Army of volunteers is now more vital than ever

Published on Thursday 18 June 2009 23:13

OF ALL the attributes that Scotland has to see it through this recession and its deadly impact on the public finances, there is none greater than the voluntary sector and in particular those who give freely of their time and skills.

It is an asset of colossal importance and one that reaches and touches the lives of many that the formal apparatus of government cannot reach. In many instances, it is also the more caring and tender touch.

Scotland's army of volunteer workers – more than 14,000 volunteers managed by some 60 staff providing support for at least 7,000 children, young people and adults – have never been more vital to our wellbeing than now. For whatever you hear from politicians about there being a continuing increase in public spending and "no spending cuts", the truth is otherwise.

We are entering a period of fiscal austerity to a degree not experienced since the 1970s. The government may wish it otherwise, and so, I am sure, do the millions who work for it. But the public finances are in an appalling state.

Figures released yesterday were dire, showing a far faster rate of deterioration than feared. The government's borrowing requirement soared to 19.9 billion in May, up 63 per cent on a year ago to the highest monthly figure on record. With just two months of the year gone, the borrowing total so far is 30.5bn, raising questions as to whether the Treasury can hold the full-year total down to the Budget forecast of 175bn – a figure thought breathtaking enough at the time.

We can't go on like this. Soon the axe – or a host of them – will start to fall. The inevitable result is going to be huge extra pressure on the voluntary or "third sector" to manage where the long arm of government is no longer be able to reach.

So it was disturbing to note this week a real-terms decline in the social economy in Scotland and even more disturbing to be told of cases where government support for the voluntary sector has been cut.

Figures released this week show that, while the turnover of the social economy had managed a small increase in cash terms to 2.8bn, there had been a fall in inflation-adjusted terms of 1.2 per cent.

The "social economy" of course embraces much more than volunteer groups. It includes community organisations, charities, social enterprises, and some mutuals and co-operatives.

But its real-terms decline – when it is a government objective to increase its turnover and while the government sector has grown at an unsustainable rate – is a worrying development.

Community Service Volunteers (CSV) Scotland is the country's largest volunteering and training organisation. Its eight programmes include Springboard Scotland, Volunteering Partners , Education and the Retired and Senior Volunteering Programme (RSVP).

Voluntary organisations formed the backbone of a conference held in the Scottish Parliament earlier this week by the National Forum on Ageing Futures. Representatives were drawn from universities, the NHS and community groups such as the Stirling Volunteer Centre. Speakers included Yvonne Coull, chair of the NFA Futures Group, Ambi Wildman, its project manager, and entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer.

I was concerned to hear the 350,000 a year budget from the Scottish Government for the RSVP had been axed. That may not seem much, but it means that its small team of six, plus two part-time posts, will have to be made redundant and that its 1,600 older volunteers will struggle to maintain projects that they have built up over the years.

Its volunteers provided more than 6,400 hours of service in their communities each week in schools, hospitals, GP practices and care homes.

Government officials said the work of RSVP no longer fitted its new funding priorities. The organisation was told it could apply to local authorities for alternative funding or apply to the new Third Sector Enterprise Fund. Apart from no longer "fitting the criteria", the new funding would have come as a loan to be repaid with interest at commercial rates.

Expecting a tiny organisation to be put through the hoop to be eligible for a loan on the same terms as a bank is absurd. To expect the same organisation, which provides a nationwide service, to apply for tiny amounts through 32 local authorities each with different lending criteria and procedures, is beyond mad. It is indicative of the broader sickness that is crippling this country – the blind, bureaucratic obsession with process – a condition oblivious to cost or to end result.

I am indebted to Brid Cullen, RSVP director Scotland, for the following: To recruit, train and support a primary care or schools volunteer, CSV had to find 250 a year. "Compare this," she points out, "with the cost of hospitalising an elderly person or taking a child into care. Compare it with the long-term cost of a child who leaves school without learning to read, or a care leaver who becomes homeless."

Funding from partnerships with local service providers does not begin to cover her core costs. So the grant withdrawal has effectively cut this small group off at the knees.

I am told this is not an isolated example, and that other volunteer groups have experienced similar treatment. Few are willing to speak out for fear of upsetting officials or jeopardising any future funding applications.

But is this not scandalous? The amount of volunteer support that every 1 of grant support can lever up is colossal. If there is a better way to stretch a taxpayer pound and make it work harder I have yet to find it. So this is a truly false economy – easy though it may have been to implement.

As reality dawns and the need for action on the public finances grows acute, public-sector agencies will soon find they will need every volunteer worker they can muster. Without this army, we will all be so much the poorer.