Issue - meetings

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive

Cabinet Member:     Councillor Yasseen

Commissioner:         Kenny (in advisory role)

Recommendations:

1.    That the work completed to refresh the Rotherham Compact, including feedback from the consultation exercise, be noted.

2.    That the Rotherham Compact be endorsed.

3.    That the intention to launch the Rotherham Compact, subject to endorsement by all public sector partners, on 29 March 2017 be noted.

Consideration was given to the report which detailed progress on Action D18 in the Council’s Phase Two Improvement Plan which was to: “Agree a new Rotherham MBC/voluntary sector partnership ‘Compact’ in consultation with the sector and wider partners”.  The Compact was a mutually agreed document which set out working together for the benefit of communities and citizens. 

There was a national Compact between the government and voluntary/ community sector.  The Rotherham Compact was an agreement between the public sector partners in the Rotherham Together partnership and the voluntary and community sector (VCS). 

There was no statutory requirement to have a local Compact – it was a voluntary agreement - but it did provide a useful framework of principles and commitments for both public sector organisations and VCS groups.  Once it was endorsed, there would be a reasonable expectation that the parties to the Compact would comply with the commitments and principles detailed within the document. 

The Compact recognised the value that Rotherham’s VCS brought to the Borough.  Research showed that the VCS employed 2,100 full-time paid and 1,500 part-time paid staff.  There were 49,000 volunteer roles and 12,300 committee/board members, together providing 85,300 hours of volunteering per week.  The sector’s overall contribution to the local economy was estimated as £187 million per year. 

The Compact particularly reaffirmed the VCS as equal partners, who often have a unique understanding and relationship with some of the Borough’s most vulnerable people.

A Compact Working Group to oversee the refresh was convened in June, 2016 and consisted of members nominated by the VCS strategic representatives group and public sector partners. The Compact was updated and a new consultation draft was prepared.  Consultation of the Compact took place over a 12 week period which ended on 3^rd November, 2016.  Following further revisions incorporating feedback from the consultation, a final version was submitted for endorsement.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the work completed to refresh the Rotherham Compact, including feedback from the consultation exercise, be noted.

(2)  That the Rotherham Compact be endorsed.

(3)  That the intention to launch the Rotherham Compact, subject to endorsement by all public sector partners, on 29th March, 2017 be noted.