A formal partnership between Gateshead Council and the voluntary sector has been rewarded with a prestigious national award.
Gateshead Compact – an agreement which has brought together Gateshead Council and Gateshead Voluntary Organisation Council (GVOC) to promote volunteering and voluntary action – has received the Local Compact Award at this year’s Compact Awards at HM Treasury in London.
Gateshead was chosen for the award after it demonstrated its long-standing commitment to partnership working and the impact its partnership working is having on the local community.
Gateshead Council’s sustainable community strategy, Vision 2030, makes supporting and working with the voluntary and community sectors one of its key priorities and commits the Council to support the voluntary sector by helping it to build its capacity to deliver services on behalf of the Council.
Gateshead Compact has supported work which has seen the number of local people applying for volunteering increase from 1,070 in 2009 to 1,596 in 2010.
Councillor Martin Gannon, Deputy Leader of Gateshead Council, says: “This is a prestigious award which demonstrates that Gateshead is well ahead of the game in bringing local government and the voluntary sector closer together.
“Gateshead’s voluntary sector has a key role to play in the local community and that role can only increase in the years ahead. The relationship we have forged with GVOC means that we can both bring our expertise to bear to develop the voluntary sector in Gateshead.”
Gev Pringle, Chief Executive of GVOC, says: “Gateshead’s voluntary sector is envied by groups in other boroughs because of the good and fruitful relations that have been forged over recent years between the sector and the Council.
“The recognition of volunteering as an important part of civil society in Vision 2030 reveals the depth of the partnership between the sectors.”
A Compact is a long-standing agreement between government and the voluntary and community sector which sets out a number of key principles and establishes a way of working that improves their relationship to mutual advantage.
The annual Compact Awards recognise examples of partnership working between local and national government and the voluntary and community sector.