Ideas for a Fairer Scotland
A response to
the second stage call for contributions from the
Scottish
Council for Voluntary Organisations
Contact: John Downie, Director of Public
Affairs or Peter McColl, Policy
Officer
Scottish
Council for Voluntary Organisations
Mansfield Traquair Centre,
15 Mansfield Place,
Edinburgh
EH3
6BB
John.downie@scvo.org.uk peter.mccoll@scvo.org.uk
0131 474 8037 0131 474 6179
June 2010
Introduction
The Scottish Council for
Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the national body representing the voluntary
sector. There are over 45,000 voluntary organisations in Scotland involving
around 130,000 paid staff equates to 5.2 % of Scotland’s workforce and
approximately 1.3 million volunteers and the sector manages an income of £4.3
billion.
This response deals with the
relevant sections in the consultation and follows on from SCVO’s recent
discussions with the Shadow Cabinet.
SCVO’s Policy Committee is a
forum that brings together 35 of the key individuals in the sector. This
determines the policy direction of the organisation and develops policy based
on the values and interests of the broader voluntary sector.
We believe that the voluntary
sector provides huge opportunities for the next Scottish administration – it
has the potential to emerge as a source of innovation that will re-design the
delivery of Scottish public services.
In short, support for the voluntary sector will result in:
- More positive outcomes for the end user
- Significant cost savings for Scottish Government
- A healthier, fairer, greener and wealthier Scotland
The next Scottish Government has
the opportunity to let the sector show what it can do
Summary
SCVO welcomes the opportunity to submit
written evidence to the second stage of consultation on Ideas for a Fairer
Scotland.
The sector brings the vital values of high
levels of trust in delivery of services, work that focuses on prevention of
future need and higher quality than equivalent public or private sector
organisations.
The voluntary sector is a major provider of
public services, particularly to local government and the health service but
also for Scottish and UK
government departments. These services include very substantial provision of
social care, rehabilitation services for drug and alcohol users and employment
initiatives.
There are many excellent voluntary sector
projects that could be effectively replicated elsewhere, or would benefit from
being expanded. For example, the families centre at Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison could be
replicated at ever Scottish prison.
The voluntary sector is very receptive to
new ideas for funding such as Social Impact Bonds.
1.
Our
values
The Voluntary Sector shares the
values outlined in the consultation document. The Voluntary Sector has led
efforts to renew the economy, drive social mobility, create a strong society
and shifting to a low carbon economy. Voluntary Sector campaigning has been the
vanguard of efforts to revitalise democracy over the past 30 years.
At the very heart of the Voluntary
Sector are the values of fairness and social justice.
We believe that in the
short term: Scottish Government should set up a social partnership with civil
society on developing an effective budget for 2011-14:
- The
voluntary sector is a key
social partner that can bring experience and expertise from service
delivery and advocacy that will help make the impact of the budget
realistic and deliverable.
- We can learn from Ireland here where its
pre-recession growth in the 1990s and 2000s benefited from a social partnership
between government, business, civil society and unions.
A public participation strategy
will help with support for difficult choices and build public understanding of
the potential and limitations inherent in the Scottish budget. This ought to make change easier to manage.
The voluntary sector believes in
the principle of subsidiarity and would like to see further powers devolved to
communities. This will allow more efficient design and delivery of services and
has the potential to catalyse citizen action. This citizen action has the
potential to transform our communities.
2.
Finance
and the Economy
Creating a prosperous and sustainable Scotland
is at the heart of the voluntary sector’s activity. Prosperity cannot be
measured in material wealth alone, and the voluntary sector excels at building
social capital and other less tangible but more valuable forms of wealth.
One of the ways to do this would be to
enhance the community role of Scottish Enterprise to mirror that of Highlands and Islands Enterprise. This will allow
investment in social and community enterprises that deliver social as well as
economic outcomes.
