Championing tips

Read these quick and easy tips, from Compact Voice and from current champions, to double your own impact as a champion.

While some champions want to keep tasks and time to a minimum, you may want to do more; here are some ideas.

1. Recruiting and pairing

When you’re next at a network meeting, talk to someone from a small group about your championing, invite them to be a champion too and "pair up" with them. You can help each other by discussing problems and also cross-promote what you each are doing, so when the group runs a campaign your organisation can support it - and if you are from a small group yourself it can be reciprocated.

2. Pairing within the same council department

Getting a champion at the right level can be tricky for your organisation. If they are working at an operational level, they may not have enough "clout" to really push Compact working through the hierarchy; and if they are more senior they may not be able to focus on the practical embedding and implementation. Wolverhampton City Council’s answer is to go for two in each department - one in a leadership position, the other working on the ground, who between them can ensure Compact principles are known and adhered to across the board.

3. Pairing across the partnership

As Compact is about working together, it can make sense for a Compact Champion in a public body to pair up with one in a small group, for instance, pairing between someone in a leisure department and a sports group.

4. Taking on a "theme"

Compact Champions can double up their role with championing a thriving sector (West Sussex and Staffordshire have plans to do this in 2010), or by supporting the concerns of their Community champions (these champions represent the specific concerns of their wider community). East Sussex have also extended their Compact championing to having champions for individual codes, as well as for parishes and districts. 

Where themes are not being shared, you can simply take the initiative, perhaps championing sector independence or some aspect of good practice like better partnership governance.

5. Halving the role

Some areas, such as Gloucestershire, are separating out the championing and ambassadorial parts of a champion's work. They are separately supporting people who promote Compact working within an organisation, and those who are getting the message out to groups not yet involved in their Local Compact. Oldham have also handed the ambassadorial role to the Mayor!