East Sussex Compact steering group

14 May 2008

East Sussex Compact signatories have pledged to make all their policies Compact-compliant, and the county's record in implementing the agreement suggests that it has a good chance of succeeding.

The group is helping organisations in the region to make all policies Compact-compliant

East Sussex adopted its Compact three years ago. Before that, the county's five boroughs had separate agreements, which made life complicated for organisations that operated across the county.

A steering group of 10 people was set up to manage the agreement. The group, which meets quarterly, is developing a five-year strategy as well as an annual action plan.

The group has persuaded the East Sussex Strategic Partnership to scrutinise the Compact and presents an annual review to the partnership's executive board for comment each year. This forces people in the partnership to think about the Compact and how it should cut through everything the voluntary and public sectors do together.

Most local Compacts are managed by steering groups, but East Sussex has gone a step further by establishing a communications group in recognition of how important it is to disseminate information to people on the ground. The group's achievements so far include ensuring that East Sussex County Council's induction programme for all new staff includes information on the Compact as well as a link to the county's Compact website.

"If four years ago you had asked 20 people from the statutory sector if they had heard of the Compact, one or two would have put their hands up - now it's 20," says Paul Rideout, chair of the East Sussex Compact steering group.

Last year, Rideout created a matrix game, which entailed getting people from both sectors to assess how effectively real examples of cross-sector working complied with Compact codes of practice. The game received a commendation for innovation and impact in December at the annual Compact Commendations for Excellence awards organised by the Commission for the Compact. "People weren't sure how the Compact applied to real life, and this got them thinking about it," says Rideout. The challenge now is to get everyone thinking this way.

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