The charity and voluntary organisations will play a bigger role within public service delivery as the result of the new Strategic Agreement signed today by representatives from the sector, the Department of Health and the NHS.

Designed to complement the Compact and its Codes of Good Practice, the agreement will increase the role of the sector, in turn improving capacity and choice in services for patients. Best practice and innovation from across England will be pulled together and local partnerships between the NHS and the voluntary and community sector will be supported by a National Strategic Partnership Forum, which will also review how the agreement is working.

Launching the Strategic Agreement, Health Secretary John Reid, said: “This agreement makes it easier for the voluntary and community sector to provide services for the expanding NHS. The value of the voluntary and community sector to the work of health and social care service cannot be underestimated and that’s why this is so important.”

Sir Nicholas Young, chief executive of the British Red Cross and chair of Making Partnership Work, the body behind the agreement, said: “This welcome agreement is a landmark step towards a real working partnership between the voluntary sector and health and social care commissioners. It is recognition of the hard work of the voluntary sector and of our potential contribution at the heart of service planning and provision.”

Copies of the Strategic Agreement are available from www.dh.gov.uk/makingpartnershipwork