Month: August 2024

Earlier this year, the TSI Network brought TSIs and their teams together from across Scotland to learn, share their work and connect after a tough few years for the third sector.  We heard from a range of brilliant speakers and our own Chief Officers led many of the events which focussed on partnerships, resilience in challenging times, poverty, Community Wealth Building and identifying the impact of the work that the third sector (and TSIs).

Our conference report is attached with some scenes captured over both days.

Report_TSI-Scotland-Network-Conference-2024

The Prime Minister has today highlighted what is likely to be a painful budget in October, yet the people and communities we work with – that the third sector works with, daily – have had to deal with the devastating impact of austerity for well over a decade.  It is very likely that these are the people who will be hit hard, again. 

Recent decisions made by the UK Government will also have significant implications down the line for the community and voluntary organisations which the Prime Minister said in January this year were ‘..the glue that bridges the gaps and binds government, business, and communities together.’  The Prime Minister also said that the voluntary sector and civil society should not have to clear up the mess that Governments create.  Yet, his speech today suggests that more and more pressure will likely fall on the sector at a time when it’s already on its knees.

We are deeply worried about what the upcoming Budget will mean for older people, disabled people, families facing real poverty – for already ingrained inequalities.  So we call on the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to come and meet us in Scotland to hear what the decisions likely to be made will mean – the additional costs likely to arise, the further harm likely to be caused.  Come and meet the voluntary sector in Scotland and let us help you find a better path to recovery and the fairer, kinder country we all want to see.”

Further background

For more information on our concerns for the UK Budget and the recent Scottish Government spending freeze, what it means for frontline voluntary and community groups,  read our submission on funding to the Scottish Parliament Social Justice Committee.

Find out more about TSIs and the voluntary sector in Scotland here.

Contact Lynn Williams for further information.

The TSI Network has submitted a briefing to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee at the Scottish Parliament, in response to its pre-Budget Scrutiny process.  

The Committee is considering third sector funding principles, and the Network’s response outlines the unprecedented challenges facing voluntary and community organisations; provides examples of good funding practice, and examples which demonstrate practice that places additional pressure and risks onto frontline groups and communities.

We’ve once again emphasised the importance of Fair Funding, and the increasing inequality between third sector and public sector employees often doing similar jobs.  We also ask the Committee to consider the impact of the recent Scottish Government announcement that all but essential expenditure would be halted.   We are deeply concerned about what this will mean for the third sector, and what it signals for the Scottish Budget.

We also highlight the lack of clarity about the future of UK Government funds going into communities across Scotland – UK Shared Prosperity and Levelling up Funds.

For more information contact: lynn.williams@tsi.scot

www.tsi.scot

Social-Justice-and-Social-Security-Committee-Third-Sector-Funding-TSI-Scotland-Network-response-August-2024

“The TSI Scotland Network is deeply concerned about the Scottish Government’s announcement of emergency controls on spending, recruitment and the decision linked to Winter Fuel Payment.   Whilst understanding current public expenditure challenges, we are worried about what this means for the frontline voluntary sector and community groups who have been at the coalface, mitigating the worst of poverty and inequalities, supporting community health and wellbeing, building skills and readiness for work, supporting emergency responses, and helping our public services.

Every one of us – Government, third sector, local authorities and other public bodies – must work collectively to help ensure recovery, hope and wellbeing are a reality for every community in Scotland, especially now.   We call on the Finance Secretary to meet with TSIs and local voluntary organisations soon, to understand what matters to families and communities as the Scottish Government plans its 25/26 budget.  

We also call on the Scottish Government to urgently feed through our Fair Funding Charter to budget planning and decisions, and to involve the sector at the earliest stages of decision making; these decisions will impact profoundly on people already reeling from the cost of living crisis, and they will impact on the ability of charities and community groups to survive whilst trying to meet increased demand.  

We also encourage Scottish Parliament committees undertaking pre Budget scrutiny to consider what all of this means for the upcoming winter, for deepening poverty and hardship in Scotland and for fair work and fair funding for the third sector in Scotland”

For more information contact lynn.williams@tsi.scot.

Read our pre Budget 24/25 briefing here.

Read our Fair Funding charter here.