Briefing: SNP Manifesto – third sector commitments

From the ‘Valuing third sector’ section

We have made significant investment in and promoted the role of the third sector, social enterprises and volunteers. The sector plays an important role and we want to increase and encourage it to grow its influence. We will take steps to consolidate voluntary sector funding into single grant funds to provide greater clarity to applicants. We will also support the extension of core funding. We will introduce three year rolling funding where possible. We will introduce a system across government that highlights when funding is due to end, to provide greater clarity for the sector and enable better planning for the longer term. We will provide support to help social enterprises compete for public sector contracts and encourage councils to promote the procurement of services and goods in their local area from the third sector. We will continue to work with the sector, with BASE and others using public sector spend, to provide practical help for those businesses employing large numbers of people with a disability, so that they have an opportunity to thrive and prosper. By increasing the number of Modern Apprenticeships in the third sector and social enterprises we will help to diversify skills and training.

Other mentions of third sector, social enterprise and charity

In the private and third sectors we will continue to encourage organisations to sign up to the Business Pledge, including the commitment to workforce diversity, and to join the Partnership for Change campaign to set a voluntary commitment for gender balance in their boardrooms of 50:50 by 2020. We will also roll out our programme of school STEM clusters and develop a Scottish STEM ambassador network, so that by 2020 every Scottish school is working with a STEM partner from the private public or third sectors. We will encourage and support third sector organisations, social enterprises, and credit unions to enter the market place to fill gaps in the provision of services or to offer alternatives to current providers that are not offering services people can access easily or affordably. This includes energy, banking, payday loans, debt management, and funeral planning. We will also promote the Our Power social enterprise energy model for councils and housing associations to help keep costs down for social rent tenants. We will strengthen the support available [to the social enterprise sector] as part of a 10-year social enterprise strategy. We will work with mental health charities, stakeholders and service users to put in place a ten-year plan to transform mental health care in Scotland including for children and young people. To tackle long-term homelessness, we will continue to develop a joined up approach between local government, health, social services and the third sector.

Sector-relevant funding commitments

In 2016/17 we will continue our support with a further £6 million investment to fund a 700 more Community Jobs Scotland places. We will develop and implement a national strategy to tackle social isolation backed by a fund of £500,000 in 2016/17 and encourage use of the community empowerment fund for local community projects addressing issues of isolation and loneliness. We will publish a food sustainability plan aimed at ensuring everyone can feed themselves and their families and establish a £1 million a year Fair Food Fund to reduce reliance on emergency food provision. We will also establish a £300,000 Sporting Equality Fund aimed at increasing the participation, engagement, and promotion of women in sport. For young people who have been in care, we will establish a new fund, based on the example of Community Jobs Scotland, to specifically support them into appropriate work, training or educational opportunities. We are committed to a target of 1 million acres of land being in community ownership by 2020. We will take forward recommendations from the strategy developed by the 1 million acres working group and we will also resource community land purchases through the £10 million Scottish Land Fund. We will create a Rural Housing Fund with investment of £25 million over the next three years to build new, affordable houses, enabling the needs of older people to be met more appropriately and young people and families to stay or make their lives in rural communities. We will continue to support Scottish communities to take action to reduce carbon emissions through our Climate Challenge Fund, targeting Scotland’s most deprived communities and projects which deliver the greatest reduction in carbon emissions We will increase the Climate Justice Fund to at least £3 million a year for the next five years. We will give communities the opportunity to use some of their income from renewables to support Scotland’s Climate Justice Fund if they wish to do so. The Community Empowerment Act… is backed by the Empowering Communities Fund and the Strengthening Communities Programme. We will build on this by: -Setting councils a target of having at least 1 per cent of their budget subject to Community Choices budgeting. This will be backed by the Community Choices Fund to help public bodies and community groups build on examples of best practice. We will… establish a £200,000 Elected Office Fund to provide support for disabled people seeking to stand for selection and election in the 2017 local government elections. We will encourage communities to buy property and land that is in a state of neglect through our community empowerment legislation and by accessing the Community Empowerment Fund. We will increase the International Development Fund to £10 million per annum. We will set up a fast track crisis grant fund for refugee families who settle here under Family Reunion rules. We will establish a £1 million a year fund to respond to future humanitarian emergencies, and help provide emergency aid to refugees and displaced people fleeing war and persecution. We will continue the International Touring Fund and increase flexibility to assist with future planning. We will develop a National Touring Fund for Theatre to help more theatre productions tour more often, providing more work for the theatre sector and more opportunities for more people to see productions across Scotland. We will enhance the Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund, particularly ahead of the International Festival’s 70th anniversary, and examine how we can support performances to tour more widely across Scotland.