The last TFN magazine of the year has a Christmassy feel but it also explores a few endings as the charity Abused Men in Scotland winds down its services after nearly 10 years, and Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 fund closes having supported the sector to create 35,000 jobs for young people.
As this year draws to its own conclusion, it seems a good time to look back on what has been a fairly turbulent time for the third sector.
It started with a series of news stories about sexual misconduct in the international aid sector both at home and abroad. This forced everyone to look again at their own safeguarding policies and acknowledge that the end does not justify the means in the third sector.
While the eye of the media moved beyond the sector, societal events this year did not bode well for organisations set up to for social benefit.
Crucially, we heard from the International Panel on Climate Change that we’ve got about 12 years to save the planet. The anti-plastic movement has grown at a grassroots level and cotton buds are outlawed following the success of Blue Planet 2, but our government has been too caught up in Brexit to pay much attention to the imploding planet. Next year’s Scottish climate change bill will be crucial in determining whether the Scottish Government is prepared to take a more responsible and radical approach.
Brexit is one news story that has become relentlessly more depressing as the year went on. As TFN goes to print we don’t know whether the government has voted through the deal, but neither prospect offers much consolation for the third sector.
Then there’s the ongoing saga of Universal Credit (UC). All new benefits claimants in Scotland will be on UC by the end of this year. After campaigning for a halt to the failing new benefits system, charities are facing the prospect of having to pick up the pieces. Citizens Advice Scotland has received funding from the DWP in acknowledgement that its own policy will have increasing numbers of people seeking advice.
Sadly, in 2019, there are likely to be wider implications such as increasing demand for foodbanks, growing child poverty and additional knock-on demand for health and wellbeing services. Housing associations have also not held back about how UC is leading to increased rent arrears.
The social care sector in Scotland has been plodding on this year, quietly increasing the number of staff receiving the living wage. However, its attempts to reform in an environment of spending cuts are seeing it increasingly subsidise public services. This as the behemoths of the public sector that are councils and health boards were told off by both MSPs and the Accounts Commission for failing to integrate health and social care fast enough to keep up with the needs of our ageing population.
Austerity has been a political choice, a UN special rapporteur on poverty and human rights, reminded us in November. Nearly a decade after it was imposed on us by a Tory government bent on making the public pay for the crimes of the rich, it feels like many of us have forgotten that.
Staff and service users in the public and third sectors have felt the brunt of austerity measures and the tension is starting to show. As the year draws to a close we’ve been reporting in TFN on the nasty side of the policy as civil society turns on itself in the form of disputes between charities and trade unions. Let’s hope this is not the start of a trend, as Scotland’s third sector is strongest when it is working together with a common purpose.
So, despite some positive developments from the Year of the Young People and women’s equality following #MeToo, it’s unlikely we’re going to be looking back on 2018 with much affection.
At TFN, we will at least remember it as the year we launched our monthly magazine, and we look forward to continue to develop that with support from our readers in 2019. Remember, if you have something you think we’d like to cover drop us a line at tfn@scvo.org.uk or pick up the phone.
