Guidance

The Civil Society Covenant - overview

Published 23 March 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-civil-society-covenant-resources/the-civil-society-covenant-overview

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.

The Covenant was developed collaboratively with over 1,200 organisations. It centres on 4 principles: recognition and value, partnership and collaboration, participation and inclusion, and transparency and data.

Why the Covenant matters to you

While many government bodies and civil society organisations recognise that they can deliver more together, there are some common barriers to effective partnership working.

The Covenant provides a clear expectation that government and civil society should work together, and sets out a non-statutory framework to help overcome the barriers to effective partnership working.

If you want to improve or expand your local partnerships then the Covenant can help by prompting or framing conversations on how you might do this, for example

  • How well do we think our current partnerships reflect each of the Covenant’s principles?
  • Do you agree you could improve on any of those areas and, if so, how?

Applicability of the Covenant

The Covenant is a non-statutory framework that is relevant for all civil society groups, governments, strategic and local authorities, and public bodies across the country.

It complements and respects existing governance and partnership arrangements in devolved nations.

Some suggested practical first steps

  1. Engage and familiarise yourself with the Covenant online resources. Read up on the Covenant’s principles, examples of good partnership working, and illustrative guidance to see what signs of progress in partnership working could look like.

  2. Make the case for the Covenant in your organisations. Speak to your trustees, members, councillors and/or senior leadership to encourage them to learn about, understand and adopt the Covenant. Align your internal policies with the Covenant principles.

  3. Reference the Covenant when engaging with partners. Use our Fact sheet and Covenant slide pack to start conversations with local partners about your current working relationships.

  4. Share the Covenant. More organisations actively using the Covenant will maximise its impact locally. Speak to your networks to promote the Covenant.

Resources

The Civil Society Covenant, read the full Covenant document.

Civil Society Covenant Summary read the summary for the highlights.

Tools and resources to put the Covenant into practice, including:

Further information about the Covenant Programme, including background.

The Local Covenant Partnerships Fund, information on a new £11.59 million funding package that will provide support for 15 local authority district areas across England, to develop and implement new ‘local covenant partnership’ agreements.

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