Guidance

The Civil Society Covenant - fact sheet

Published 23 March 2026

The Civil Society Covenant

The Covenant is a shared set of principles to guide partnership working between the UK government and civil society. It aims to help organisations to build lasting, meaningful partnerships that support people and communities.

The Covenant is intended to help foster and encourage effective partnerships. It serves as a tool to start important conversations about partnership and to support and strengthen existing good work, whilst recognising that this also depends on long-term and sustained commitment by all parties.

It sets clear expectations about partnership working for civil society and government to apply to their relationships, at both a national and local level.

The Covenant’s aim is that through the use and adoption of the Covenant’s principles, organisations are able to deliver policies and services that respond to community needs and provide effective support for people.

The Covenant principles

The Covenant centres on 4 core joint high-level principles.

1. Recognition and value - promoting respect and value for government and civil society’s respective strengths, responsibilities, perspectives and constraints, to build solid relationships and strengthen sector independence.

2. Partnership and collaboration - encouraging high quality, purposeful, collaborative working between government and civil society to inform decision-making and service design, delivering better solutions for all.

3. Participation and inclusion - providing greater opportunities for people to be involved in decisions and activities affecting their lives.

4. Transparency and data - championing more open sharing of information and data through better availability, understanding of need and evidence-based solutions.

Why the Covenant matters for your organisation

Many government bodies and civil society organisations recognise that they can deliver more in partnership - but there are common barriers to effective partnership working.

The Covenant is a tool to help organisations overcome barriers. It signals a clear expectation that government and civil society should work together, and sets out a non-statutory framework for effective partnership working.

If you want to improve or expand your partnerships then the Covenant provides a tool to start conversations about, for example:

• the strengths, values and perspectives that you bring to the table
• strengthening local community engagement in your work
• creating trusting and transparent relationships with local partners

Applicability of the Covenant

The Covenant is a non-statutory framework for all civil society groups, government organisations, and public bodies across the UK where policy areas are reserved to the UK government.

It has been designed to complement and respect existing governance and partnership arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, working alongside the distinct frameworks in each nation.

The Covenant principles are intended to help guide partnership discussions, for example by reviewing each principle against your local context and considering any opportunities for improvement.

Who the Covenant is for

The principles of the Covenant are relevant and applicable to the following bodies and groups:

• UK government departments, including executive agencies and arms-length bodies
• strategic authorities and English local authorities
• wider public sector bodies working with civil society, including NHS organisations and partnerships, such as Integrated Care Systems, and the criminal justice system.
• civil society, including charities, social enterprises, co-operatives, trade unions, faith organisations, informal community groups, philanthropists and social investors

The Covenant is inclusive of organisations of all purposes, sizes, geographical locations, and those that are led by underrepresented groups.

The Covenant is also intended to be relevant to those UK organisations working in the UK and abroad.

The Covenant and the Compact

The Covenant introduces a new framework in place of the old 2010 Compact.

The Covenant represents a new chapter of a reciprocal partnership between government and civil society.

The Covenant is intended to complement existing partnership arrangements. You can also use the Covenant as a framework to

• encourage conversations around refreshing and updating older partnership agreements
• fill gaps where no formal agreement currently exists

The development and co-production of the Covenant

The creation of the Covenant reflects the government’s view that civil society is an indispensable partner in our shared aim to build a better, fairer future for all.

Throughout Autumn 2024, DCMS engaged with over 1,200 organisations from across civil society as well as government departments, local authorities, and regional and devolved governments.

The government took steps to ensure that the voices of a wide range of civil society organisations were heard, including under-represented groups and those facing participation barriers.

Feedback included what factors enable, and create barriers to, effective partnership working, how to harness civil society’s ability to be innovative, and how a Covenant could ‘hold weight’ and be impactful.

Implementation of the Covenant so far

The Covenant was launched by the Prime Minister in July 2025. Since then, significant actions have been taken to embed its principles across government, including:

Leading voices from across the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector have been appointed to the new Civil Society Council. The Council will oversee implementation of the Civil Society Covenant at national and local level and provide a central forum to address issues that cut across government and to identify opportunities for civil society to play a greater role in the design and delivery of policies and services.

DCMS has launched a new £11.59m Local Covenant Partnerships (LCP) Fund providing support for 15 local authority district areas across England, to develop and implement new ‘local covenant partnership’ agreements. The LCP fund will support civil society organisations, local authorities and public service providers to work collaboratively to tackle local policy priorities and better meet the needs of their communities.

The establishment of a new forum between the Treasury and civil society, to enable structured dialogue and engagement, and foster collaborative working, transparency and mutual respect.

How to engage with the Covenant

• Read our short overview on the Covenant .
• Consult the illustrative guidance of examples of what the Civil Society Covenant principles will look like in practice.
• Browse the case study bank to see examples of existing good partnership working in practice from across the UK.
• Make the case for the Covenant inside your organisation. Speak to your staff, trustees, and senior leadership and encourage them to learn about, understand, and adopt the Covenant. Consider whether your existing internal ways of working and policies align with the Covenant principles.
• Share the Covenant. More organisations in your area actively using the Covenant will maximise its impact locally. Speak to your networks to promote the Covenant and its benefits to local organisations.
• Host a meeting with partners to discuss the Covenant. Use our slide pack to start a conversation with your local stakeholders and partners about your current working relationship, using the Covenant principles as a framework for discussion.

Further information about the Covenant

• The Civil Society Covenant, where you can read the full Covenant document.
• Tools and resources to put the Covenant into practice
• Further information about the Covenant programme, including background information on the Covenant
• The Local Covenant Partnerships Fund, information on a new £11.6 million funding package that will provide support for 15 local authority district areas across England, to develop and implement new ‘local covenant partnership’ agreements