The Voluntary Sector believes that a living
wage is essential to the provision of good public services. It should be
included as a condition in all contracts to third parties so that Voluntary
Sector organisations that deliver public services can appropriately pay their
staff. This element of contracts must be defined and accounted for in tendering
processes.
The measurement of social progress is
important. SCVO has supported the development of measure of economic and social
progress that better represents the fullness of human experience. This could
look like the Canadian Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators
Initiative but we advocate a bespoke Scottish indicator that includes life
expectancy, limited long standing illness, employment levels, greenhouse gas
emissions, access to decision making and other relevant indices.
There is a need for clear and
accessible information on Budget options, specifically on what changes and
allocations are possible to be available publicly in advance. This would require a longer-term independent
Budget function building on the work done by the Review group to act as an
information point and to demystify the budget for social partners and the
general public.
The voluntary sector supports the
publishing of preliminary budget statements.
These would present the Government’s proposed high-level expenditure
allocations for each public spending period well in advance of the draft Budget
Bill
The Voluntary Sector has a long record of
collective and employee buyouts. These deliver business with social purpose and
increased job security. There should be support for Voluntary Sector
infrastructure at national and local level to encourage mutualisation, employee
ownership and the creation of co-operatives.
Scottish Labour should:
·
Support the extension of the community role of Highlands and Islands Enterprise to Scottish Enterprise;
·
Allow clearer access to the budget process for
civil society partners;
·
Support employee buyouts and mutual and
cooperative ownership.
3.
Climate Change, the Green Economy and Energy
Scotland has set ambitious climate
change targets and bold action is now required to make immediate progress
towards achieving these. Whilst there is
much that can be done through new technologies, central to these efforts should
be a focus on energy efficiency, which requires both engagement and
encouragement. There also needs to be a
reversal in the rates charged for electricity in order that those using least
energy pay the lowest rates.
A dedicated retro-fitting programme to
address the inefficiencies of Scotland’s
many ‘leaky’ buildings has the potential to have significant effect. If this was integrated with the introduction
of local district heating and/or combined heat and power systems, targeting
areas most in need, this could provide lasting change and offer an effective and comprehensive way of tacking
fuel poverty, rather than singling out means-tested households. Installation and maintenance of the programme
would also demand a range of local jobs.
Support for Scotland’s renewables industry
needs to be long-term and sustained.
There needs to be assurance that the benefits accruing from all
renewable energy generation sources are equitably distributed and reinvested
for sustainability – it is this which will ensure that tough carbon targets do
not adversely affect the economy.
A community assets approach to ownership of
renewables generation capacity would allow many communities to create more
social capital and stronger more resilient communities. Support from Government
in the form of loan and grant capital to catalyse this process would make the
process quicker and more effective
Scottish Labour should:
·
Focus on energy efficiency and electricity
charging that benefits those who use the least;
·
Create a retro-fitting programme to improve
insulation and provide local or combined heat and power systems;
·
Develop a community asset ownership model for
renewables.
4.
Local Government
Local Government is one of the most
important areas of development for the Voluntary Sector. While the Voluntary
Sector relies on Local Government for nearly a third of its funding, there is
significant capacity for the sector to accentuate the positive influence of
local government. The work of Lambeth Borough Council in London demonstrates that Councils can play an
important role in catalysing community action to improve local services. By
empowering communities to take a role in providing basic services, the Council
has been able to enhance its provision.
In the medium term: we need a priority
review of the incentives for public authorities in addressing longer-term
public service positions. In other
words, we need direct government ministerial direction to ensure that public
authorities consider new models of delivery. Financial incentives for voluntary
sector organisations must also be a key element of this new model for the
delivery public services.
The dependence of the
sector on local government funding, though is a major factor in the success of
the sector. There is need for Local Authorities to introduce Voluntary Sector
Funding Strategies to identify how the voluntary sector can be sustainably
funded.
