£5 billion hit is devastating the voluntary sector
14 April 2011
The £5 billion in funding snatched by central
government is forcing charities to the wall and shaming all claims
the prime minister makes to fostering a 'Big Society'.
So says Unite the union, as a new survey shows that cuts to
funding, job losses and individual stress are the chief worries of
voluntary sector workers as the pain of the funding crisis grips
the sector.
Over 2,000 workers from a spread of voluntary
organisations across the UK surveyed said that their main concerns
are:
- ‘Cuts to funding’ - reported by 1,291 of
the 2,059 respondents.
- ‘Job security’- reported by 60 per cent
of respondents.
- ‘Redundancies’ - reported by 1129
workers.
- ‘Stress’ - reported by over half of
respondents.
Charities provide much needed support services to some of society’s
most vulnerable citizens; the very young, the elderly and the
disadvantaged. The union says when those services close, nothing
will take their place.
Unite, the UK’s biggest union, has today (14
April) launched its Unite for our Society campaign to reach out to
those working in the 170,000 charities spread throughout the UK,
who are suffering in the face of national and local government
spending cuts.
The union, which has over 60,000 members in the
not for profit sector, is to host a series of new media conferences
where workers can get advice on redundancies and the legal right to
challenge cuts to voluntary organisation funding.
Sally Kosky, Unite national officer for the not
for profit sector, said: “As these huge cuts destabilise the third
sector, the more hollow the government’s ‘Big Society’ rhetoric
sounds. When these services disappear - nothing replaces them.
“It is delusional to suggest that efficiencies
can be made in a sector that already operates on a shoe-string or
that knights in shining armour will arrive in the form of wealthy
private donors. This shows a catastrophic lack of
understanding of the realities of the sector.
"This sector needs central government help and
it needs it now. The government’s £100 million transitional fund
and the ‘Big Society’ bank will provide £400 million, most of which
will be in the form of repayable loans, but this leaves a shortfall
of £4.6 billion in terms of the money government has taken from the
sector. That gap will see services disappear, community
groups shut down and dedicated workers made redundant. Government
must act now."
ENDS
For more information please contact Rachael
Maskell on 07768 693 933 or Sally Kosky on 07768 693 952 or Chantal
Chegrinec, Unite press office, on 07774 146 777
Notes to editors:
The new survey of 2,059 voluntary sector
workers in the UK, independently conducted by Unite, kicked off on
the 1 April and is ongoing. http://www.uniteforoursociety.org/survey
The union’s Unite for our Society campaign can
be visited at www.uniteforoursociety.org.
Unite has also received over 400 stories from people working in the
frontline of the cuts. The evidence of the human costs of the cuts,
not just to staff but to service users and society at large
continues to pour in.
