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Not-for-profit advice services funding - announcement from Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At todays annual NCVO conference, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said that there will be an announcement in the forthcoming Budget (21 March), regarding the sustainable funding needs of the not-for-profit (NfP) advice sector. He claimed that the Coalition has been listening to criticisms arising from the Legal Aid Bill, regards the disproportionate impacts of cuts to scope in social welfare law on the NfP sector, and that the funding would be implemented over the period of the current spending review i.e. until 2015. This also stems from the Cabinet Office review of advice service funding, he said.
Beyond those bare details, he said that he couldn’t reveal anything else at this stage. It was commented on by some that the timing of this announcement does co-incide with the Legal Aid Bill returning to the Report Stage, which is expected to see similar rebellions as occured with the Welfare Reform Bill. Watch this space for more details as they become available.
[ Edited: 5 Mar 2012 at 11:29 pm by Paul Treloar ]debate on future and funding of the not-for-profit advice sector in Hansard ...
.. in which the Minister says -
‘We are committed to ensuring that people will continue to have access to good-quality, free advice in their communities. That is why the Government acted, and set up the £107 million transition fund to support the voluntary sector in managing the transition to a tighter funding environment. That is why we also launched the £20 million advice services fund, and a Government-wide review of free advice services. The advice services fund was always intended to provide support to the sector in the short term only, with the Cabinet Office review of the advice sector providing longer-term solutions. I can advise the hon. Member for Makerfield that the review is expected to conclude later this spring, and it will provide recommendations on proposals to secure the long-term sustainability of the sector.’
Budget document has the following:
2.33 Not-for-profit advice sector – The Government will make £20 million available to the not-for-profit advice sector in 2013–14, and again in 2014–15 to support the sector as it adapts to changes in the way that it is funded.
Table 2.1 (item 56) has this figure as one of the previously announced measures. Does this mean that the £20m is money we already know about rather than additional support? As it is only for 2013-15 what happens after that? Doesn’t look like secure long term funding to me.
What about a stautory duty of LAs to fund independent advice provision?
The strategy of this government is basically to make massive cuts to essential services and then when everyone kicks off they throw £20mil at the problem to get us to shut up.
Not enough… even for the shabby window dressing purpose for which it is intended.
lasa reaction .... http://goanimate.com/videos/02oXk9Lk0wd4/1
Civil Society news report on yesterday’s announcement.
The extra £40m the government will make available to the not-for-profit advice sector over the next two years is “simply not enough”, according to Paul Treloar, head of policy and communications at Lasa.
Joe Irvin, chief executive of Navca, welcomed the government’s promise of £40m for the not-for-profit advice sector over two years, and was also pleased about measures to simplify gift aid, calling the developments “welcome at a really difficult time for our sector”.
But he insisted that the Budget should still have gone further. “Charities supporting the most deprived communities are facing the double whammy of cuts in funding and rocketing demand,” he said. “This Budget is a squandered opportunity to help Britain’s hardest-hit communities. This government needs to understand that the Big Society only works if the local society works as well.”
Budget 2012: £40m doesn’t make up for £100m taken from legal aid, says Lasa