Any new accord must
reflect the need to include a wider range of partners. This should include not
only the Voluntary Sector but other civil society organisations such as Trade
Unions. At a local level the voluntary sector must be represented on every
Community Planning Partnership – this is currently not the case.
The Single Outcome
approach is strategically correct, but has been implemented in a way that is
fundamentally problematic for the Voluntary Sector. There must be more
consistent indictors, better data collection on how those indicators are met,
and a clearer delineation of the connection between strategies, outcomes and
indicators.
Collaboration is as
important an agenda as shared services and the Scottish Government must make
support available for this. It has the capacity to generate changes that can
release substantial revenue for front line services.
A survey of the sector commissioned by SCVO
and Voluntary Action Scotland (VAS)
suggests that local government contracts are still being offered on a
short-term (less than one year) basis to voluntary sector organisations. This works against service planning and
stability of service from a user perspective.
Contracts should be of a minimum of 3 years and 5 year contracts should
be considered as way of delivering continuity of service. This would allow voluntary organisations the
room to invest in innovative services and would mean that both the
organisations and the local authority would avoid the costs associated with
expensive tendering processes. Within
this, an outcome approach and a user focus would mean that the services
delivered by voluntary sector organisations remained relevant and tailored to
the end users.
The SCVO and VAS research also showed that a
third of local authorities continue to claw back surpluses from projects
delivered by the voluntary sector. This seems to be based on an assumption that
voluntary sector organisations need to be treated differently from private
sector providers in contract delivery, and is wholly unacceptable to our
sector.
In the Fairer Funding Statement,
SCVO set out a suite of proposals in conjunction with the STUC, UNITE, UNISON
and Community Care Providers Scotland that would improve the funding of voluntary
sector organisations. These included:
·
Parity of pay and conditions between public
sector and voluntary sector workers
·
Minimum 5 year contracts
·
Best value guidance
·
Training of public service commissioners
·
Guidance for commissioning authorities
We believe that
adoption of these proposals would dramatically expand the ability of the
voluntary sector to deliver for Scotland’s
communities.
Scottish Labour should:
·
Deliver a new accord between government at local
and national level and Civil Society;
·
Adopt the measures set out in the
SCVO/STUC/UNITE/UNISON/CCPS Fairer Funding Statement;
·
Devolve more powers to communities;
·
Ensure that Local Authorities follow full and
comprehensive commissioning processes;
·
Create a fund to support collaboration between
voluntary sector organisations.
5.
Skills and Training
There is growing
recognition of the huge contribution the voluntary sector can make in
delivering quality public services and building successful and engaged
communities. Voluntary sector
organisations require more government commitment to support the development of
the diverse range of skills required by people working and volunteering to
fulfil these aims, especially in the current climate of growing demand for
vital services and to help society face the challenges of the future.
SCVO has played a
significant role in developing the Third Sector Skills Partnership in Scotland,
which has come together to develop a collaborative and co-operative approach to
championing skill development in all voluntary sector organisations. The main priority areas which need action
are: developing a more cohesive approach
to skills development for voluntary sector organisations – in particular
widening support from existing skills agencies and bodies , helping employers
in voluntary sector organisations to make more effective use of existing skills
in the workforce, providing better and more appropriate access to learning,
training and development opportunities, increasing awareness of the voluntary
sector as a desirable career choice and increasing the contribution of the voluntary
sector in achieving a smarter, wealthier and fairer Scotland.
Voluntary Sector
organisations currently have difficulty in accessing and operating Modern
Apprenticeships, in supporting individuals to access development using the
government ILA system for their chosen learning and in gaining formal
recognition for their own learning programmes.
The Voluntary Sector
consortium has proved very successful. It has been commended in the DWP
Supplier Excellence Awards for the speed in which it commenced delivery, the
number of organisations who have been involved, and the fact that it has
already created and filled over 1100 jobs across all 32 Local Authority Areas
in Scotland.
