Government departments have made slow progress on Compact recommendations, says NAO

08 Jan 2015 News

Central government departments must do more to improve the way they monitor and implement the Compact, according to a report by the National Audit Office.

National Audit Office

Central government departments must do more to improve the way they monitor and implement the Compact agreement that sets out shared principles for effective partnership between the government and civil society organisations, according to a report by the National Audit Office.

The spending watchdog accuses central government departments of making “slow progress in implementing the recommendations” of a previous January 2012 report into the effectiveness of the voluntary agreement.

“Departments have more to do to strengthen their oversight of the implementation of the Compact,” the report said.

“Looking across departments, progress in implementing our recommendations has been slow. We consider that progress against each recommendation in our 2012 report has been, at best, adequate,” it said.

The report recommends a number of ways for central government departments to make improvements, including the way in which they monitor and report their implementation of the Compact. It also recommends a review of department complaint procedures to ensure that issues relevant to the Compact are directed to the correct team.

“Most departments have made little progress in strengthening their arrangements for monitoring Compact complaints [since the 2012 report],” the report said.

According to the report, too many Compact consultations run for less than the recommended 12 weeks.

“In 2011, we found 40 per cent of consultations across nine departments were run for less than 12 weeks… By mid May 2013 this had risen to 81 per cent,” the report said.

“Consultation length is one of the few measurable features of the Compact. Only one department had a system to monitor the length of consultations and was able to provide, for all of its consultations under 12 weeks, explanations as to why this was the case. Four departments gave incomplete information, and seven gave none at all.”

But the report by the spending watchdog praises the “continuing commitment to the Compact” made by the Office for Civil Society and states that “it has made good progress in implementing our recommendations”.

“The Compact remains a key document for guiding the relationship between central government and the diverse range of organisations that make up civil society,” it said.