Building resilience through the Civil Society Covenant: a call to action for all partners
Photograph of lots of people in a busy community setting.
In the first of a series of insight blogs on the new Civil Society Covenant, Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership insights lead Tom Watkins lays out his thoughts on the opportunity it presents, and speaks to voluntary sector leaders, to get their views.
The UK Government’s Civil Society Covenant represents a compelling opportunity to transform the relationship between government and the voluntary and community sector (VCS). In consultation with umbrella bodies NCVO and ACEVO a framework for the covenant has been laid out, committing to collaboration, mutual respect, and shared accountability.
The Covenant aims to bring together third sector, and public sector partners to jointly address some of the nation’s most pressing and complex challenges, including community resilience, economic inequality, and social cohesion. The goal is greater collaboration between all players, leading to the best possible understanding of these issues and a shared means of tackling them, enhancing approaches with trust and local expertise.
For those of us working in the resilience space, the Covenant’s ambitions are both timely and essential. “I’d encourage everyone to consider how their cross-sector relationships could be better and how joint working could achieve more, then use the Covenant as a conversation starter,” says Jane Ide, CEO of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) which carried out the Covenant consultation alongside the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
“The VCS Emergencies Partnership is a great example of how an organisation can work across sectors to build relationships that improve recognition, partnership, participation and transparency,” she says, “That has led to greater levels of trust and better ways of working that have made communities more resilient.”
From ambition to action
At its core, the Covenant seeks to harness the unique strengths of voluntary and community sector organisations (VCS)—their local insights, trusted relationships, and innovative approaches to problem-solving. Whether it’s addressing the aftermath of major shocks, supporting vulnerable or marginalised communities, or bridging gaps in public services, VCS organisations have been the often-overlooked backbone of community resilience. The Covenant is part of a stated ambition at the highest levels of government to recognise that role and commitment so we can tackle the biggest societal issues together. In the words of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, himself, "To fix the foundations of our country, we need a fundamental reset of the relationship between government and civil society".
“We all need to go beyond listening at a meeting and giving a two-minute perspective, by challenging ourselves to do better. Commitment at this level means rolling up our sleeves together and getting stuck into the messy business of generating change.”
Ambition alone is not enough. All parties, local and national government, and the multi-faceted VCS, - must really want something different to happen, and that’s going to require working in a radically different way. We all need to go beyond listening at a meeting and giving a two-minute perspective, by challenging ourselves to do better. Commitment at this level means rolling up our sleeves together and getting stuck into the messy business of generating change. To ensure the Covenant delivers on its promises, we must fully commit, taking proactive steps to shape its implementation and hold each other accountable.
The Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) are tasked with engaging across government, including devolved governments, arm’s length bodies (ALBs) local authorities and mayoral combined authorities. NCVO’s consultation enabling the VCS to provide early feedback ended today (12/12/24). But this is just the beginning of an ongoing process where we should all be sharing our views for a new way forward and making it work together.
Making it meaningful
Here are five practical ways we at the Emergencies Partnership think we can all bring the principles of the covenant to life:
Embrace shared leadership and co-creation
The Covenant has created a platform for leaders to work together to shape national and local policies and decisions that directly impact communities. We should seize the chance to engage in consultations, host workshops and encourage other organisations as well as ourselves to embrace the principles of the Covenant.
Share data and insights
By sharing frontline insights and innovative strategies, the VCS can help understand problems on a deeper level and design solutions that are practical, inclusive, and impactful.
Help create accountability and transparency
While Whitehall’s rhetoric is encouraging, words must translate into tangible, measurable actions. The Covenant must include clear performance metrics and public reporting mechanisms to track progress. It would also be advisable to build in time for review and reflection so good work can be shared and problems can be fixed. We have an opportunity over the next five years for real progress to be realised. By advocating for these safeguards, the VCS can ensure commitments are met and resources are allocated effectively.Invest in resilience and diversity
The Covenant has a responsibility to prioritise inclusivity. This means supporting underrepresented groups to have more of a say and ensuring smaller VCS organisations have access to the funding and decision-making opportunities they’ve struggled to access in the past. Organisations within the resilience space should collaborate to highlight these needs and advocate for equitable support for those routinely overlooked or excluded. In this way we hope to see rights-based approaches to resilience achieve parity with risk-based practices, which means better support for everyone, especially the most marginalised.Foster trust and sustainable partnerships
Community resilience depends on trust—not just between government and civil society, but also between people living in communities themselves. Building trust takes time. The Covenant’s emphasis on collaboration should help us develop more long-term partnerships that drive social cohesion and collective impact. For this to work, we’ll need sustained investment in capacity-building, fair funding models and a genuine commitment to partnership principles.
Overcoming doubt
It would be easy to greet plans for a ‘New Deal’ with civil society with a heavy dose of scepticism, to cynically write the covenant’s ambitions off as unachievable before they’ve begun. Similar past efforts have had limited impact and it cannot go unacknowledged that many recent government decisions, such as the rise in employers’ NIC against the backdrop of serial national crises, chronic underfunding and further local government funding cuts, will hit the third sector hard. But if we allow this to paralyse our mindset, there is a huge risk of allowing the most credible opportunity to create lasting positive change for civil society to come along in a generation, slip by.
Maddy Desforges, CEO of NAVCA, says: “It’s time now to use every opportunity to bring together Government at all levels with communities, to frame the most pressing problems and develop solutions together. We can drive cross sector conversations to emphasise shared ambition, common language and ensure mutual recognition of our capabilities and strengths. When we can do that cross-sector in the spirit of collaboration and respect we can vastly improve society.”
If executed effectively, the Civil Society Covenant could redefine the way we address societal challenges in the UK. We have a responsibility to ensure that it is. Success hinges on the active participation of the VCS to play a part in winning those hearts and minds. For us it’s an opportunity to embed resilience at the heart of policymaking, empowering communities to thrive in the face of adversity.
The call to action
Start engaging now— pulling the soft levers at our disposal to advocate for ambitious, actionable commitments and to build stronger networks. Change is needed on all sides. Embrace your own accountability and be bold in holding others accountable.
Keep engaging for the long haul—set realistic expectations but stay optimistic and open minded, create space to learn from mistakes as well as good practice. We can then look at advocating for harder levers such as legislation that ‘bakes in’ the best practices, commitments to fine-tuned engagement and ways of working.
Robyn Knox, Director of the VCS Emergencies Partnership says: “None of this is achievable with organisations or sectors working independently. It’s an exciting time to see more people, organisations and local and national government recognising and prioritising the value of leading differently and considering how to tackle these complex challenges in partnership. More please!”
A legacy of trust
The urgency of addressing issues in the here and now cannot be allowed to sidetrack our long-term commitment to galvanising productively around shared aims. We can ensure this initiative creates a legacy of trust, cooperation, and positive change.
At the VCS Emergency Partnership, we’ll be using what influence we have to champion these principles, especially around distributed leadership (where we share power, create productive and inclusive spaces, leave egos at the door and prize curiosity in pursuit of the best solutions for the people and communities we work with and for). We invite you to get involved and share your thoughts and progress with us along the way. Let’s take the reins and make this vision a reality. Together, we can build a resilient future that leaves no one behind.
About the author:
Tom Watkins recently joined the VCS Emergencies Partnership on a secondment from Communities 1st. Read more about Tom.