Funding cuts - recording and coping

Most of you will be more than aware that we are faced with significant spending cuts to the voluntary sector. On May 24, the Chancellor, George Osborne, outlined more than £6.2 billion of spending cuts that will take effect this year, and further detail was unveiled in the Emergency Budget (external link to NCVO website article) on 22 June. Over the summer the Government will undertake a comprehensive review of its spending commitments for the next five years. The outcome of that review will be announced in the Budget in the autumn. 

RVA works on your behalf to keep pace with how these announcements affect our local sector and we have input into strategic discussions around how best change can be managed for the good of our local groups.

At a meeting of the Voluntary Sector Liaison Group on 22nd June, which RVA attends along with our colleagues across North Yorkshire, we were informed by Seamus Breen, Assistant Director Commissioning and Partnership, that Adult and Community Services (ACS) intend to cut £300,000 from existing voluntary sector funding agreements in the current, 2010/11 financial year. This was explained as a result of substantial reductions in this year’s Government funding to the County Council. They expect that further cuts will be necessary in future years. RVA agreed to help pass on the information to voluntary and community sector organisations.

What ACS are doing:

Seamus Breen has produced a briefing documentwhich provides background information on overall budget cuts and some information about how ACS will decide on how the voluntary sector cuts will be distributed. In brief:

1.    They are inviting organisations to suggest how savings could be made. This could be from individual funding, or from ‘efficiencies’ achieved through collaborative working between organisations. You are asked to feed any proposals for savings back to ACS through RVA or NYFVO.

2.    ACS will also look themselves at options for reducing voluntary sector funding, taking into account:

  • ACS priorities and the most critical needs of adults in the community
  • The amount of funding that organisations receive and their potential capacity to ‘deliver efficiencies’
  • Areas of service which are regarded as ‘desirable’ rather than ‘essential’ in the light of Government funding cuts
  • The risk that some service provision may cost more in the medium term if cuts are made now.

They will have been exploring this during July, and will then provide further information to the sector.

What RVA are doing:

We are acting as an information channel between ACS and voluntary sector organisations.

  • Providing this information page on our website.
  • We will send out further information as it becomes available.
  • We will support voluntary sector organisations that are or may be affected by cuts, through our information and advice services and through bringing organisations together to consider collective responses.

What you can do:

If you receive ACS funding please get in touch with RVA or NYFVO – email andrea@rva-cvs.org.uk  or one of our support staff that you are already working with. This will enable us to send on further information to you as quickly as possible and to co-ordinate a collective view from the sector to feedback to ACS.

Please tell us:

  • Organisation; contact name; email address; phone number.
  • What services you are funded to provide, in what areas.

And, if possible:

  • Whether any savings in your current funding are possible.
  • Whether you would consider collaborative working to achieve savings.
  • What effect cuts in your funding would have on your service users.
  • Whether you can think of savings that could be possible in ACS-delivered services, if delivery was transferred to the voluntary sector.

Any information that you provide will be shared between RVA, NYFVO and our colleague voluntary action organisations in North Yorkshire, to enable us to have an overview of the situation. Your information will not be shared with anyone else without your consent.
All of these cuts are sure to include some significant reductions across the voluntary sector - at least one third of the sector's income is exposed to risk. There are a number of resources and tools available to our sector to assist to prepare for and engage in this process.

 

 

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Chief executives body ACEVO has set up a new Cutswatch website, at www.cutswatch.org.uk    "to provide guidance and support to third sector organisations through public spending cuts".

It will provide news, case studies and other information on how to cope with cuts, and is open to further suggestions on what to include.

NCVO has also got a Coping With Cuts web section, at www.ncvo-vol.org.uk with links to various resources, news, analysis and also its 'Crowdsourcing the Cuts' feature, which asks for your information on central and local government funding cuts, for this financial year (also see www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/cuts).

Meanwhile, The Guardian newspaper has created a Cutswatch web section, www.guardian.co.uk/society/series/cutswatch,  with an online form to submit information about public service cuts in your area, to inform their coverage. They are also interested in stories on new and innovative ways to provide services as a result of the cuts.

The Commission for the Compact has issued a reminder on its guidance for local authorities on managing budgetary revisions www.thecompact.org.uk