The Vision for Leeds sets out priorities for change over the next 20 years and It has been acknowledged that in order to achieve the changes the voluntary, community and faith sector needs to be a partner of the Leeds Initiative.

Representation is the method used to bring together an incredibly large and diverse sector enabling its members to play their part in decision- making.

In reality this means Leeds Voice has negotiated places at each of the Leeds Initiative Partnership meetings. These places are for Leeds Voice elected representatives. The elected representatives sit beside partners from departments of the Leeds City Council, Primary Care Trusts, West Yorkshire Police, Housing Associations, Probation Services, Universities, Metro, and many more (for a full list see the Leeds Initiative Guide).

Each partnership meeting has an agreed Terms of Reference that sets out its aims and objectives. These vary depending on theme, area and level.

A summary of these aims can be seen in the Vision for Leeds and the Leeds Initiative Guide. Each partnership has an elected chair. The chair can be from any of the partners. The partnerships generally meet every 6 weeks.

The Leeds Voice representatives are either elected or selected to their position and are asked to evidence against criteria which enables them to fully represent the sector in the given partnership. The representative must be a member of a specific forum; usually but not always related to the partnership meeting and the representatives have a delegated responsibility of representing the sector on their partnership.

The forum co-ordinating groups and Leeds Voice co-ordinators are there to provide back up to ensure that the representation is as effective as possible.  The co-ordinating groups offer an opportunity for the representatives to feed back about partnership agendas and glean views in preparation for the next partnership meeting of which representative are expected to attend.

The General Roles and Responsibilities of being a Representative.

With support from the Leeds Voice team REPRESENT the sector on strategic groups; this can be either through the wedge based or thematic forums.

With the help of Leeds Voice team ENGAGE voluntary, Community and Faith organisations in decision-making, contributing towards government and floor targets.

With the help of Leeds Voice team work towards RECOGNITION of the Voluntary, Community and Faith sector as service delivery.

PARTICIPATE actively in wider membership forums.

With the help of Leeds Voice co-ordinator CANVASS the views of the voluntary and community sector through other forums on both a strategic and grassroots level.

AVOID solely representing your own organisation.

INFORM other strategic partners of Voluntary, Community and Faith sector issues.

ADHERE to the compact whilst representing the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector

RECOGNISE areas for training and development

MAINTAIN attendance at forums/meetings and events creating opportunities to network.