National

Compact Voice, NCVO and ACEVO are inviting expressions of interest from voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations who wish to participate in roundtables looking at how to improve the capacity and sustainability of the sector in relation to health and wellbeing.

The UK Open Government Forum are encouraging voluntary and community organisations to join their network of civil society organisations.
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Open government is the idea that government works better for citizens when it is transparent, engaged and accountable.
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The network allows voluntary organisations to play a role in developing the processes needed to open up government budgets, contracts, datasets, decision-making, information, policymaking and public services.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recently organised an internal Compact Awards to celebrate good practice in partnership working within the department.
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The Awards received over 30 nominations, which celebrated partnerships developed by different DWP teams from across the country, and voluntary and community organisations.

Compact Voice have produced a short, two page briefing on some of the changes that were proposed to the process of Judicial Review.
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The briefing intends to be an easy-to-understand overview of what is a relatively complex legal area, and one which can have an impact on voluntary and community organisations - particularly those that campaign on the behalf of their service users.

The Cabinet Office have published a useful update on the the Public Services (Social Value) Act - which came into place in January 2013.

The Department for Communities and Local Government have published their draft 'Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency'.
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Late last year, we responded to DCLG's consultation looking at turning guidelines regarding data transparency into regulations.
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DCLG welcomed comments on the newly published draft following the consultation, and you can read Compact Voice's response below.

Cabinet Office have released their response to the Improving Local Government Transparency Consultation.

The consultation response details plans to make the Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency mandatory.