Glossary & Jargon Buster

 

Included here are some definitions of key terms and phrases that are used when talking about or referring to the Compact.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

# A

 

Accountability

Means by which individuals and organisations report their actions and are answerable to others for what they have done.

 

Annual Sector Survey

A survey conducted by Compact Voice to find out how the Compact is working, gauge the change in sector relations with government and local public bodies and draw input from the sector that renews the Group’s mandate, especially in representing the sector at the Compact Annual Meeting.

# B

Best Value

A process used throughout local government for checking the quality and cost of all council services and in which the sector’s involvement should be underpinned explicitly by a Local Compact.

BME

Black and Minority Ethnic voluntary and community organisations and groups. This is the preferred term of BME groups – although it is best used in full. These groups are often insufficiently involved in the Local Compact process.

Breach

Used to describe a Compact undertaking that has not been followed (most likely through lack of awareness or misunderstanding than being deliberate) and which can be remedied through the compliance procedures.

# C

Capacity Building

A resourced approach (typically through staff training and development) boosting the sector’s ability to manage projects, deliver services or engage in consultation and policy processes, partnerships and social enterprise by ensuring that voluntary and community organisations have the skills, knowledge, structures and resources to realise their potential.

ChangeUp

The Capacity Building and Infrastructure Framework for the Voluntary and Community sector, published by the Active Community Unit in June 2004.Further information can be found at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/active/developing

Civil Renewal

A new policy area that is fast moving up the agenda. It spans active citizenship, engaging with, strengthening and empowering communities including building social capital, community cohesion and new localism. Civil renewal issues should be picked up in the Local Compact process.

Codes of Good Practice

The Compact has five codes of Good Practice to make the agreement operational. These are on Funding and Procurement, Consultation and Policy Appraisal, Community Groups, Black and Minority Ethnic Groups, and Volunteering. There is a sector champion for each of the codes.

Community Cohesion

Community Cohesion is what the Government calls promoting greater knowledge, respect and contact between various cultures, and establishing a greater sense of citizenship. Further information can be found at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/cohesion

Community Development

Building active and sustainable communities based on social justice and mutual respect. It is about changing power structures to remove the barriers that prevent people from participating in the issues that affect their lives. It promotes the active involvement of people through sharing power, skills, knowledge and expertise.

Community Empowerment Network

A structure designed to ensure that Local Strategic Partnerships in all neighborhood renewal areas do engage effectively with the community. A protocol defining the Network’s working relationship with the LSP board should be explicitly linked with the Local Compact.

Community Group

A group of people with a common cause, often neighborhood-based but may focus on a single issue for campaigning or self-help. Community groups are likely to be small, local, informal, unfunded and volunteer-run rather than employing staff. The blanket term for these groups is the community sector, which forms by far the largest part of the voluntary and community sector and whose involvement in Local Compacts is crucial to making these work.

Community Strategy

Sometimes called the Community Plan, this is the key local document led by the council, reflecting needs and aspirations identified by local people and agreed between agencies through the Local Strategic Partnership. In setting out the vision for the area’s future, the Strategy must by law also include the needs and plans of the sector. A Local Compact should explicitly underpin the sector’s involvement in the community planning process.

Compact

The sector’s written agreement with the Government (or local public bodies) which has undertakings on both sides, shared principles and values such as recognising the sector’s independence, and mechanisms for making it work.England published the world’s first Compact in 1998.

Compact Annual Meeting / Annual Report

A meeting between Compact Voice and Government Ministers that reviews Compact progress (including results from the annual sector survey), awards commendations for exemplary Compact development at national and local level, agrees an action plan for the coming year and produces an Annual Report to Parliament.

Compact Champion

(1) An official tasked to promote the Compact in their government department.

(3) Locally, departments of public bodies, partnership boards and voluntary organisations may have Compact champions to promote the Local Compact andhelp drive implementation.

Compact Group

Locally, this may be known as the Local Compact Steering Group, Monitoring, Management or Implementation Group and is responsible for taking the Local Compact forward. Nationally, Compact Voice includes members representing the sector’s diversity, supported by staff based at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Compacting

Relatively new term used to describe how the Compact joins up the various policies and processes.

Compact-proofing and branding

A process is called Compact-proofing that checks that a draft policy paper or a document to be published complies with the Compact (or Local Compact) and makes meaningful references to it. Where a publication is even more associated with a Compact (e.g. it may be an initiative that has emerged out of the Compact) then it may be appropriate to brand it with the official Compact logo.