Scottish Labour should:
·
Support the development of a more cohesive
approach to skills development for voluntary sector organisations;
·
Help employers in voluntary sector organisations
to use existing skills in the workforce;
·
Support voluntary sector employability
initiatives like the Future Jobs Fund.
6.
Rural Scotland and Remote Communities
The Government must
recognise the particular importance of the voluntary sector in rural areas as a
partner in the delivery of flexible and responsive local services, and as the
means by which social capital is created and community resilience is sustained.
Future decisions on investment in rural areas, including the next Rural
Development Programme, should be informed by the OECD's call for a fairer
balance between economic, environmental and social objectives. This should
include funding and support to build the capacity of local community
organisations to take control of local assets, and an extension of the LEADER
approach to encompass a wider range of measures and promote a more place-based
approach to economic and community development.
There is need for an
explicit commitment to the principle that rural citizens have a right to an
equivalent level of service provision to those living in urban areas, while
recognising that the mechanisms for delivering those services are often best
designed and implemented at a local level by communities themselves.
Recognising the risk that cuts in public expenditure will have a
disproportionately negative impact on rural communities, a commitment to a
system of light-touch rural-proofing that will require all government
departments to consider the differential impacts of their policies on rural
areas.
The Government must ensure that benefits from renewables accrue to
communities, including local ownership of energy. The Voluntary Sector should directly
benefit from renewables as owners, investors and partners in order to sustain
vital services to Scotland's
rural and urban communities. The voluntary sector would benefit from the
creation of an investment fund designed to support community projects, co-ops
and joint ventures. The specific requirements are for risk capital to fund
pre-consent development work not currently eligible for CARES support; and
long-term equity to allow access to commercial debt. There is need to consider
as part of the fund development process the option of opening the fund for
investment by Voluntary Sector organisations in Scotland. There is need to consider how the SRDP can be
clarified to make clear the level of support for pre-consent, high risk
assistance to rural Voluntary Sector Organisations.
Scottish Labour
should:
·
Provide support to rural communities to take
control of local assets;
·
Develop a system of light touch rural proofing
spending decisions to make sure rural communities are not disproportionately
damaged;
·
Make the level of support for pre-consent
assistance for the SRDP clear.
7.
A Caring and
Healthier Scotland
The Voluntary Sector is
at the forefront of preventative measures that will reduce the burden of
obesity, health inequalities, mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, and
sexual health. Very substantial numbers of organisations in the sector are
focused on these areas.
The key to a healthier Scotland
is prevention, and it is in this area that the voluntary sector excels. The
many community and voluntary projects that deal specifically with tackling
health inequalities make a major contribution to lengthening lives and
increasing people’s quality of life.
But many of the
voluntary and community organisations delivering other services also contribute
to health and well-being. It is important that this additional impact is taken
into account when funding decisions are made.
SCVO has commissioned
research into the role of the voluntary sector on meeting Scotland’s
current and future health needs. There is need for a strategic level engagement
between the sector, government and NHS to plan for these rising needs. This may
include palliative care; health improvement interventions in drugs, alcohol,
and sexual health; addressing health inequalities, community care; self help;
befriending, carers’ support; information and advice services.
There are problems with
an insecure funding base for voluntary sector organisations and no resources
for upscaling and replicating effective projects. There may be value in
secondments from the voluntary sector to the NHS and government, regular
framework of meetings, an audit of the current contribution of the voluntary sector
to health.
Scottish Labour should:
·
Support preventative health organisations;
·
Support other organisations that deliver
secondary health outcomes;
·
Support secondments from the voluntary sector to
NHS and government, a regular framework of meetings and a full audit of the
contribution of voluntary sector to health;
·
Create a mechanism for upscaling and replicating
effective projects;
·
Develop a strategic engagement between the NHS,
government and the voluntary sector.
8.
