"Strengthening Links"

Report of 5th Annual Event

Fareham Compact held, in February 2008, another successful Annual Meeting – its fifth since inception.

Our meeting, strap-lined ‘Strengthening Links’ focused on success and future plans. A highlight was the celebration of a National Compact Commission award for ‘Excellence in communicating the Compact’. The award, one of only 23 throughout England, was presented by Nick Drew, Policy Adviser, The Compact Commission, to co-chairs of the Fareham Compact Partners Group – Catherine Ely, Community Development, Fareham Borough Council and Paul O’Beirne, Chief Executive, Fareham Community Action.

We explored progress and issues through presentations by guest speakers, a Question and Answer Panel chaired by Connie Hockley, Fareham Borough Council’s Executive Member for Community and an interactive voting session. Guest speakers included Compact Champions, Councillor Trevor Cartwright, Fareham Borough Council’s Executive Member for Service Measurement & Performance Improvement, Nick Drew, Jennie Romacheva for The Parkinsons Disease Society, Sergeant Dave Hunter, Fareham Police and Paul O’Beirne,

In addition we wove into our agenda our customary entertainment. This year it included singing by The Fareham 50+ Choir and a witty take off of Anne Robinson’s The Weakest Link TV show.

Nick Drew reminded us that Compact, nationally, was 10 years old in 2008. He commented: “The relationship between the public sector and voluntary sector, problematic as it may still be, is unrecognisable from the way it was in the 80s and 90s.”

He continued: “There are some big opportunities to grasp now to push the Compact forward, including the new performance framework for local government, new format Local Area Agreements, Public Service Agreement indicators on formal volunteering and the thriving third sector. However, we still face some big challenges, not least in promoting recognition of the Compact and the good that it can do, and turning it from a "tool of punishment" into an unspoken and self-evident part of the way organisations interact and do business with each other.”

Paul O’Beirne paid tribute to the creativity and focus of the Fareham Compact Partners Group and invited more people to consider joining it. The Group is planning to establish a Compact Referral Group which will help voluntary organisations when they encounter a situation in which they may not have been properly consulted before a public sector decision was taken.

Our audience numbered 48 and most of them agreed that the meeting had been well worthwhile attending.

Here are a few snippets of findings and feedback from the meeting.

The meeting scored an average of 78% satisfaction on all the meeting’s key objectives, including showing how voluntary organisations could benefit, opportunity to ask questions, explaining the purpose of Compact and demonstrating that Compact is worthwhile. They rated the 2008 meeting as better than or equal to the high standards of previous meetings. About half of those who gave feedback said that Compact had made a positive difference to both the Public and Voluntary Sectors. Feedback also indicated that consultation and communication remain important. A 100% response was given to two other points: that Education and Learning should be the major focus of Compact activity for 2008/2009 and that they were willing to play their part in ensuring future success for the Fareham Compact.  See charts