national work
Side by side and the implications for public services
CoSA Paper No.3
The CoSA paper outlining actions for developing one-to-one work, Side by Side, concludes that one-to-one is a route to unleashing energy, experience and compassion in every community, school, business and public agency. Whilst the primary concer has been with voluntary schemes CoSA recognises that ‘one-to-one’ covers a spectrum of activity from universal school befriending schemes through to specialised staff. This paper considers the lessons which can be learnt from our work at the voluntary end and how they might be applied to the ways in which public services are planned and delivered.