 

Compact way of working

"A Compact way of working should be the normal way of doing the business,” - Former Charities Minister Fiona Mactaggart. The Compact means more than just a written agreement laying down what we expect each other to do. It is about building relations that change how partners behave, engage and work together. Programmes that are jointly designed (e.g. futurebuilders) or partnership boards that demonstrate that all are treated equally show a commitment to getting it right together for mutual advantage. That is a Compact way of working.

Compliance

A Compact always includes undertakings (commitments, promises) on both sides and sometimes joint ones too. Compliance is about following and carrying out these undertakings along with the mechanisms (such as mediation or the Ombudsman) for resolving disagreements or alleged breaches.

Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPA)

Comprehensive Performance Assessment was introduced in 2002 and is designed to support councils to deliver improvements in services to local people. CPA looked at how well the councils deliver their services, for example education, social care and housing. It also considers how well the council is run as this will impact on how they will deliver their services in the future. The Compact is covered in CPA as a key line of enquiry for the next 2005-6 round.

Connexions

Statutory agency providing advice and support for people aged between 13 and 19.

Consultation

A two-way process by which an organisation (typically a government department or local public body) seeks views to check whether proposals are right and supported, gauge their impact and identify alternatives before decisions are made. This means options can be properly appraised in advance of policy or service changes or new laws being made. The Compact Consultation Code sets the framework for genuine, meaningful and timely consultation with the sector.

Council for Voluntary Service

A local charitable organisation whose purpose is to support and help develop voluntary and community action in its area. A range of names can be used including those that omit council but include Community Action or Voluntary Action alongside the place name. Further information can be found at http://www.nacvs.org.uk/nacvs

Countywide Compact

A Compact agreed between the county council, district councils, and local groups across the county and other public bodies but without district bodies also having or intending to develop a Local Compact of their own. This is the normal geographic unit for Compacts. Local Compacts exist in unitary authority areas (such as cities) and in districts mainly in the home counties.

Culture

Behaviour and belief patterns found within an organisation are called organisational culture. The Compact is a culture-changing process in which government departments (or local public bodies) and the voluntary and community sector together can improve both how each work and how they work in partnership.

# D

Diversity

This can refer to the huge variety of organisations in the sector arising from their scale, location and what they do or to society generally in relation to people having different social and cultural backgrounds, languages and beliefs, etc.

# E

 

Evaluation

To measure or assess success of how well a project, service or organisation has performed against what was planned, with the effectiveness of outcomes taking into account quality, user satisfaction etc. Local Compacts should be evaluated regularly.

# F

 

Faith Group

These often reflect ethnic diversity. Whilst worship, is central for most faith based groups, many run community services and represent community interests. As such they are eligible for funding and should be involved in Local Compact development.

Full Cost Recovery

Full costs are the direct costs of your project or service plus a relevant portion of organisational overheads. New Philanthropy Capital have provided a full informationresource on full cost recovery to coincide withthe joint ACEVO/New Philanthropy Capitalpublication ofFull Cost Recovery: A guide and toolkit on cost allocation and acevo's Surer Funding. To read more and find out how to calculatefull costs use this link.

Futurebuilders

An innovative, Compact-proofed £125 million government investment fund, backed by the Home Office, but being run by people from the voluntary sector, to boost the sector’s public service delivery capacity. Further information can be found at http://www.futurebuilders-england.org.uk/

# G

Government Office

A regional arm of national government that has been officially given a key Local Compact development support role. Contacts for the Government Offices can be found in Local Compacts.

Governance

The systems and processes for how an organisation is run, including how it conducts its business. Local Compacts include a standard sector commitment to good governance and also support the governance of partnership boards.

 

 

 

Health Compact

A term used in a very few areas for a Local Compact between typically just the Primary Care Trust and the sector prior to agreeing separate Compacts involving another public body or drawing up one involving all of them.

# I

Independence

The cornerstone of any Compact is upholding the sector’s independence (together with its accountability to a range of stakeholders) and especially the right of voluntary and community organisations to campaign within the law without this affecting any public funding they receive and which should be understood as adding value.

Infrastructure

Physical facilities, structures, systems, relationships, people, knowledge and skills that support, develop, co-ordinate, represent and promote front line organisations to enable them to deliver their missions more effectively. Local infrastructure bodies include development agencies such as rural community councils, councils for voluntary service, volunteer bureaux, federation of community organisations and other umbrella bodies. These support local groups in the work they do through providing information, advice, training, organising networks, partnership support and developing initiatives, and crucially co-ordinating Local Compact development.

