Supporting Good Work - Continued

All of these could be for core funding, contracted service delivery or project funding – the first two of these normally being for 3-year periods. There is likely to be included in future legislation a generic power for funding the voluntary sector.

The Executive also propose to standardise grant application forms and monitoring systems, introducing "a basic package of grant conditions, which would include a requirement to take account of issues around promoting equality, both within the organisation itself and in the activities it is being funded to undertake". They invite views on how these processes might best be tailored to balance voluntary sector needs with public accountability, and on issues relating to the wider strategic review, eg on gaps in Executive support for the voluntary sector and assistance with "exit strategies" when funding is coming to an end.

Further details of the consultation paper are available on the Executive website or from SCPO. Comments should be sent to the Voluntary Issues Unit, Development Department, Scottish Executive, 3H Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, EH6 6QQ (email: viu@scotland.gsi.gov.UK), by 30 July; the Executive will respond to the consultation in October, and expect new funding arrangements to be fully operational for 2003-04.

At the end of June, Donald Gorrie and Adam Ingram presented to the Finance Committee a preliminary report into voluntary sector funding, following wide consultation with voluntary sector bodies. Describing the sector as "a principal pillar of all Scottish communities, bring great benefits", the report describes the current funding situation as "critical" and urges a comprehensive Committee inquiry.

They reported concerns that the Executive review is focusing on process issues; it is felt to have had little voluntary sector involvement, and to lack strategic thinking. Executive support for infrastructure and capacity-building is seen as well-directed, but they uncovered, unsurprisingly, a range of funding concerns and good work threatened by lack (or withdrawal) of funding. Key areas are seen as (a) the difficulty for groups in attracting core funding (b) the need for longer-term funding (c) clarity about the basis of funding decisions.

Amongst recommendations passed on by the two Committee reporters as coming from the voluntary sector were:

• The goal in funding voluntary organisations should be sustainability, based on adequate core funding and arrangements to maintain the funding of projects if they are successful.
• There are far too many unrelated new initiatives coming up for project funding, with too little thought to the demands they create for voluntary organisations.
• The Executive could require earlier decisions by funders about continuing their project funding to avoid a damaging hiatus. It could also authorise a bonus to be paid to the staff of a voluntary organisation who stay on until the end of the project, and arrange a year’s support where a project funding is ending.
• The Scottish Parliament should have some input in Lottery funding issues.
• Above all, how to mainstream short-term project funding.

With amendments (discussed in private!), this report was agreed as a submission by the Finance Committee to the Executive consultation.

Churches are active participants in the voluntary sector and have shared many of the sector's concerns noted above. In particular, concern about the stress on innovation leaving good work without funding to make space for new projects, has been raised by the Scottish Churches Social Inclusion Network. The growing emphasis on lottery funding replacing direct government funding has also been a particular concern, disadvantaging those churches which take a stand against lottery application.

Of course, there are issues of principle, on both sides, about church groups seeking and/or receiving state funding, whether for community projects or service delivery (see further below).

Aligning funding with Executive strategy seems, at first glance, perfectly sensible; but it raises difficulties both in terms of whether this implies farming out to the voluntary sector what is the proper responsibility of government, and whether it compromises the independence of the sector, undermining part of its unique value as well as apparently giving state support to favoured groups while others are excluded.