Call For Re-Think On Voluntary Sector Cuts

Voluntary organisations across Fife will bear the full brunt of Council cost-cutting with funding awards slashed in a bid to save £250,000. In the past years, grants for vital voluntary organisations and charities have steadily increased, however, this year they will remain at the same level as 2006/7 to save money.

And in many cases the organisations will receive substantially less than they requested. However, councillors decided at the adult services committee last Friday there needs to be further consultation on the subject, after they were bombarded with complaints from angry members of the voluntary sector.

Chairman Theresa Gunn put forward the motion and said: “I think that there should be further consultation after the elections in May. The voluntary groups are saying that there was not adequate discussion about these cuts and I would like to see a review of this. “There should be more consultation with a new administration.”

Councillors praised the work of the voluntary sector, but Auchmuty and Ladybank Councillor Donald Lothian said he believed consultation should have been carried out with the groups before the cuts were decided earlier this year.

It was agreed in February that there would be no increases in the level of awards for voluntary groups in 2007-8 due to the level of saving the Council needs to make. However, voluntary organisations affected by the budget cuts are dismayed by the decision to give savings the green light.

A spokesman for the groups said: “Some of the cuts made by the committee will have a major impact on services to the most vulnerable groups of people in Fife – young people and adults with learning difficulties, adults and children with autism and their carers, adult survivors of child sexual abuse, adults and young people experiencing severe mental health issues, young people excluded from school.

“We are baffled how cuts such as those made could even been be proposed by Council officials, let alone be considered by councillors, and we are deeply disturbed that the work carried out by some of the above voluntary organisations no longer appears to fit with social work priorities.” The spokesman continued by saying the groups believe councillors do not understand the full impact of their decision.

Many of the voluntary organisations were using Council cash as match funding for Big Lottery Fund applications, which are now in jeopardy due to the cuts.

They also called the decision for consultation to be carried out by the new administration “a classic political cop out” as many of the councillors who made the decision will not be standing in May’s elections.

Fife Labour Party’s policy co-ordinator Alex Rowley also criticised the way budget overspend in the social work department is impacting on voluntary organisations across the Kingdom. He believes there has been no measure of the impact and knock-on effects of the cuts in the long term.