Crawley Compact

The West Sussex Compact is an agreement between local government, local health services, other public bodies and the voluntary and community sector within West Sussex.

It aims to improve our relationships for mutual advantage and for the ultimate benefit of people in West Sussex.

The West Sussex Compact was created in 2005, followed by a revision in 2007 and the statutory and voluntary and community sector organisations will continue to work together and forge relationships using the Compact document as their framework.

The Crawley Together Executive has adopted the West Sussex Compact to be the local Compact framework for the Crawley Together partnership.

Key objectives, Values & Principles

The key objectives of the Compact are to develop between the voluntary and community sector and the statutory agencies:

• Improved communication, common understanding, collaboration, trust and respect.
• A framework for effective consultation, representation and partnership working including agreeing definitions, shared values and joint and distinct undertakings
• Principles for developing working relationships
• Agreement to use the Compact as a reference document and for monitoring and evaluating the quality of relationships and partnership working at all levels
• Support for continuous improvement of efficiency and effectiveness in dealings between sectors.
• A widespread awareness of and commitment to the Compact way of working.

The Compact furthermore contains a series of statements of shared values and principles for the voluntary and community sector and the statutory agencies. It is the belief that these are central to ongoing and successful relationships and partnerships.

Codes of Practice

The Compact includes five Codes of Good Practice, to support and enhance the relationship between the voluntary and community sector and statutory agencies and to use as “tools for good partnership working”.

The Codes of Good Practice within the Compact include:

• Code of Good Practice on Volunteering
• Code of Good Practice for Community Groups
• Code of Good Practice for Black and Minority Ethnic Groups
• Code of Good Practice on Consultation and Policy Appraisal
• Code of Good Practice on Funding

Dispute Resolution

Additional to the Codes of Good Practice, the West Sussex Compact has a dispute resolution mechanism. Locally, the Crawley Together has put in place a dispute resolution process which aims to try and resolve any disputes through local mediation. Click here to view the Crawley Together dispute resolution mechanism.

Future Revision & Key Contacts

A revised version of the Compact is currently under discussion, and will take account of national recommendations to include the range of groups mentioned in the new Equalities Act 2010.

Useful Links

West Sussex Voluntary Organisations Liaison Group

The Compact

Crawley Together Executive