Meeting of the Parliament 16 June 2026 [Draft]
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a serving councillor on Aberdeenshire Council and chair of the charity Kincardine and Mearns Youth Clubs.
I welcome the debate on improving and strengthening the Scottish Government’s relationship with third sector partners; I suggest that it is long overdue, and that some of our local authorities could perhaps be encouraged to follow the approach. I also welcome the supportive tone of the cabinet secretary’s statement.
Increasingly, public services are reliant on the third sector to deliver the services that the public sector cannot deliver as a result of budget and capacity constraints. Those in the third sector, whether they be national organisations or local initiatives, Scottish charitable incorporated organisations or social enterprises, are delivering services that are vital to the wellbeing of our local communities. Some will be managing to employ staff, but many also rely on the good will of volunteers, and some are run solely by volunteers.
Those organisations, no matter what their focus is, all have one thing in common: to make a tangible, positive difference in the lives of the communities they serve so that folk can live healthier and happier lives. An example is Montrose Community Trust at Links Park stadium in my constituency of Angus North and Mearns, which I had the pleasure of visiting during the recent election campaign. Its services range from football coaching for youngsters and walking football for those who are less able, to Montrose connections, its dementia service, and the “breakfast in a box” free breakfast club, alongside household budget advice, an international speaking club for those for whom English is a second language and the trust’s latest initiative, the midlife matters programme for women who are experiencing menopause.
Significantly, it is ambitious to do far more, with its Gable End project to provide the dedicated dementia centre that Montrose and the surrounding area deserves. The impact that the trust has locally cannot be overestimated. It employs 16 people, who, along with 112 volunteers, deliver 32 educational, health and sporting programmes that serve more than 6,000 participants annually, and it has invested almost £850,000 locally since 2012. That is a record of which to be proud—it is an organisation to be encouraged and championed, and it is just one of many.
We need to be supporting such organisations with multiyear funding so that they can plan ahead and have stability for both the programmes that they currently deliver, and that they aspire to deliver, in their mission to help people to live happier, healthier lives, built on inclusion, connection and purpose.