A new partnership: building a covenant for civil society and government

This report sets out NCVO and ACEVO’s findings from the Civil Society Covenant engagement exercise we conducted in 2024, working closely with the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), as well as our view on the steps needed to ensure the Covenant is effective.

The research and facilitation support provided by Culture Studio was invaluable during the engagement period.

We would like to recognise the time, effort and goodwill from colleagues at DCMS and No 10 to engage civil society. Since January, ACEVO and NCVO have been members of an advisory group of civil society representatives convened by DCMS to inform the development of the Covenant. We expect the Covenant to be published by DCMS this Summer.

The relationship with government at a national and local level is essential for civil society organisations to deliver their mission, whether they are delivering services, building strong communities, or advocating for the people or causes they support. Civil society organisations of all types and sizes are impacted by the decisions government bodies make about the operating environment, whether they are directly engaging with government or not.

The relationship between government and civil society has come under strain in recent years, and has not been sufficiently supported or invested in. The Civil Society Covenant is intended to be a reciprocal principles-based agreement to reset the relationship between civil society and government. It will act as a supportive framework for our relationship with government, so we can offer partnership and challenge for the benefit of the public.

This report sets out our findings from the engagement exercise NCVO and ACEVO ran in collaboration DCMS in 2024 to understand civil society’s experiences and to test high-level principles to inform the development of the Covenant, which is due to be published this Summer. We also set out the steps the Government should take to further develop and implement the Covenant, with a role for civil society infrastructure bodies to support civil society.

Findings

Several findings emerged from our thematic analysis of the data gathered during the engagement period:

• Civil society organisations experience barriers to working with government including bureaucratic processes, lack of understanding of civil society, and lack of trust.
• There are several factors that can support effective working relationships including open and honest communication, understanding of civil society, long term funding and investment in working relationships.
• Civil society organisations have a significant role to play to innovate in partnership with government, but they need the right conditions to develop and test new solutions.
• Civil society organisations often feel disempowered in their relationships with government and lack capacity, yet there are some actions civil society can take to improve the relationship with government.
• While the engagement exercise highlighted patterns and trends, civil society organisations have different experiences of working with local and central government.
• There is broad support for the draft principles, and civil society want to see them expanded to include specific actions.
• Accountability mechanisms and ongoing implementation plans are needed to embed the Covenant into ways of working across government.

Next steps

The following steps are needed to ensure the Covenant makes a positive and lasting difference to the relationship between government and civil society.

Direction

• Set clear, practical commitments for both government and civil society.
• Protect civil society’s right to campaign and address barriers such as burdensome funding processes and lack of consultation.
• Uphold and exceed standards set by the previous Compact.
• Acknowledge civil society’s role in:
  • respecting confidentiality.
  • coordinating communications on campaigning.
  • ensuring diverse representation.
  • sharing data and involving service users.

Responsibility

• Appoint Ministerial and senior civil service leads for civil society in each department.
• Embed commitments in the Ministerial Code and use the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee for oversight.
• Establish a joint oversight panel of civil society and government.
• Require reporting and engagement action plans from public bodies.
• Strengthen local partnerships by:
  • resourcing local partnerships.
  • appointing local accountable officers.
  • using existing forums to support implementation.
  • embedding civil society engagement in local and combined authority devolution frameworks.

Conditions

• Amend legislation and standards that inhibit advocacy (e.g. Lobbying Act Part 2, grant standards, guidance relating to ‘gagging clauses’ in contracts).
• Commit to fair, flexible funding arrangements.
• Improve policy impact assessments and develop a civil society strategy to ensure supportive conditions for civil society.

Support

• Develop communities of practice for civil society and government leaders.
• Provide training, guidance, and codes of practice to support implementation.
• Facilitate joint away days, secondments, and shadowing schemes.
• Embed understanding of civil society understanding in government training and leadership programmes.
• Support from infrastructure bodies to assist civil society.

Mechanisms

• Link the Covenant to the Government's missions, with civil society representation and ‘sub-covenants’.
• Ensure the Covenant is connected to the Partnerships Unit in Number 10 and create a ‘front door’ for civil society in government.
• Establish regular fiscal engagement and a Treasury unit focused on civil society.
• Ensure organisational design supports engagement, including in job roles and policy processes.

Review

• Conduct an annual review of stakeholder experiences.
• Establish a real-time issue reporting mechanism.
• Conduct a formal consultation on the Covenant to ensure continuous improvement.

There is a role for infrastructure bodies like NCVO and ACEVO to review the experiences of civil society, improve understanding of civil society, and offer support to our members.

Conclusion

We hope the Covenant will be the start of a renewed and stronger relationship with government to ensure civil society can be a strategic partner and hold government to account. This stronger relationship must be able to withstand both agreement and disagreement so that people can be heard by those in power, we build trust in our institutions and the best ideas to benefit the public can rise to the top. During times of immense pressure, which both civil society and government are currently facing, partnership working and challenge is both more difficult and more necessary.

The feedback from civil society in 2024 highlighted that barriers to engaging with government are entrenched and significant, yet there is goodwill from individuals.

Significant policy, cultural and organisational change will be needed to change the norms that have become the accepted way of working.

We are committed to working with the Government and our members to embed stronger partnership working with civil society, based on mutual respect, trust and understanding.