The Civic Partnership

In 2007 voluntary and community sector representatives from the LPSBs worked with Council and PCT officers to develop the successful bid to the Treasury's Invest to Save'' programme proposal which secured £619,000 funding over three years from April 2007.

The project is called the Civic Partnership and it will use an action research approach to explore the barriers to effective joint working between the public sector and VCS. This will help Kirklees to develop more effective people and systems in both sectors - to make a reality of genuine partnership and collaboration. It also aims to overcome the barriers - such as complex processes and rules and different standards and systems operating in different parts of the public sector - to make things better for service users and organisations.

The Civic Partnership programme will include:

• The Partnership Academy - pairs of public and voluntary sector managers working together to develop their own skills and explore new ways of creating and delivering services collaboratively.This is a 12 month training and development programme for managers commissioning or delivering public services.
• Pilot case studies - based on Local Area Agreement priorities - to explore new ways of public service delivery with the VCS or barriers to VCS capacity.
• Creating a new Clearing House - a single entry point for voluntary sector organisations seeking and delivering public sector commissions

A VCS stakeholder group has also been set up to act as a consultation forum and a sounding board for the Civic Partnership.

The Civic Partnership has a full time project manager who reports to a multi-agency Project Team and Programme Board.

For details on how to get involved with the VCS Stakeholder group or more general information on the Civic Partnership contact:

Trudi Wright
Civic Partnership Project Manager
Telephone: 01484 518457 / 07980 911 654
e-mail civic.partnership@kirkleespartnership.org