The Voluntary Sector
The Voluntary Sector is
based around voluntary action, but goes well beyond volunteering. Government
must recognise the major role of the sector in delivering services in areas
like housing, health, homelessness, social care and employability.
The sector needs to be
supported in this work by smarter funding, more recognition of its vital role
in producing social infrastructure and through being included in government’s
strategic planning. This points to the need for a Social Partnership that may
function like the existing Concordat, in which the voluntary sector has a vital
role.
The sector wants more
of the opportunities afforded by asset transfer. Communities and voluntary
organisations are able to manage assets in ways that deliver substantial value
addition. The government should seek to accelerate the transfer of under-used
public assets to the voluntary sector. This is currently being inhibited by
perceived demands to get capital receipts for assets and deliver best value.
The voluntary sector
would benefit from a concerted effort by government to reduce red tape. This
could include more effective regulation of schemes like the Protection of
Vulnerable Groups. It may also include reductions in the exposure of
organisations to multiple accounting and inspection regimes. Because of the
holistic nature of many voluntary sector projects they are particularly
affected by exposure to multiple funding and inspection regimes.
Scottish Labour should:
·
Work to insure better funding for the sector;
·
Ensure the transfer of more assets to the
community;
·
Develop a strategy for asset transfer that avoid
confusion over best value requirements;
·
Work to remove unnecessary multiple funding and
inspection regimes.
9.
Housing and Homelessness
The Voluntary Sector is
a major provider of social housing through Housing Associations and Housing
Co-operatives. Housing Associations have been particularly adept at delivering
on their ‘Wider Role’. This has meant developing projects to increase
employability in the communities where they work. The use of Community Benefit
Clauses would help Housing Associations deliver these outcomes.
Homelessness is also a
major concern for Voluntary Sector organisations. The delivery of many local
authority homelessness projects is undertaken by Voluntary Sector
organisations. The need to improve the quality of tendering by Local
Authorities is particularly important in this area as homelessness
organisations have been particularly effected by tendering.
Scottish Labour should:
·
Support the Wider Role for Housing Associations;
·
Ensure that tendering processes reflect the
quality of services provided by voluntary sector projects.
10.
A Safer Scotland
Many voluntary sector
organisations are concerned with tackling violence and reducing offending.
There are many projects like the excellent “Routes out of Prison” project run
by APEX Scotland
and the Wise Group that helps to resettle offenders and reduce offending. The
sector’s preventative approach is of particular relevance here, and will allow
for better outcomes in the justice system. Similarly the work done by Victim
Support Scotland
helps to lessen the impact of crime.
As in many other areas
of voluntary sector activity there is a wide range of organisations whose work
reduces offending as a secondary impact. Much of the youth work sector has a
positive impact in reducing offending. This reinforces the importance of
supporting voluntary and community organisations as a broad based force for
good.
Scottish Labour should:
·
Provide resources to upscale and replicate
effective projects;
·
Support preventative measures in areas like
youth work.
Conclusions
The voluntary sector
contributes very substantially to the well being of Scotland. Its work is not in silos,
but cuts across all policy areas. This means that it is especially effective at
delivering cohesive communities, collaborative services and at preventing
social problems.
The sector needs to be
recognised as:
·
An effective provider of public services;
·
A significant player in the creation of a
stronger Scottish society;
·
Capable of delivering services, especially those
that prevent future acute need;
·
Deliver early intervention effectively;
·
Trusted by users and funders;
·
An effective manager of assets.
There are a number of areas where government can enhance the
ability of the
Voluntary Sector to
deliver effectively:
·
Working in collaboration and partnership;
·
Better, more intelligent funding;
·
More effective inclusion in local and national
decision making structures;
·
More devolution of decision making powers to
communities;
·
Removal of barriers including regulatory burdens
and multiple reporting.
We look forward to future
consultation on this process, and are happy to provide any further material
requested.
John Downie Peter McColl
Director
of Public Affairs Policy
Officer