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9Aug 2010
Funding Voluntary Organisations Can Save Public Services
THE Scottish Government must use its next budget to discriminate in favour of funding third sector bodies to deliver better services for the people of Scotland.
And councils must also be urged not to make across-the-board cuts to local services that improve people’s health and keep them out of expensive hospital beds, according to third sector umbrella bodies.
Last week the Independent Budget Review, which was set up to find answers to the public spending cuts, advocated cuts in the public sector, a growth in the role of the third sector and transformation of the way public services are delivered.
Finance minister John Swinney immediately insisted that certain sectors of the Scottish budget will be protected, including the NHS, free personal care, and free bus travel for pensioners.
However, third sector groups this week said that prioritising the NHS over other health and social care services will cost the government more not less in the long run.
They are urging the Scottish Government not to protect NHS funding in its current form but ensure that third sector services that protect the general health of the population are prioritised.
There are around 10,000 charities in Scotland providing health or social care services, but many are facing an uncertain future as council’s cut local funding and central government funding dries up.
Care Providers Scotland represents third sector care organisations such as Barnardo’s, Capability Scotland, Children 1st and the Scottish Association for Mental Health.
Its director Annie Gunner Logan (pictured below) told TFN: “The Independent Budget Review says there needs to be a broader definition of health to include areas that aren’t strictly speaking under the NHS umbrella but that still support the health and wellbeing of the community.
“A lot of the social care and support providers fall into that category and save money for the NHS further down the line.
“It is great that the review talks about increasing the voluntary sector’s role in public services, but that will depend on funders, and in particular local authorities, discriminating in their funding. They cannot make 25 per cent across the board cuts and get the outcomes they require. They need to look at what is good and protect it.”
The three-man review panel warned that it could take 15 years for public funding to return to 2009 levels.
The government has called for the public to respond to the review report but has said that it will not carry out all of its recommendations.
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) this week said that the vast majority of its members are carrying out work that create savings for the public purse.
“For some time, we have been urging the Scottish Government to do things differently in relation to public services,” said Martin Sime (bottom left), SCVO chief executive.
“Despite record levels of public spending from the last government, mainstream services have not vastly improved over the last twenty years and continue to deliver poor outcomes.
“In comparison voluntary organisations are making vast inroads into improving the lives of people in Scottish communities, through health and social care services, community justice, family and relationship support, debt advice and housing, to name just a few.
“Now that the review panel has made its recommendations, the Scottish Government has no excuse but to bite the bullet and direct funding to where it will have the biggest long-term impact.”
In a poll of TFN readers this week, 97 per cent have urged the Scottish Government not to ring-fence funding for the NHS.
Helen Tyrell (below), director of Voluntary Health Scotland, said: “Voluntary Health Scotland believes that Scotland’s third sector is poised to make a much greater contribution to preventive, anticipatory and continuing health care, with the potential to greatly reduce pressure on NHS acute services.
“However, the services most at risk in a reduced NHS will be public health services - obesity management, tobacco and alcohol reduction, sexual health - and mental health services, resulting in a rise in the health inequalities that beset Scotland.
“With greatly reduced funding overall to deliver on a broader vision of health, it will be important to develop strategic agreements with the NHS that allow for direct delivery by our sector to agreed and shared health priorities in key programme areas, for example older people.”
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