Kirsten Hogg lambasts the Scottish Government for kicking its committments to the sector down the road - yet again
Having waited two years for this week’s Medium Term Financial Strategy, the more optimistic in the voluntary sector were hopeful that we’d see something concrete from the Scottish Government to make good on its commitment to “fairer funding” for voluntary organisations by 2026.
Let’s be honest, it was their last chance to do so if they were to deliver in time.
And they had suggested that they would. Back in 2023, during the budget debate for the 2024/25 Scottish budget, the cabinet secretary for finance told the parliament that she recognised the importance of multi-year funding certainty, and that this would be addressed in the Medium Term Financial Strategy.
Yet now, with the strategy finally published, she has indicated that multi-year settlements will be picked up in the Scottish Spending Review, to be published alongside the Scottish budget at the end of 2025.
Surely I’m not the only one who feels like this is just kicking the can down the road - particularly when that budget comes less than six months ahead of the Scottish Parliament election.
This delay means that, even if the Scottish Spending Review were to be incredibly positive for the sector, the timing of decisions will inevitably see voluntary organisations heading into financial year 2026/27 in an uncertain financial position. With 81% of voluntary organisations facing financial difficulties, that uncertainty will be more than some organisations can absorb.
The cabinet secretary knows how important multi-year funding is for the sector; she said so in response to a question after her statement on the strategy. Just last week, the Scottish Government’s own strategy to reform public services highlighted the difficulties associated with short-term, stand-still funding. Yet there is no reference at all to the sector in the Medium Term Financial Strategy documents published this week.
Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, but references to the importance of multi-year pay deals for the public sector workforce rubbed salt in that wound a bit. While the public sector faces its own challenges relating to the strategy, the consistent lack of parity between the public and voluntary sector workforces is really grating for the staff in our sector.
The voluntary sector workforce, both those delivering public services and the wider sector, also deserve the certainty of multi-year pay deals. Voluntary organisations deserve the certainty that allows them to keep the lights on and not risk redundancies. But, most importantly, people and communities deserve the certainty that our essential voluntary sector will be there to support and work alongside them.
The Medium Term Financial Strategy was the Scottish Government’s opportunity to deliver that certainty. The decision to defer that decision yet again means that the Scottish Government will fail to meaningfully deliver its commitment to fairer funding for the sector by 2026.
The steps that the Scottish Government has taken so far are welcome, and moves like the multi-year funding pilot are undoubtedly taking us in the right direction, but they are too small to make the difference our sector so desperately needs.
Multi-year funding, and wider Fair Funding reforms, need to be integral across all Scottish Government departments, with understanding of the sector’s role in achieving Scottish Government priorities recognised, and sustainably funded, by all members of the cabinet, not seen as the preserve of the cabinet secretary for social justice, whose commitment is evident.
Whatever may come at the end of the year will be too late to impact by 2026, but we must still push to see it.
Multi-year funding, as part of a wider package of Fair Funding for the sector, is crucial, and our fight for it must remain relentless.
Kirsten Hogg is SCVO's head of policy and research.
