East Sussex Compact 2025

The Compact was designed as a set of principles to facilitate collaborative, supportive partnership working in East Sussex between and within the VCSE and public sectors.

It was revised in 2020, but its promotion and implementation were delayed by the pandemic.

Partnership Plus members, including ESCC officers and East Sussex VCSE Alliance members agreed to a refresh to ensure that it represents the ambitions of the sector following our experiences in the pandemic and since. 

All partners were asked to review the Compact, and to consider whether the contents represent the current relationships between and within sectors. All the while recognising that the Compact is intended to complement and support existing agreements and principles rather than replace them; it aims to build on those already in place. 

The East Sussex VCSE Alliance members reviewed the Compact in July 2024, and through Voluntary Action led events, gathered feedback and provided recommendations for Partnership Plus on the refresh of the Compact.

The result was the production of the East Sussex Compact 2025 and the Resolving Disagreements and Disputes Guidance.

The two documents were signed off as drafts by Partnership Plus in June 2025. Working in collaboration, partners will have the pleasure of agreeing and signing up to the Compact and its shared values:

· Trust and Integrity: To have mutual trust, integrity and respect in all interactions

· Generous Leadership: Promote system leadership, openness and transparency

· Collaboration: Encourage cross-sector collaboration to leverage collective strengths and resources

To read the draft documents please visit our Documents and Resources page here.

Partnership Plus also agreed that we collectively need to put in place guidance on the implementation and reviewing of the Compact and consider the governance and formal sign off.

More to follow on this shortly.