The Hertfordshire Compact was published in September 2001. With local District and Borough Compacts, the Hertfordshire Compact is a building block in improving relationships between the local sectors.

The Local Government Act 2000 places a duty on local authorities to prepare community strategies for promoting the economic, social and environmental well-being of their areas. Voluntary and community organisations have an opportunity to bring our knowledge, experience and expertise to policy-making, on behalf of the people and causes we work for.

Compact acts as a tool and its various Codes of Practice are mechanisms to improve partnerships and help them work more effectively.

We have a lot more to do.

We need to widen participation and collaboration from some sectors. Our consultations should not just reach the same groups and the same people all the time.

The challenge now is connect Compact into real decisions, plans and issues.

We know that Compact is not always well understood by our colleagues in both sectors. We need to publicise its advantages.

A brief Herts CVS report on the progress made on local Compact development across Hertfordshire was produced in September 2005 it can be accessed by clicking here

For more information about Compact in Herts, contact Andrew Burt (andrew_burt@hertscc.gov.uk) or Ann Jansz at Stevenage CVS (ann@stevenagecvs.solis.co.uk).