CAS response to pre-budget 2025-26 scrutiny - Third sector funding principles

Key messages

We welcome the focus of the Committee to build a more resilient and effective third sector, capable of better serving Scotland’s communities. Our submission is outlined below, and three overarching principles are included throughout.

The cost of precarity and inefficiency under current models is clear and needs to change

• Long-term, secure funding for the third sector would be game-changing. It would have a truly transformative effect in terms of delivering life-changing outcomes for people, as well as offering much-needed job security to retain local knowledge and expertise in local communities.
• Most third sector organisations, including the network of 59 CABs across Scotland, receive funding on an annual basis. This means at the end of each year, there can be huge uncertainty about whether funding will be renewed.
• At its heart, advice is about bringing stability to volatility. And yet, the current approach means our advisers’ own livelihoods are often marked with precarity and at the mercy of short-term funding cycles.
• Insecurity of funding can lead to periods within a year when CAB cannot operate on a normal basis – this means people who are living in the most vulnerable circumstances are unable to access essential services.
• The false economy of short-term funding has gone on for far too long. Long-term problems demand long-term solutions. Failure to do so is costing all of us. Multiyear funding is the foundation that our work should be built on.

Moving from transactional to partnership relationships

• This year marks our 85th anniversary demonstrating the staying power of the network – we provide an essential service the need for which is not going anywhere anytime soon.
• Given the precedent that long established third sector organisations such as CAS have for delivery of outcomes with funding provided, more trust should be placed in these processes and relationships.
• There can be a predilection towards funding new and innovative pilot style projects – this should not be at the detriment of supporting existing essential activity the need for which remains consistent and constant.
• Greater value for money would be achieved by investing in long term relationships with organisations demonstrating a track record for delivery.
• This type of partnership approach is far from a radical idea, yet it would have a radical impact for the people and communities CABs support.

Outcomes must be hardwired into all funding models

• Focus must shift away from inputs and outputs to a genuine commitment on outcomes. While improvements have been made, we are still some distance away from having a singular focus on outcomes across all funding models.
• Even in this desperately difficult context, the Citizens Advice network secures real change – the network helped over 187,100 people in 2022-23, resulting in £142.3 million being unlocked in local communities.
• 70% of people reported the advice they received improved their mental health and wellbeing. 91% felt the support they received increased their confidence in dealing with issues in the future. This is advice that changes lives.