Voluntary Groups In Calls For Fairer Funding

A broad coalition of voluntary organisations and unions launch a petition today calling for “fair” funding for third- sector groups which undertake public service contracts.

The Scottish Government is being urged to demonstrate its commitment to charities and other not-for-profit groups by agreeing a national framework that would offer them a number of guarantees when undertaking work on behalf of government departments.

Campaigners want equality of wages for third-sector workers, to bring them in line with their public-sector counterparts, and the introduction of five-year contracts for organisations to replace short-term funding arrangements.

Also being sought is appropriate use of competitive tendering to minimise disruption to service users, reduce transaction costs and increase employment and services stability. Campaigners say some voluntary organisations are being contracted to perform public services for less than those services cost to deliver.

In a show of unity, the petition is submitted by the STUC, SCVO, Unite, Unison and Community Care Providers Scotland. Simon Macfarlane, Unison’s lead officer for the community and voluntary sector, said: “We hope there will be a massive response to this petition, as our members in the sector are really suffering as a consequence of skewed tendering processes and real-term funding cuts.”

He added that the latest funding crisis meant increased “downward pressure” in a sector where pay and conditions were already well below that of the public sector. “Our members look after the most vulnerable with compassion, dignity and respect,” he said.

“They deserve to be valued, not caught up in a spiral to the bottom with the services they provide being shunted from one provider to the next based on who can provide the service cheapest.”

Stephen Maxwell, associate director of SCVO, said the sector’s front-line workers were “crucial” to its capacity to provide “high-quality, personalised” services to vulnerable people.

He added: “Voluntary organisations need to be funded fairly to cover the full costs of employing front-line staff at this level, particularly when their alternative funding sources will be under added pressure as a result of the financial crisis.”

Jackson Cullinane, deputy Scottish secretary for Unite, agreed: “We are committed to exposing the shameful funding cuts being carried out by local authorities, where low- paid workers who are contracted to deliver key public services are being expected to literally subsidise the state by sustaining cuts to their pay and conditions.”

The voluntary sector in Scotland is worth nearly £4bn and, according to research by SCVO, employs an estimated 129,000 professional paid staff. This is more than employment in financial services, and the electricity, gas and water supply industries.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “This government has made an explicit commitment to the third sector in achieving our aims.

“We have set up a task group involving SCVO, representing the third sector which is looking at relationships between the third sector and government at all levels.”