A report said that the local voluntary sector continued to be seen as a 'soft target' for budget cuts. One-half of local authorities were cutting grant funding to the voluntary sector disproportionately compared with the amount by which their own budgets were being reduced.
Source: Tom Elkins, Local Authorities and the Voluntary and Community Sector: Investigating funding and engagement, Compact Voice
Links: Report | Compact Voice press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-Dec
A report said that the coalition government needed to ensure that its attempts to introduce payment-by-results for public services did not squeeze out charities and community groups. It warned that charities often had limited reserves and required capital up-front to finance their work. Commissioning practices were also making it too difficult and risky for social investors to get involved.
Source: Funding Good Outcomes: Using social investment to support payment by results, Charities Aid Foundation
Links: Report | CAF press release | Charity Times report
Date: 2012-Oct
A paper examined the continuing impact of the 'Big Society' agenda on smaller community groups, in the context of public spending cuts. It said that their position was compounded by the virtual exclusion of smaller voluntary organizations, let alone community groups, from bidding for public service contracts.
Source: Angus McCabe and Jenny Phillimore, All Change? Surviving 'Below the Radar': Community groups and activities in a Big Society, Working Paper 87, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2012-Oct
A report examined the experiences of social welfare voluntary organizations of receiving funding from an independent trust or foundation. It considered the operating environment of the organizations; the kinds of support that organizations required at a time of economic recession; and the role that trusts and foundations might play in supporting voluntary organizations and, by extension, their beneficiaries.
Source: Eliza Buckley, Ben Cairns, Alison Harker, and Romayne Hutchison, Duty of Care: The role of trusts and foundations in supporting voluntary organisations through difficult times, Institute for Voluntary Action Research
Date: 2012-Oct
A report examined the impact of public spending cuts on local charities and community groups. The majority had suffered cuts, although some areas were suffering more than others. Local charities and community groups were facing increased demand for their services, and a significant proportion said that they were unable to meet these demands. Organizations for children and young people were consistently reported as being particularly affected by cuts in funding. In many areas, organizations that worked with the most deprived communities had also faced significant cuts or were likely to do so in the near future.
Source: Funding Local Voluntary and Community Action, National Association for Voluntary and Community Action
Links: Report | NAVCA press release
Date: 2012-Aug
A report said that charities were cutting services and staff due to decreasing levels of public spending and changes to the way in which public services were commissioned, including continuing reforms to the National Health Service.
Source: Sarah Hedley and Iona Joy, When the Going Gets Tough: Charities' experiences of public sector commissioning, New Philanthropy Capital
Links: Report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-May
A report examined the evolving response by the third sector to the global economic recession and its effect on sector funding.
Source: Rebecca Taylor, Jane Parry, and Pete Alcock, From Crisis to Mixed Picture to Phoney War: Tracing third sector discourse in the 2008/9 recession, Research Report 78, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2012-May
The coalition government issued (following consultation) revised policy directions to the Big Lottery Fund. It said that the directions were less complicated than before, and would allow the Fund continued discretion to fund its priority areas of health, education, the environment, and charitable purposes.
Source: Directions Given to the Big Lottery Fund Under Section 36E(1)(B) of the National Lottery Etc Act 1993 (As Amended), Cabinet Office
Links: Directions | Consultation responses | NAVCA press release
Date: 2012-Apr
A report said that the 34,000 charities in England that worked primarily with children and young people would lose £405 million in statutory funding in the five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16. These charities were particularly vulnerable to cuts, as they received more of their income from statutory sources and were four times less likely to receive corporate support. Charities were taking various actions to manage the impact of the cuts, including reducing the number of staff they employed, and cutting back on the range of services they offered, as well as developing consortia and mergers. A small but significant minority said that it was 'likely' or 'very likely' that they would be forced to close in the next 12 months.
Source: Beyond the Cuts: Children s charities adapting to austerity, National Children s Bureau
Links: Report | NCB press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Apr
A report examined the impact of public spending cuts by the coalition government on the local voluntary sector. It called for a further wave of transition funding to help regenerate the most deprived areas. For the first time since the 1960s there was no government regeneration programme to support areas of deprivation.
Source: Focus on Deprived Communities: Evidence to support the call for a second wave of transition funding in the 2012 Budget, National Association for Voluntary and Community Action
Links: Report | NAVCA press release
Date: 2012-Mar
A report examined the role and impact of the Big Lottery Fund in relation to the third sector. The Fund had contributed to the establishment, continuation, diversification, expansion, and capacity of third sector organizations. It had also contributed to a move towards 'outcomes thinking' across the sector, to partnership working, user involvement, and the growth of local voluntary action. But its impact had not been as consistent or significant as it might have been, and had not always been positive. At the sector level, the Fund was more likely to be seen as a 'facilitator' than a 'leader' of change.
Source: Angela Ellis Paine, Rebecca Taylor, and Pete Alcock, Wherever There Is Money There Is Influence : Exploring BIG s impact on the third sector, Research Report 75, Third Sector Research Centre
Links: Report | Brief | TSRC press release
Date: 2012-Feb