Walsall Local Compact
Walsall local Compact is an agreement between Walsall Council, the local NHS, Walsall Borough Strategic Partnership and the Voluntary and Community Sector. It is an acknowledgment of the value of joint working band of the Partners’ inter-dependence. It sets out a framework for our way of working together.
Walsall has a proud record of working in partnership amongst statutory agencies, local business communities and with Community and Voluntary organisations. The development in Walsall of a Local Strategic Partnership and the preparation of a new Community Plan which reflects common goals and concerns have taken this approach to a more formal level.
Therefore, the Partners, in making this commitment to the Compact, believe that effective joint working and a mutual understanding of the roles and interests of the Partners, developed through the Compact, will benefit the borough and local people.
Effective joint working means that the partnership is greater than the sum of its parts creating synergy and reducing the risk of duplication. Partnership working, towards a set of common goals or vision, is a continuous and dynamic process. In the context of Walsall Borough Strategic Partnership, this Compact will ensure that robust, meaningful links will exist amongst Partners, in existing work and in work that may emerge in the future.
It is a framework that will help improve effective joint working and the way we work together towards common goals and visions.
The Compact will:
- Provide clear standards and clarify the way we work together.
The Partners will use the Compact to:
- develop good practice across the partnership;
- increase an understanding of each other and avoid duplication of activities.
A Compact is an agreement amongst partner organisations, under the umbrella of Walsall Borough Strategic Partnership and the Voluntary and Community Sector. This Compact will inform and assist other partnerships that may arise. It is a framework that will help improve effective joint working and the way we work together towards common goals and visions.
This is Walsall’s second Compact and should be seen in the wider context of joint working at a national level between the Local Government Association, Central Government departments and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and community sectors. National discussions have produced a set of compact guidelines relating to the relationships between Central Government departments and agencies and the Community and Voluntary Sector; these guidelines have been used locally to help focus out discussions.
In Walsall, our initial discussions in 2001 were supported by the Health Action Zone initiative and used the national discussions as a starting point, but from the start, Partners have been clear that our Compact must address local issues and concerns and reflect the local context.
Walsall’s Compact has been developed by joint working. Initial talks led to the establishment of a Shadow Steering Group, which had equal representation from statutory partners and the Voluntary and Community Sector. This became the Compact Steering Group which, as a Design Group, produced a framework for the initial Compact. Community and Voluntary Sector representation on the Steering Group was determined by an election, where candidates were nominated under different categories to ensure the diversity of the sector was reflected. The first Compact agreement set out a set of principles for effective joint working and after endorsement by the Partners, was launched in November 2003 at a formal signing ceremony. Consequently Partners agreed to work together on a second more detailed phase to develop Codes of Practice through the Compact Steering Group.
Contact us
Community Development Team
Walsall Council
1st floor, Challenge Building
Hatherton Street
Walsall
WS1 1YG
Telephone 01922 654721
Fax 01922 653373
Email communitydevelopment@walsall.gov.uk
This page was last updated on 11 February 2010