Council backs the work of the city's organisations

Organisations have welcomed moves to provide financial support to the third sector in Edinburgh.

The emergency funding follows a review of how the city works with not-for-profit groups to prevent poverty.

Over £3 million has been injected by the council towards at risk groups this year, with an extra £284,192 in Third Sector Resilience Funding agreed by elected members at a full council meeting this week (Thursday, 28 August).

The one-off emergency support has been provided to third sector organisations in Edinburgh who are working to end poverty in the city but who have been faced with growing financial challenges.

The final phase of this funding will help small and medium-sized charities this winter, with 31 organisations agreed to receive up to £10,000 each towards running costs.

With the council moving towards greater partnership working to prevent poverty, extensive engagement on third sector support has also taken place - including a 14-week consultation to gather experiences and concerns of organisations in Edinburgh.

Involving over 239 workers from at least 100 organisations, this engagement will shape future opportunities to collaborate and support the third sector, with the aim of helping the city’s most vulnerable and preventing inequality.

In deputations presented to members of the Policy and Sustainability Committee last week (19 August), work was welcomed by groups including Edinburgh Community Food, NESSie (North Edinburgh Support Services consortium), Feniks and the Cyrenians. Feedback has been strongly positive, recognising the speed and efficiency of the support the council has provided.

Benjamin Napier, speaking on behalf of the Third Sector Reference Group, said: “I’d like to give my thanks to council officers for their excellent role working very effectively with the third sector to make sure funding gets out quickly. There has been a diligent approach to how we work together and the key now is to look at the next stages of funding.”

Ewan Aitken, CEO of Cyrenians, said that it was good to see a problem turned into an opportunity by the council.

He added: “We have strong communities and we need to be prevention-led. We need reform and a long-term approach to supporting charities in the city. I hope the council can be bold, take risks and focus on anchor organisations to make this good work transformative.”

Council leader, Jane Meagher, said the emergency funding has been vital at a time when the cost of living is high.

“This final allocation of funding will support even more projects, from advice for young parents to help with clothes and funeral costs.

“Edinburgh’s third sector sits at the heart of our work to tackle poverty, but it is an incredibly difficult time for community groups in Scotland. The engagement we’ve now carried out reveals many organisations are in a precarious position as they experience changes to funding and face greater demand for their services.

“It has never been more important to reset the relationship between the public and third sectors and I’m proud of the work we’ve carried out to truly listen to and learn from those involved, so that we can work to get it right.

“We need to improve how we work together to prevent poverty in our city, and I’m grateful to the hundreds of third sector workers who have spoken to us.”

The move comes in the same week that mental health organisations were told they would be subject to a recommissioning process in the city. 

Change Mental Health and others within the Thrive Collective had campaigned to keep community mental health services thriving in Edinburgh.

The groups are relieved that the Stafford Centre and services delivered in Edinburgh by their organisations are effectively safeguarded, for the time being, after the decision of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (EIJB). 

However, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure better collaboration leading to better outcomes, they said. 

Nick Ward, CEO of Change Mental Health, said: “While this is good news for the people who use our services, we remain clear that the proposed cuts were in themselves not needed. They represented a tiny part of the EIJB’s budget while having a significant, detrimental effect upon Edinburgh’s population.

“The process they put in place was fundamentally flawed in its approach, causing unnecessary distress to both organisations and service users. It has been disheartening for the third sector to have to continually make the argument that cutting early intervention and prevention services will only ever result in greater costs in the end.

“The fact remains that there are still significant cuts taking place to mental health services in the city and our sympathy and solidarity goes out to those charities affected. We are very disappointed and concerned that many of these cuts have been passed that disproportionately affect ethnic minorities and LGBT+ people.

“We called for the EIJB’s proposals to be paused to allow for a full, evidence-led and co-produced redesign of services. That appears to be what will now happen and we are grateful for that.

“We will now be a part of a crucial recommissioning exercise that can enable services to be more integrated and cost-effective through a better collaborative approach.

“However, trust needs to be rebuilt. There needs to be full transparency and a genuine dedication to working with the third sector by the EIJB, as well as a commitment to the principles of community-based early intervention and preventative approaches. We’re here to work closely with them, along with our partners, to ensure that we can truly meet the needs of our communities.”