Issue - meetings

This report sets out and seeks approval of the new and revised York Compact codes of good practice that have been developed by the York Compact Group.  It also asks Members to endorse the Council’s continued involvement in and support for the York Compact.

RESOLVED:(i) That the new and revised York Compact codes of practice be endorsed in full;

(ii)               That the Council’s continued participation in the York Compact be supported;

                        (iii) That all Directorates be advised of the terms of the Compact and be asked to monitor any costs and benefits arising out of implementing the processes contained therein.

REASON:(i) So that the Council can build on its positive engagement with the voluntary and community sector in the city, with the aim of improving services for people in the city;

                        (ii) So that the Council can play its part in implementing the new codes of good practice.

Members received a report which set out and sought approval of the new and revised York Compact codes of good practice that had been developed by the York Compact Group.  It also asked Members to endorse the Council’s continued involvement in and support for the York Compact.

The report explained that the original local codes of good practice agreed in 2002 were quite lengthy documents, applied only to the Council and the  voluntary and community sector (VCS) and reflecting the situation in place at the time. Since then the membership of the local compact had widened and there had been substantial developments in relation to national and local policy and practice, including the Government’s drive to develop the role of the voluntary sector in public service delivery.  A process of reviewing the local codes, with the dual aims of shortening them to improve their accessibility and broadening their remit to include the wider public sector was therefore put in place. The revisions had also taken into account changes to the national codes of good practice and the developments in local policy and practice.  The main revisions to the codes were summarised in the table at paragraph 10 of the report and the full codes were attached at Annex 2. 

The report presented two options for consideration:

·  Option 1 – to endorse the codes of practice in full as currently drafted, accepting that some clauses will not be met in the short term;

·  Option 2 – to seek specific amendments to individual codes of practice.

Officers confirmed that the proposed changes would not make a significant difference to the processes and procedures already in use within the Council.

Members noted that there was an emerging concern that the substantial documentation now involved in the Compact agreement was becoming a barrier to transparency and understanding while possibly increasing the amount of time and resources devoted to bureaucracy.

Having considered the advice of the Shadow Executive, it was

RESOLVED:(i) That the new and revised York Compact codes of practice be endorsed in full;

(ii)               That the Council’s continued participation in the York Compact be supported;

                        (iii) That all Directorates be advised of the terms of the Compact and be asked to monitor any costs and benefits arising out of implementing the processes contained therein.

REASON:(i) So that the Council can build on its positive engagement with the voluntary and community sector in the city, with the aim of improving services for people in the city;

                        (ii) So that the Council can play its part in implementing the new codes of good practice.