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.
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.
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.
“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”
Pegs Bailey, Third Sector Employability Partnership Manager blogs for the TSI Network, reflecting on where we are with employability in Scotland, the importance of ‘speaking up’ and having difficult conversations in partnerships – and why the voice of people looking to get back into work or find better jobs needs to be central to the policy discussions.
I am writing this blog on the train home to the Highlands after a foray down south to meet colleagues from different parts of the country.
This is now a familiar journey and the train a bit like an ‘office from home’. Sometimes, like today, the journey is quiet, calm and on time, a haven of peace for thinking. At other times small delays have caused missed connections which in turn led to longer delays. Or to my horror I have found ‘my office’ so full and busy of fellow travellers it has been impossible to think, let alone work.
This feels like a good analogy for my first 6 months in post as the national Third Sector Employability Partnership Engagement Manager. At times the work has felt spacious, with time to think and a sense of greater purpose: the Scottish Government policy direction is clear after all, and it has been wonderful to connect the dots with third sector organisations and Third Sector Interfaces across and within local authorities. At other times a delay in one space (Grant Offer Letters anyone?) has caused significant impact, with ripples which ricochet through local authorities, partnerships and providers all the way to the people seeking support. The frustration is palpable. And in a complex policy arena such as this, it can also feel quite ‘noisy’, with different, sometimes competing views on how things are going and what could be done to make things better. Like a busy train carriage, it has been hard to see a way through or know what to prioritise.
Despite an intention to focus mostly on listening these first few months, I have, with an almost inevitable predictability for those who know me, also taken the opportunity to speak up in the national space on behalf of the third sector in all its shapes and sizes. In the process I have made many friends, trodden on a few toes and (hopefully) built some bridges. After all, if we can’t talk about the difficult stuff how we will ever make things better?
What is clear however, is that everyone I have met shares an absolute dedication and commitment to get the employability ecosystem working better in Scotland. And this is palpable whether that person works in Scottish Government, academia, DWP, SDS, a local authority, third sector interfaces or organisations of all shapes and sizes.
I would even say that the fact that we all see things differently is great!
It is part of what partnership and No One Left Behind is all about. Because it is only through understanding each other’s diverse perspectives, that we can have the ‘big’ conversations necessary to find lasting and meaningful solutions to the collective problems we are trying to solve.
And let us not forget the all-too-often-missing view of those seeking employment support. Policy colleagues might view employability through the lens of increasing employment figures and reducing economic inactivity. But ask someone seeking support what matters to them and they are more likely to talk about being a good role model for their kids, or having a sense of purpose and structure to their week, personal fulfilment and self-worth.
Getting this perspective front and centre in all our conversations, from strategy through to delivery, is still a work in progress, but for me this is the destination I am working towards.
In the meantime, despite joining at different stations, and possibly having different stop off points, it does feel like in Scotland we are all on the same train. And with a new Government in Westminster, perhaps the wider UK might join us on route?
Whatever happens, as a self-confessed ‘employability geek’, I feel honoured to be on that journey, and look forward to sharing it with you all.
Pegs Bailey
National Third Sector Employability Partnership Engagement Manager, Scotland
The Outer Hebrides Social Economy Partnership (OHSEP) is a community interest company based in the offices of Third Sector Hebrides at 30 Francis Street, Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.in Stornoway. OHSEP offers practical support to social enterprises across the Hebrides, and is a partner on the Western Isles Third Sector Interface – TSI Western Isles. We help the Scottish Government meet its national outcome, ‘that social enterprise develops and grows’.
Volunteering Hebrides exist to support the vision of fairer, more prosperous, better educated and healthier communities in the Western Isles. Our purpose is to provide services to people, organisations, social enterprises and communities.
On 7 and 8 May 2024, staff from TSIs across Scotland came together to examine economic and social challenges, the contribution made by voluntary organisations and to identify how we better support those organisations at the coalface, responding to poverty, health and economic inequalities, in every community across every part of Scotland.
This short video provides an insight into some of the discussions and sessions on day 2, where we focussed on equality and human rights issues
TSI Scotland Network Conference, 7 and 8 May 2024, Edinburgh
Staff from Third Sector Interfaces (TSIs) across Scotland – from the islands to the Borders and every bit in between – will come together on 7 and 8 May for our first face to face conference for a number of years.
The conference has been planned based on feedback from staff themselves and TSIs are coming together at one of the most challenging times that many of us can ever remember for the voluntary and community sector, for volunteering and for social enterprise.
We’ve had over 14 years of austerity; the pandemic has changed many lives and communities irrevocably. And now we face significant cost-of living-challenges which profoundly affect community groups and charities on the front line.
In coming together for this conference, TSIs will take stock of where we are now, but also begin to think about how the TSI Network and TSIs respond to developing trends, policy changes and the social and economic challenges facing Scotland. And, as we look ahead to future elections, how do we ensure that the community and voluntary sector is being heard?
We look forward to welcoming some amazing and influential keynote speakers and showcasing some of the talented and experienced staff from across the Network.