# J

# K

# L

Learning and Skills Councils

The National Learning and Skills Council is a statutory agency that works through Local Learning and Skills Councils that to plan and fund post-16 education in their areas. One of the three most important public bodies that should be signed up to a Local Compact. Further information: www.lsc.gov.uk/National/default.htm

Legislation

A body of laws.

Local authority/Local council

The locally elected body responsible for government in a county, city or district and which can also mean parish and town councils, all of which should all be signed up to a Local Compact. Further information: http://www.lga.gov.uk/

Local Compact

A Compact, modelled on the national Compact, designed and agreed to by public bodies and voluntary and community organisations for a local or county area.

Local Strategic Partnership

The top partnership body – often known as the LSP or the town name partnership – that now exists in just about every area but which is a must for neighbourhood renewal areas. It brings together key partnersfrom the public voluntary and community sectors including faith groups. Itis responsible for producing the Community Strategy and should provide leadership for Local Compact development.

# M

Mainstream sector

This has been used to describe the sector other than Black and minority ethnic groups but is now an unpopular term with them and is best not used in this way.

Mediation

A process conducted through an independent third party for dispute resolution and which is an indispensable part of Compact mechanisms.

 

Monitoring

An ongoing accountable process of checking that an organisation or project is performing as it should. Monitoring processes are a stick part of any Compact.

# N

National Compact

The national Compact is an agreement between the voluntary and community sector and government to improve their relationship for mutual advantage. Local Compacts aim to do this locally between the sector, councils and other local public bodies.

 

Neighbourhood Renewal Area

One of England’s 88 poorest local authority areas receiving substantial extra government funding in which there must be sector involvement in policy and project delivery, along with a Local Strategic Partnership that can provide the government office with evidence of continuing effective Local Compact development.

# O

# P

 

Partnership

Normally used in relation to a formal partnership body, often accountable to a board that may be responsible for delivering a government-funding programme. Can be used to describe an approach to working together.

Primary Care Trust

A local statutory organisation, often called the PCT, with wide responsibility for the delivery of health services through GP surgeries, clinics and centres. Further information: http://www.natpact.nhs.uk/

Procurement

Acquisition of goods and services from third party suppliers under legally binding contractual terms. Such acquisitions are for the direct benefit of the contracting authority, necessary for the delivery of the services it provides or the running of its own business. Most Procurement from the voluntary and community sector is for the delivery of services nationally and locally and is procured from government.

 

Proportionality

A difficult but important Compact principle of not burdening funded organisations out of proportion to the amount of funding and which especially applies to monitoring.

Public Bodies

All local statutory public sector organisations including the local authority; primary care trust, other health trusts, emergency services, learning and skills councils, colleges, connexions, etc. The national public sector comprises government; non-departmental government bodies (NDPBs) and various other statutory bodies. All public bodies operating at national or regional level should comply with the national Compact and any local branches (e.g. job centres) should also be involved in Local Compacts. (See also statutory bodies).

# Q

Quality standards

A set of statements about the quality of a service that can be verified and measured as part of monitoring and evaluation processes.

# R

Resources

Time, people, money, premises, equipment, etc.

# S

Sector

Within the context of Compact documents, "sector” on its own always refers to the voluntary and community sector (although in general usage is it more widely applied, as in private sector, statutory or public sector.

Stakeholder

Person or group that has a vested interest in, and is potentially able to influence, the work of an organisation or the delivery of a service.

Statutory Bodies

Organisations created by Acts of Parliament which define their powers and duties.

# T

# U

 

Undertaking

Commitments or promises that each side makes to the other, or jointly, in a Compact, that are implemented by the signatories and when breached can be remedied through compliance mechanisms.

# V

Voluntary Organisations

Voluntary Organisations exist for their self-defined purpose and are not set up by law. They are independent and range from large service providers and registered charities to smallgroups and clubs that may not be formally constituted,and which between them cover the entire range of activities and policy areas. They include faith groups, black and minority ethnic, refugee and asylum seeking groups,and tenants and residents associations. They may or may not use volunteers.

Voluntary and Community Sector

The voluntary and community sector is the collective name for all the voluntary and community organisations.This term was mutually agreed following extensive consultation on the draft national Compact and replaces other terms such as just the voluntary sector (which excludes the majority) or third sector (which some see as suggesting third rate) or Non-Profit Sector (which obscures the right to make a surplus on contracts) or part of the Independent Sector (which is confusing).

Volunteer

Someone performing a service without payment (except expenses) or coercion. Find out about volunteers and the Compact in Codes of Good Practice.

# W

# X

# Y

# Z