Fragmented and under-funded

Two fundamental themes came out of UNISON’s national community seminar and conference in Chester last weekend – organising and funding. Each is an issue which presents particular challenges to the community sector. Funding On funding, activists at the seminar on Friday heard a detailed presentation from Rebecca Young, head of policy, research and campaigns at The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). Ms Young detailed the organisation’s recent research into the cost of delivering public services in the charity and voluntary sector. She said that the research surveyed over 300 organisations and, although it couldn’t claim to be fully representative of the voluntary sector, “it gives a meaningful snapshot of the experiences of voluntary organisations delivering public services in 2023/24.” It found that charities have always been a part of the “ecosystem of public services” and provide just under £17bn worth of essential services. Yet, due to a lack of adequate public funding, many of them struggle to meet the demand. As a result, they are either reducing the number of people they support, subsidising their funding with other sources of income, or withdrawing from public service delivery altogether. On a workforce level, four out of five respondents said it was more difficult to recruit and retain staff. Meanwhile, 45% said it is already, or will be more difficult to pay the national minimum wage in the next year without subsidising fundi...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article News 2024 National Community Conference and Seminar Community and Voluntary Sector Source Type: news