Community Development Team

Refreshing the Sunderland Compact 
‘Working Together for a Better Future’

You may be aware that the Sunderland Partnership produced a ‘Compact’ or ‘Code of Practice’ for working between the voluntary and community sector and the public and private sectors within Sunderland in 2000. 

Throughout the process of developing the Sunderland Community Development Plan it has became clear that there is a need to refresh the Sunderland Compact and we need your involvement to make it happen.

The Compact was established in England in 1998 and exists at national, regional and local levels. The Sunderland Compact will be a code of practice that governs the relationship between the voluntary and community sector and statutory sectors in Sunderland, and covers everything from how community groups are consulted with by the local authority and Teaching Primary Care Trust, to how voluntary and community sector organisations can be involved in commissioning and procurement. 

A new national development is the introduction of Codes of Practice which look in more detail at:

• Funding and Procurement

• Policy Appraisal and Consultation

• BME Community Organisations and other Communities of Identity

• Community Groups

• Volunteering 

Since the launch of the work to refresh the Sunderland Partnership Compact in November 2007, working groups have been meeting to develop the Five Codes of Practice. Four of the codes; Involvement and Consultation, Voluntary and Community Groups, Funding and Procurement, Volunteering plus the main Compact text are now available for consultation.

The remaining Equalities Codes are still being developed and updates will be posted on www.sunderlandcompact.org.uk

The consultation period is open until 15th December 2008 and we welcome views from all organisations of the Sunderland Partnership.

For more information or to view the consultation documents log onto www.sunderlandcompact.org.uk