Key players in Scotland's third sector say election result presents big opportunities
Last week’s election result represents a chance for the third sector in Scotland to vigorously pursue its agenda, charity leaders have said.
With the Scottish National Party (SNP) failing to achieve the majority many had predicted, more pressure can now be placed upon it as it must find allies to get policies passed.
In particular, the election of a cohort of Green MSPs (up from two to six) increases the potential of third sector leverage in decision making.
The opportunities for Scotland’s charity and voluntary sector in last week’s Holyrood vote was discussed in an online debate hosted by TFN.
Taking part were Ian Welsh, chief executive of the Health and Social Care Alliance, Daphne Vlastari of Scottish Environment Link, Jackie Brock, chief executive of Children in Scotland, and Lucy McTernan, deputy chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.
It was broadly agreed that the SNP failing to take a majority, though it still has a commanding lead over the other parties, was a good thing for consensual politics.
The lack of a majority I think is very positive for the third sector. It gives the parliamentary processes more bite than the last session - Lucy McTernan
Lucy McTernan
McTernan said: “The lack of a majority I think is very positive for the third sector. It gives the parliamentary processes more bite than the last session.
“Voluntary organisations are excellent evidence-providers to committees and can use things like cross-party groups to much greater effect when there is more political fluidity.
“Any new parliamentary session is a reset time, so I think quite a few previous policies will be revisited, though not necessarily with a view to change. It is an opportunity for the sector to apply pressure for its priorities – using especially the enthusiasm of new MSPs.”
Ian Welsh said the prospects for third sector agendas are good – partly because the third sector has already been successful in getting its messages transformed into party policies
Citing “significant consensus” around the third sector’s importance, he gave examples such as Marie Curie’s proposal for a national adviser on childhood bereavement services being taken up by the SNP, the Greens’ engagement with participatory budgeting – a long-term third-sector goal – and the Lib Dems’ following where the likes of SAMH has led on mental health.
In terms of his own part of the sector, health and social care, he said both Labour and the SNP have taken up Age Scotland and the alliance's proposals to tackle social isolation.
Now the task is to make sure third sector-friendly pledges are hammered into policy.
Again, the lack of an overall SNP majority was cited as being an opportunity to enable this. Jackie Brock said: “The new political context definitely improves the landscape for the third sector and communities.”
Welsh added: “I do think that there will be a requirement for a greater degree of cross-party collaboration within the next session – the panel members at our recent health and social care hustings event certainly signalled an appetite for this kind of approach.
“They all also conceded that politicians themselves don’t hold all of the answers and noted the importance of wider engagement with the third sector and wider civil society."
Vlastari admitted that the election of an enlarged Green group is good news for the environmental sector.
She said: “I would agree that the absence of an SNP majority would mean that they will need to work with other parties on a case by case basis. For environment charities, such as Link, this will be particularly important as in some cases we will have the opportunity to challenge the government in terms of its ambition on sustainable development.
“We think that the absence of a majority is good in that we hope this will bring more constructive discussion in the parliament. Having said that some very good MSPs like Sarah Boyack (Labour's key person on environment) was not re-elected.”
McTernan sounded a warning note on the SNP’s overall direction of political travel and linked it to what many commentators saw as the story of election night: the partial revival of the Scottish Tories.
She said: “Social justice and tackling inequality must stay at the forefront of our sector's campaigning. While a more mixed parliament is good, we cannot hide the fact that the SNP's manifesto was quite (small c) conservative, and the revival of the Tories adds to the concern that more radical/redistributive ambitions will fare less well in this session.”
Other subjects covered were the relatively poor turnout (56%) and what can be done to re-engage after the highs of participation seen during the independence referendum, which saw an 84% turn out.
McTernan said: “Electoral turnout is just one aspect of an engaged population. All parties and especially the SNP have expressed support for new ways to promote participation and democratic renewal – we must push them to live up to these promises.”
Welsh added that the third sector can do its bit to aid political re-engagement by building a grassroots “social movement for change”.
The referendum and its outcome is undoubtedly still the political determinant factor in Scottish politics – the popular vote can be broken down into roughly unionist and pro-independence camps, with a hardening of the unionist vote possibly responsible for the Tory revival and Labour’s collapse into third place.
Panelists in TFN’s debate seemed to agree that that the lack of an SNP majority has staved off the prospect of another referendum for at least the immediate future – but not forever.
Welsh said: “I think it's less likely in the medium term but we live in fluid times”.
Vlastari said: “These elections showed that the independence discussion is very much in people's minds. So definitely there will be another discussion, unsure about another referendum in the short term.”
Brock added: “Let's see after the EU referendum. But definitely within 5-10 years.
