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The North Hertfordshire Compact
For maximum benefit to the community, the local government and other statutory organisations and the voluntary and community organisations should work interdependently.
The Compact is an agreement between these sectors, to improve their relationship for mutual advantage. It is a baseline reference document aimed at enabling the voluntary sector to thrive and to create common understanding between the sectors, about how they should communicate with each other. It spells out what each sector undertakes to do within legal and best practice guidelines.
There are also codes of practice, which provide further detail. They cover volunteering, consultation, funding and black and ethnic minority groups.
Code of Practice - Volunteering
It defines what volunteering is, its four fundamental principles and what the aims and objectives of our two local volunteer bureaux are. The essence of the code is to promote good practice, to increase inclusivity and encourage diversity, acknowledge the time and effort needed to make a volunteer placement work and to think about the impact on volunteering potential when considering new policy.
Code of Practice - Consultation
It sets out 5 consultation standards -including being clear that changes will be made, effective publicity, ensuring the right place, time and allowances for variables, giving feedback and learning from the process.
Code of Practice - Funding
Insecure funding has hampered the development of a settled infrastructure amongst the voluntary sector nationally. This code highlights the importance of core funding (rather than an emphasis on money only for new projects) and longer term funding to allow for better planning and growth. It also looks at levels of monitoring and evaluation in keeping with the level of funding, regular reviews of allocation and general good practice and transparency surrounding decision making in allocating funds.
Code of Practice – Black and Minority Ethnic Groups
The 2001 census identifies that 6.8% of the population in North Herts comes from black and ethnic minority groups. The code identifies where it is sometimes necessary to be proactive in ensuring equal representation. These groups may need additional resources both financially and in kind to enable a level playing field. In addition, there needs to be a constant updating via training opportunities of race awareness and institutional barriers.
From January 2005 the council is now looking at how these codes of practice can be best implemented both within NHDC and with our local strategic partners.
There is an annual Compact event each year, usually in November, to report back on progress.
The lead contacts for the Compact and from whom copies of the Compact and codes can be sought are:
Community Development Officer - 01462 474274, service@north-herts.gov.uk.
Jacquie Hime - Executive Director, North Herts CVS - 01462 450022, jaquie-nhcvs@uk8.net.
