Joint Chairs' Communique 20 October 2004

MEETING OF JOINT GOVERNMENT/ VOLUNTARY AND COMMUNITY SECTOR FORUM, 20 OCTOBER 2004 IN NICVA – JOINT CHAIRS’ COMMUNIQUE

Key items

The meeting was focused around three presentations:

1. Joanne Crone from the Scottish Executive and Stephen Maxwell from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations spoke to the Forum about Scotland’s experience of implementing and supporting a Compact between government and the sector. Many parallels were drawn, and the overall consensus was that devolution in Scotland has helped to drive their Compact forward.

2. Dave Wall, Director of the Voluntary and Community Unit of the Department for Social Development, and Joint Chair of the Forum, gave a presentation outlining the recommendations of the Taskforce report Investing Together. This is a challenging report for government and the sector, and has recommendations that will impact directly on the work of the Forum.

3. Neil Irwin from NICVA spoke about the sector’s views on the Big Lottery Fund consultation and the paper which NICVA has presented as a response to it. Jack Palmer and Richard Holmes from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure attended the meeting to take questions on the next steps.

Working groups

The Forum divided into three working groups to discuss Investing Together, looking at:

1. What are the key priorities identified in the Investing Together report?

2. What are your views on the recommendations which specifically impact on the Forum?

Other issues

The Forum also discussed policy developments on A Shared Future, the Review of Public Administration and New TSN.

The Forum looked at the first draft of a ‘Next Stage Strategy’ for Partners for Change and will be inputting to this over the next months, including at the Planning Day on 16 November.

Further details of the discussions will be available when the agreed minutes of the meeting are published.