The Civil Society Covenant must come with a set of “practical mechanisms” to enable an equal partnership between government and civil society, according to a new report.
Mission Critical 003, published today by think tanks New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) and Future Governance Forum, says that “genuinely two-way partnerships” remain unusual, even within regional and local government, and that “too often, the terms of engagement are set by government rather than arrived at together through negotiation”.
Therefore, the report recommends that civil society should be empowered to hold government departments to account if they fail to meet the standards set out in the covenant, in order to make the agreement work.
“Practical mechanisms to underpin the covenant’s principles are essential,” it says.
“The covenant will not shift the behaviour and attitudes of either civil servants or civil society. This behaviour shift is essential if we want to see effective collaboration to tackle social issues.”
Collective voice
According to the report, the Civil Society Covenant – set to be published this year as part of plans to reset the relationship between the state and the sector – currently lacks the concrete mechanisms needed to deliver meaningful improvements.
Civil society organisations must also play their part, the report notes, as sector leaders need to work together and broaden their focus beyond their own fields and sector-specific challenges.
“As with an annual meeting with the prime minister, civil society leaders must be able to organise their collective voice, sharing insights from beyond their specific organisation’s perspective alone,” the report says.
It adds that civil society leaders must “be willing and open to working not only with traditional or natural allies (…) but also to working in new ways and spaces with government, trade unions and businesses”.
‘Not afforded the same status as business’
The report calls for the government to treat civil society as an equal partner alongside the private sector in order to meet its mission goals.
It highlights concerns that charities have previously been treated as “a stakeholder to be managed and not afforded the same status as business”.
The report recommends that the government should involve civil society throughout the policy development lifecycle including through what it describes as a “test and learn” culture of innovation.
It calls for the government to embrace disagreement in the interests of better policy development, facilitate partnerships from the centre and strengthen expertise across the civil service.
The report also suggests that the government follow the leads of countries such as the US, Canada and Mexico by creating a satellite account for civil society – a collection of data sets linked to the national accounts.
‘Charities have unique insights’
Grace Wyld, head of policy and research at the Future Governance Forum, said: “Central government cannot deliver its ambitious missions agenda alone.
“It needs to construct a different, deeper way of working partnership so that precious resources, expertise and ideas from across society exceed the sum of their parts.
“At its best, civil society will be critical to emerging mission partnerships, but organisations must also embrace change in this new way of working.”
James Somerville, policy manager at NPC, said: “Charities have unique insights into the needs of the communities they work with, and want to help deliver.
“But working together is a two-way street – government needs to recognise the strengths and insights that charities bring, and the social sector need to not just lobby for themselves, but engage in mission-driven government.”
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