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Government and Voluntary Sector Launch Community Groups Compact Code of Practice

Title: Compact Code of Good Practice on Community Groups
Author: Compact
Number of pages: 46
Date published: July 2003

The code aims to strengthen ties between the Government and community groups. It will provide a framework to enable individuals to contribute to public life and support the development of active, thriving communities.

The code also aims to promote a better understanding of the community sector, within the voluntary and community sector as a whole. 

The code includes the main considerations that came out of a consultation exercise that the voluntary and community sectors' Compact Working Group carried out, as well as best practice from within the Government.

The community sector is made up of personal relationships, groups, networks, traditions and patterns of behaviour among people who share physical neighbourhoods, living conditions or common understandings and interests. It is the community itself taking action to get things done, although much of its activity is informal and often invisible. The community sector ranges from small informal community groups to large multi - purpose community organisations. 

Common community sector values include:

• being able to make decisions themselves;

• mutuality; (standing in relation to each other)

• equality;

• social justice;

• co-operation; and

• the importance of local delivery on a human scale.
  

The main points for a framework of partnership between the Government and the community sector

• Local Compacts (undertakings) which fully involve community groups in their development are vital.

• The Government and the formal voluntary sector need to recognise the distinctive nature of community groups, and how incorporating the groups will affect policy and practice

• Government also need to recognise the many groups that make up the community sector, including neighbourhood-based groups and groups based on common interests or experience, such as faith, ethnic origin, refugee and asylum seeker status, arts and crafts, disability and ill health.

• A clear understanding that community groups can play a range of different roles is needed. These roles include:

  • providing a voice for residents and users to public authorities and service providers;

  • building relationships and networks in communities to build social capital and community cohesion; and

  • delivering services, often locally and informally, based on their assessment of community needs.

• Strategies for, and commitment to, investment in capacity building provision and infrastructure should be adequate and appropriate to the needs of communities and community groups.

• Approaches to consultation and policy appraisal must tackle the needs of community groups and find creative ways of using the experience of residents and users.

• Funding policies and procedures for community groups, should be in proportion to the scale of funding and the capacity of the groups concerned.

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Last update: Friday, September 05, 2008