Codes of Practice

Signing up to the Lincolnshire Compact gives us a way of working together through 5 codes of practice:

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Voluntary and Community Organisations Code

This Code was published in February 2001 and it recognises the significant role that the BME voluntary and community sector plays in building stronger communities. The BME sector represents a broad range of faith groups, refugee and asylum seeker organisations.

This Code calls for the government to:

Engage with the BME sector for mutual benefit.

Understand and respect the sector for its knowledge and experience.

Involve, consult and recognise the need for funding. The Code supports investment in the BME voluntary and community sector and the development of capacity and infrastructure at local, regional and national levels.

It also recognises the importance of local relations and partnership involvement through Local Compacts and advocates active involvement from BME organisations and groups in developing and implementing them.

The Compact has significant benefits for the BME sector, including better use of resources and linked services. Sharing information within partnerships also leads to a more inclusive community plan and better positioning for BME organisations and groups when it comes to delivering services.

Black and Minority Ethnic (DME) Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations Code (Summary)

Black and Minority Ethnic (DME) Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations Code (Full)

Community Groups Code

This Code was published in July 2003 and it stresses the importance of working with and supporting the community sector to achieve better community involvement in local decision making.

The community sector is very diverse and people come from very different kinds of community. These groups are often missed out in the process of local policy and service development and delivery. The Code recognises that understanding the sector is crucial to understanding the processes and, through partnership working; it promotes a joined-up approach to involving the community sector and calls for community groups to be fully involved in developing Local Compacts.

Community groups help to build stronger relationships and networks in neighborhoods. They run services, promote community development and represent community interests, as well as being a major source of volunteers. This Code outlines ways of ensuring that the skills and experience of community groups add value to policy and service development and delivery, particularly at a local level, and it recognises that there should be an open approach and involvement from funders and partners, rather than an approach based on assumptions.

Community Groups Code (Summary)

Community Groups Code (Full)

Consultation and Policy Appraisal Code

This Code was published in May 2000 and it promotes effective discussion, encouraging the government and the voluntary and community sector to communicate and work together more effectively.

Consultation is an important part of partnership working. Ensuring the government listens to and engages with the voluntary and community sector gives the sector the opportunity to convey its knowledge, experience and expertise and add value to government policy. It also leads to better planning and delivery of services.`

This Code promotes effective consultation, enabling the voluntary and community sector to be part of the development and implementation of government policies. It sets out how consultation can be conducted in a positive way and recommends, wherever possible, a 12 week consultation timescale. When this isn’t possible, consultation documents should specify why a shorter time has been set.

In addition, the Code encourages all consultation documents to be produced in clear and simple language. Consultations should be built in from the start and have a clear purpose, together with guidelines explaining where decisions have already been made, what can be changed and what can’t. The Code also stresses the importance of fully publicising consultations to target audiences and carefully analysing the results and findings as well as reporting back on views from the voluntary and community sector. The Code also calls for voluntary and community organisations to work together to ensure there is an effective and representative response to government consultations.

Consultation and Policy Appraisal Code (Summary)

Consultation and Policy Appraisal Code (Full)

Funding and Procurement Code

This Code was originally published in May 2000, and was revised and republished as the Funding and Procurement Code in 2005. It aims to influence behavior by putting forward a framework for the financial relationship between the government and the voluntary and community sector, setting out undertakings for both sides, based on what each can expect from the other.

Many voluntary and community organisations enter into a financial relationship with the government to deliver outcomes on its behalf. The Code seeks to improve funding and procurement relationships and it is of relevance to any organisation in England which is involved in distributing, seeking or receiving public funds.

The Code calls for all funding and commissioning processes to be fair and effective. It recommends that funding arrangements with the community and voluntary sector are resourced on a full cost recovery basis, with three year funding, and include a joint government, public and voluntary and community sector training programme to develop skills and best practice in procurement and contracting. This should cover negotiation, risk and management issues.

Overall, the Code aims to ensure that the sector has the capacity to keep pace with government initiatives, boosting the voluntary and community sector’s service delivery role. It promotes better funding decisions to support well-delivered, outcomes-driven programmes, underpinned by a Compact way of working in partnership at all levels and throughout the funding process. It also recognises that the sector mostly operates locally where the national Compact and Codes should influence Local Compacts.

Funding and Procurement Code (Summary)

Funding and Procurement Code (Full)

Volunteering Code

This Code was published in 2000 and revised and republished in 2005. It recognises the value of volunteering and sets out undertakings to enable more people to become involved in voluntary activity as well as to influence behavior to tackle the various barriers to volunteering

The Code identifies four key principles which are fundamental to volunteering:

Choice - Volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual.

Diversity - Volunteering should be open to all no matter what their background age, race, sexual orientation or faith, etc.

Reciprocity - Volunteers offer their contribution unwaged but they should benefit in other ways. Giving voluntary time and skills must be recognised as establishing a reciprocal relationship in which the volunteer also receives benefits such as a sense of worthwhile achievement, useful skills, experience, contacts, sociability, fun and inclusion in the life of the organisation.

Recognition - Volunteers contribute to the organisation, to the community, to the social economy and to the wider social objectives and recognition is fundamental to a fair relationship between volunteers, organisations and government policy and practice.

Volunteering Code (Summary)

Volunteering Code (Full)

The Compact and its Codes apply to:

• Central Government Departments, including Government Offices for the Regions
• Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies, which have a relationship with the voluntary and community sector
• A range of organisations in the voluntary and community sector