# Learning by doing – our experiences of Strengthening Collaboration

In 2020, as part of its response to the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery, Scottish Government sought to address the barriers facing the third sector by bringing together SCVO, the TSI Scotland Network, COSLA and the Scottish Government Third Sector Unit in the Strengthening Collaboration project. 

After a couple of meetings I was excited – there was an appetite to tackle some of the sticky issues we had all been talking about for years; to recognise that these are systems level issues that could take years to ‘solve’; and to move beyond rhetoric to focus on implementation.  The opportunity to work on these collectively, with all of the different actors in the system coming together, felt full of potential.

And in many ways, the work that we have done during the first couple of years of the project has felt different.  By taking a slower approach, we’ve had time to build relationships that allowed us to have the most honest conversations I’ve been part of in this type of work.  We’ve developed a greater appreciation that we all want to achieve the same positive outcomes for communities, and we come away with a far better understanding of, and empathy for, the barriers that each partner faces to collaboration.  There’s some really valuable learning there for me about how long is needed for meaningful joint working, but it does mean that there are frustrations that we’ve not made the progress we might have hoped.  Stepping back from those frustrations, there is also a huge amount of learning.

Earlier this year, the [research](https://www.gov.scot/publications/supporting-collaboration-between-third-public-sectors-review-current-evidence/) that Strengthening Collaboration commissioned highlighted some of the challenges of partnership working, many of which we experienced first hand:  the time and resources needed to really commit to this approach, and the difficulties of working collectively on an issue that is so complex and multifaceted. 

Sometimes that complexity threatened to overwhelm us, and over summer, following a successful session at The Gathering, we agreed that in the current climate our primary focus should be on fair funding for the voluntary sector.  We have therefore paused the overarching work to concentrate, individually and collectively, on this one vital strand.

While there are many improvements that could have emerged from this work, I'm pleased we have come out of it with a collective commitment to create a fairer funding environment. That is absolutely crucial to the sustainability of the sector, and with each of us working towards this I’m sure there is much to be achieved.

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## 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 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)