The Gateshead Compact 2024 to 2027

Welcome to the Gateshead Compact, outlining how all the partners at Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board will work together to ensure a productive and successful relationship with the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector in Gateshead.

Gateshead has always had an active and vibrant VCSE sector, with groups and organisations of all sizes making an invaluable contribution to the borough's many and diverse communities. Our health and wellbeing strategy and corporate plan recognises the key role the sector plays both in keeping people connected and well, and as a deliverer of services.

The role of the VCSE sector has changed radically in recent years, with many organisations now at the front line of supporting people with basic needs including food, clothing and warmth. The flexibility and responsiveness of VCSE organisations was recognised and greatly valued during the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis that came afterwards.

Close working, mutual respect and an understanding of both our strengths and differences are things which we know will be important over the next few years in the relationship between the VCSE sector and public sector in Gateshead.

In recognition of these changes it is more important than ever that we work together with trust, respect, consensus and creativity to support our communities in Gateshead.

The role of the compact is to:

• enhance the relationship between the VCSE sector, the council, NHS and other key public sector partners
• ensure a sustainable and resilient VCSE sector
• improve communication, accountability and joint working between the VCSE sector, the council, NHS and other key public sector partners
• maximise our collective impact and resources to improve services for Gateshead communities and outcomes for local people
• deliver the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and use the Thrive approach

This compact sets out the basis for our partnership over the next three years. It provides partners with a framework for working with the VCSE sector, with clear commitments on allocating financial resources fairly; promoting equality; consulting and involving the VCSE sector and service users; promoting and supporting volunteering; and sensitively managing changes to services.

We look forward to working with you all on the implementation of this compact.

Cllr Lynne Caffrey
Chair, Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board

What is a compact?

A compact is an agreement between public-sector agencies and the VCSE sector to work together to agreed standards and shared objectives. It formalises shared commitments and priorities, which recognise the value and role of VCSE sector, and outlines how to make these commitments a reality.

Following the principles of the first national compact in 1998 (revised and relaunched in 2009), local compacts have typically sought to outline protocols, undertakings and ways of working which manage the relationship between public-sector bodies and the VCSE sector. Compacts have always been voluntary, and are designed to demonstrate a shared commitment to joint working, and a process by which any issues can be raised and resolved.

The history of the compact in Gateshead

Gateshead's first compact was published in 2002. It set out a range of undertakings expected from each sector and provided a mechanism for closer working between the public sector and the community and voluntary sector. The original compact also provided a number of codes of practice necessary to support this complex working relationship.

This first compact developed as a series of agreements between individual statutory organisations and the VCS, and was not envisaged as a Gateshead-wide, partnership-based approach.

An updated compact was developed in 2010. It differed from the original compact in that:

a.    it applied to all members of the Gateshead Strategic Partnership, and was based on a series of objectives which are shared by all partners

b.    it focused on four key shared commitments and a proactive approach to the delivery of these commitments, and therefore moved away from the 'codes of practice' approach of the previous compact

c.    it was based around partnership working to deliver Vision 2030

This compact was the winner of the Local Compact Award in the Annual National Compact Awards for 2011. It was recognised as demonstrating the ongoing or long-term impact that positive partnership working can have in a local community.

A third compact was written in 2014 and included the following changes:

a.    recognition of the major changes regarding the financial context for the council and the VCSE at the beginning of austerity

b.    a refocusing and prioritising of shared commitments covering maintaining a strong VCSE sector, long-term planning and transparency in commissioning, volunteering, and Gateshead Communities Together

c.    addition to the principles regarding a sustainable and modernised VCSE sector

The compact in 2024

The operating environment for the VCSE sector and public sector has changed significantly since the last compact was adopted. Rates of poverty in the borough are at an all-time high, and health inequalities continue to perpetuate. The VCSE sector finds itself in a frontline role with both need and complexity of need increasing, and volunteer capacity reducing. The challenging financial environment we all face highlights the need to refocus our attention, working together in co-productive ways to find collective solutions.

Against a backdrop of rising poverty and increasing health inequalities, a refresh of the Gateshead Compact is overdue as both public sector and VCSE agencies find themselves in an ever-more-critical frontline role with both need and complexity of need increasing.

We've all faced new challenges in the last decade, to include significant welfare reform, a prolonged period of austerity, and a global pandemic, swiftly followed by a cost-of-living crisis. As a result of these significant national and international events, and natural staff turnover, knowledge of the Gateshead Compact and the practical application of it has fallen away, but the mutual respect between the public and voluntary sector remains, as does the willingness to collaborate.

The VCSE has a key role to play in the development and delivery of Gateshead Council's Thrive Agenda. It will also be key to the development of the Locality Strategy, enabling critical services and support mechanisms to reach individuals and communities which may otherwise remain isolated.

For all other public-sector partners on the Health and Wellbeing Board, the VCSE sector is an important partner in both the delivery of their services, and in preventing people needing to access them in the first place.

The Health and Wellbeing Strategy has the following aims:

• give every child the best start in life, with a focus on conception to age two
• enable all children, young people and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives
• create the conditions for fair employment and good work for all
• ensure a healthy standard of living for all, in accordance with international law on economic and social rights
• create and develop sustainable places and communities
• strengthen the role and impact of ill-health prevention

These aims rely on our organisations to work together and co-produce solutions across organisational boundaries. They will only be achieved by the public and VCSE sectors working together in a meaningful partnership, supported by the principles in the compact.

The VCSE sector: a definition

A VCSE organisation is any organisation or group that:

(1) is established only for charitable, community or social objectives

(2) only or predominantly benefits the public (or a section of it) or a community

(3) uses any surpluses only or predominantly to further those objectives, rather than for private gain

The VCSE sector has had many names over the years - for example Civil Society, the Third Sector, the voluntary sector and the VCS. 'VCSE sector' is the current catch -all term that includes any organisation (incorporated or not) working with social purposes. This ranges from small community-based groups (good neighbour schemes, 'knit and natter', and so on), through to larger registered charities that operate locally, regionally or nationally. VCSE organisations can have a range of informal and more formal structures, depending on their size and remit.

Typically, the organisational structures in the VCSE sector are:

• unincorporated association
• charitable trust
• registered charity
• charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
• company limited by guarantee
• company limited by shares
• community interest company
• community benefit society
• cooperative society

Where VCSE organisations have a company structure, they have a social purpose which distinguishes them from a private company, and they may also be a registered charity.

'Social enterprise' describes a type of organisation and not a legal structure. Social enterprises are organisations with primarily social purposes, which generate revenue through trading and reinvest any surplus back into the business or the community they serve. The term 'social enterprise' has no legal status and is not recognised by HMRC or any other regulatory body. Social enterprises use many of the same legal forms as other VCSE organisations - most often community interest company, company ltd by guarantee or shares, or cooperative society.