**Gregor Muir, Policy & Communications Manager, The Scottish Sports Association** Scottish sports need fair funding. Years of standstill investment, and real-term cuts, have forced organisations across the Scottish sporting landscape to focus on fire-fighting and balancing budgets while still working to deliver and grow opportunities for sport and physical activity in our communities. **Read more** Sport and physical activity deliver enormous benefits for Scotland. They improve our physical and mental health, bring communities together, provide opportunities for young people, and make a significant contribution to our economy. At the heart of this sit thousands of voluntary sports clubs and organisations, run by an army of dedicated volunteers, delivering opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to take part in sport and physical activity. Yet the organisations delivering these benefits are operating within a funding landscape that is increasingly unsustainable. Years of standstill funding, which in real terms represents a significant cut as costs continue to rise, have placed enormous strain on the sector, forcing organisations to focus on simply keeping going rather than developing and growing the opportunities they provide. Short-term funding and a lack of support for core costs only compound these challenges. The impact of this funding environment is felt right across the sector. Organisations are unable to plan ahead, forced instead to focus on short-term survival. The volunteers who are so central to grassroots sport are placed under ever greater pressure. And the opportunities for people to take part in sport and physical activity, with all the health, social, and economic benefits they bring, are placed at risk. Fair Funding would provide the stability and security that Scotland’s sporting organisations so desperately need. Multi-year funding, inflationary uplifts, and support for core costs would allow the sector to plan ahead, support its volunteers, and continue delivering and growing the sport and physical activity opportunities that mean so much to communities across Scotland. Fair Funding could have a tremendous impact on the voluntary sector ------------------------------------------------------------------- The benefits of sport and physical activity to Scotland are difficult to overstate. From improving physical and mental health and reducing pressure on the NHS, to bringing communities together, providing opportunities for young people, and contributing to the economy, sport and physical activity play a vital role in the life of the nation. And at the heart of it all sit the thousands of voluntary sports clubs and organisations, and the dedicated volunteers, who deliver these opportunities day in and day out. But the organisations delivering these enormous benefits are far from immune to the challenges posed by the current funding landscape. Years of standstill funding, representing a significant real-terms cut as costs continue to rise, combined with short-term funding and a lack of support for core costs, have placed the sector under enormous and growing strain. _“Standstill funding, year after year, is really a cut when you factor in rising costs,”_ explains a sports organisation delivering community-based activity. _“We’re expected to deliver the same or more each year, but with less in real terms, and there’s only so long that can go on.”_ _“Our volunteers are the backbone of everything we do, but they’re under more pressure than ever,”_ admits a grassroots sports club. _“Without proper funding to support them, we risk burning out the very people who make community sport possible.”_ _“The short-term funding makes it impossible to plan or develop,”_ adds an organisation supporting participation in sport. _“We spend so much time just trying to keep going that we can’t focus on growing the opportunities we offer.”_ The implementation of Fair Funding would allow Scotland’s sporting organisations to move away from this unsustainable position, providing the stability and security needed to plan ahead, support their volunteers, and continue delivering and growing the sport and physical activity opportunities that bring such significant health, social, and economic benefits to communities across the country. _“Fair Funding could have a tremendous impact on the voluntary sector,”_ says the community sports organisation. _“It would give us the stability to plan, to support our volunteers, and to grow the opportunities we provide for our community.”_ Scottish Government funding – delays & inconsistencies (anonymised) ------------------------------------------------------------------- **Organisation H** works to promote and support participation in sport and physical activity across Scotland, delivering and enabling opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to get active and reap the many benefits that sport and physical activity bring. Working with clubs, volunteers, and communities, the organisation plays an important role in Scotland’s sporting landscape, helping to deliver the health, social, and economic benefits that sport provides. A significant proportion of the organisation’s funding comes from the Scottish Government, and while this support is essential, **Organisation H** has experienced considerable challenges around the way in which it is delivered. Chief among these are the delays and inconsistencies that too often characterise the funding process, creating significant uncertainty and making it extremely difficult for the organisation to plan ahead with any real confidence. Delays in the confirmation of funding are a particular problem. When funding decisions are made late, often after the start of the financial year to which they relate, the organisation is left in an impossible position, forced to make decisions about staffing and service delivery without knowing whether the funding it depends upon will actually materialise. This uncertainty has a direct impact on the organisation’s ability to plan, to retain staff, and to deliver its services effectively. The inconsistencies in the funding process compound these difficulties further. Changes in approach, requirements, and expectations, sometimes with little notice or explanation, create additional uncertainty and place a significant administrative burden on the organisation. This diverts valuable time and resources away from the delivery of frontline services, while the underlying lack of predictability makes long-term planning all but impossible. For **Organisation H**, the implementation of Fair Funding – including multi-year funding, timely decision-making, and greater consistency and predictability in the funding process – would be genuinely transformational. It would provide the stability required to plan ahead, retain experienced staff, and continue delivering and growing the sport and physical activity opportunities that bring such significant benefits to communities across Scotland. [Previous: Social care](/ff-next-steps-final-copy/social-care) [Back to: FF Next Steps Final Copy](/ff-next-steps-final-copy) --- ## About SCVO SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector. Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact. SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector. Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners. Access to exclusive membership networks (including comms, employers, governance and policy) supports members to grow their connections, stay up to date, exchange ideas and views with peers, and learn through tailored, learning opportunities. SCVO members enjoy free access to Funding Scotland Premium to stay on top of funding opportunities to support their organisation’s financial resilience. Discounts and savings savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org). For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)