Meeting of the Parliament 16 June 2026 [Draft]
I will respectfully not take an intervention in this debate, but I would be happy to have a conversation with the cabinet secretary offline.
If the Government is truly looking for efficiencies, it should look at how it allocates its money. As I mentioned, I am pleased to hear that multiyear funding is being looked at. The Corra Foundation has said that simply moving to a default of multiyear funding structures would save an astonishing £900 million that the third sector wastes on the endless annual application cycle. Carol Mochan also mentioned that. If we truly want to transform public services, we must start to fund our third sector sustainably. I welcome the beginning of that, which the cabinet secretary confirmed today.
The job of third sector organisations is, of course, much bigger than being on the front line. The policy work that is undertaken by many charities in Scotland offers a truly unique insight into people’s lived experience.
I have mentioned and outlined the unifying piece that we have heard throughout, which is that of funding. The crux of the Green amendment is for a transition to multiyear funding as a default. The primary barrier to multiyear funding is that the Scottish Government is restricted by single-year allocations from the Westminster Government, and financial stability is restricted by the UK Government’s failure to reimburse to our third sector the £75 million annual cost of increased employer national insurance contributions. Although long-term funding remains our absolute aspiration, Scottish Labour must also work with us to demand both a fairer multiyear settlement and the full mitigation of those NICs from their Westminster colleagues.
I move amendment S7M-00356.5, to insert at end:
“; believes that the third sector would benefit from a transition to multi-year, simplified, flexible funding models that considers inflationary increases and covers full operating costs as the default; calls on the UK Government to reimburse Scottish third sector organisations for the cost of increased employer NICs, which are currently estimated at £75 million per year; recognises that those working in the third sector, such as organisations addressing violence against women and girls or supporting migrants, carers and disabled people, are also experiencing multiple and overlapping inequalities, secondary trauma and harm, and that they would benefit from an approach to third sector funding that includes the Real Living Wage and fair work principles, and further recognises that some third sector organisations, particularly those working with marginalised communities such as trans people and migrants, are experiencing threats to the safety of their staff, volunteers and service users.”
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