Launching the Faith Covenant Guidebook

As we come to the end of Faith in Partnership Week 2026, we are delighted to announce the launch of the new Faith Covenant Guidebook! This is your first port of call for key information on the Faith Covenant initiative – what it is, why you may want to consider signing it (including what it’s achieved over the years) and how to set up for success.

The Faith Covenant, if you’re not familiar, is a joint agreement between public-sector bodies and faith communities to strengthen trust and partnership working. Initially created to support relationships between faith groups and local councils, it’s expanded over the years to cover 33 partnership areas.

The Guidebook is part of an ongoing project, let by FaithAction and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society, to better understand and strengthen Faith Covenants across the UK.

Faith Covenants are also a key way for faith groups to work hand in hand with their local authorities, expressing the core principles behind Faith in Partnership Week.

Whether you are looking to refresh or rejuvenate a prior Covenant agreement, or begin work from scratch, we hope the content here will aid on your journey.

Where did the Guidebook come from?

The Guidebook forms part of a wider, 2-part project, funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, looking to better understand and strengthen Faith Covenants.

Part 1 of the project included an independent mixed-methods evaluation of the Faith Covenant, led by Coventry University and the Centre for Inclusive Evaluation, and Part 2 will involve building upon that learning through guidance and practical workshops.

If you haven’t read our evaluation yet, it’s available on our website.

Whilst the Faith Covenant has been around for over a decade, it had never been formally evaluated, so we’re pleased to have been able to look across a range of Covenant areas to ask the question – is it really working?

The response was clear: whilst the Covenant has achieved many good things, and 75% of those surveyed felt it had improved trust between faith communities and public-sector partners, there are things that can be strengthened.

Covenant areas said they would like a clearer national steer on governance and accountability, for the Covenant, as well as best practice examples.

Building upon learning from 10 years of Covenant activity, as well as all the learning from the evaluation report, including 26 in-depth interviews with Covenant representatives, the Guidebook is a first step in diving into some of these areas in a little more detail.

How is it structured?

There are three main parts to the guidebook to explore:

• WHAT is a Faith Covenant? Featuring key information on the purpose of Covenant agreements, the origin of the initiative, and what’s happened over the past decade.
• WHY adopt a Faith Covenant? Exploring, from the perspective of both faith-sector and statutory partners, what is to be gained from pursuing an agreement. This includes “Why now?” content, which links to live national developments, like local government reorganisation and the Civil Society Covenant.
• HOW to build a strong Covenant – delving deeper into how to set up for success, including core principles, and laying the foundation for good governance and accountability when working across sectors.

Some of the content will be iterative – particularly that which relates to national initiatives which are subject to change.

And we’d also love to hear from you if there is anything additional you would like guidance on. Do get in touch!

Check out the Guidebook for yourself – and let us know what you think!