ingela.andersson's blog

At the risk of sounding like a South London gangster there isn’t enough respect around. I'm not talking about queue jumping but the way some local councils treat voluntary organisations. At Compact Advocacy we speak to people on a daily basis who have to bear the brunt of councils' budget cuts and poor decision making.

Last week I went to Stockholm to attend the annual conference of the Swedish Compact, called Överenskommelsen. It’s been in existence for about two years and was written with the English Compact as a main inspiration. I was invited to update them on developments here in England, and was speaking alongside representatives from Denmark and Estonia.

Oliver Reichardt reports from Compact Voice:

With only two days left to submit views on the draft text of the renewed Compact, Compact Voice is about to start the next vital phase - reading, understanding, and getting to grips with the wide range of views we have gathered over the last six weeks.

Pathways to Work

A Parliamentary Committee report has criticised the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Pathways to Work programme, saying "effective small private and voluntary organisations working in local communities are being asked to take an unfair share of the risk by prime contractors".