Although those working in the third sector believe local area agreements (LAA) can be useful, a new study shows they think they could be more effective.

Research carried out by the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) reveals that while those with charity jobs were shown to generally be positive towards LAAs, they believe the sector is yet to become fully engaged with them.

Indeed, charity and voluntary groups often feel that these agreements can be too time consuming and unnecessarily bureaucratic.

Their engagement with such schemes is often constrained by a lack of resources, the survey found.

Neil Cleeveley, policy and communications director for NAVCA, claims that such agreements focus on local needs and improve relationships between the charity sector and public bodies.

However, he states that the latter "can still be reluctant to fully involve the third sector and we still need a cultural change that will allow full third sector involvement in LAAs".

Those with charity jobs could also be interested in a study by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research revealing that the Compact’’s principles complement many of the standards already in place within the third sector.

Register to save your job search and application history