guardian Public has published a report, Overlapping Interests, on a roundtable discussion convened in collaboration with Birmingham’s local strategic partnership (LSP) Be Birmingham and the Audit Commission.
They asked whether Total Place ‘could be the “magic bullet” the public sector needs to dig itself out of a spending black hole, without a collapse in local service provision.’
Issues discussed included
No definitive answers were identified, but the report makes interesting reading:
The Office for Public Management (OPM) has published its findings from research conducted in 2008 into the role of local strategic partnerships and the impact of local area agreements (LAAs).
Gillian Gillanders concludes that ‘the role of the LSP has often been one of following rather than leading.’
Her observation that ‘Elected members can provide LSPs with democratic legitimacy and enable the public to hold them to account,’ is particularly topical in the context of current discussions around the Strengthening Local Democracy agenda.
Issue 16 of CAA Now includes an article by Neil Cleeveley, NAVCA’s Director of Policy and Communications. Neil identifies two main roles for voluntary and community organisations:
This issue also contains an article by Dr Jonathan McWilliam, Director of Public Health, Oxfordshire, in which he talks about his experience of CAA so far.
The ILP annual conference will be held on 11 March 2010 at the City of Birmingham Symphony Hall. Keynote speakers will include Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO.
This is your conference, however, and we’d like to hear what would make it a useful and positive event for you. We’ve opened a discussion on navcaboodle, NAVCA’s social networking site, where you can share and discuss ideas with colleagues and the ILP team.
The Local Government Chronicle (LGC) reports today that only 5% of public money spent in local areas is controlled by local councils. This is the overall preliminary finding of the government’s Total Place pilot programme.
At today’s Total Place conference, LGA Improvement Board chair Cllr Dave Parsons CBE will say, “It is absurd that people do not have a bigger say over how their taxes are spent in the area they live. During these tough times democratically elected councils have a vital role to play if people are to get the local services they demand and deserve.”
If you’re interested in politics but don’t have time to sit watching long debates and discussions, waiting for the bits that are relevant to you, the BBC’s new online Democracy Live service may be the answer.
It allows users to view proceedings in national and European political institutions, and to search for particular words or phrases spoken in debates or discussions by relevance, date, institution or person.
The service also offers straightforward introductions to how political structures work on a range of issues, including local government.
Lots of new information about your local area will be available from 10 December 2009, when the new comprehensive area assessment (CAA) reporting website ‘oneplace’ goes live.
oneplace will give you the opportunity to find out how the joint inspectorates (the Audit Commission, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, HM Inspectorate of Probation and Ofsted) have assessed your area’s public services and the prospects for meeting the targets set in your local area agreement.
Voluntary and community (third) sector organisations can play a vital role in
The Audit Commission has produced an online resource pack to help you get the most from CAA, and there is also a preview of oneplace where you can find out how it will work.
