Coronavirus policy & research

During 2020/21, the impact of coronavirus on the voluntary sector in Scotland will be a key focus for our research and policy work.

We will use this page to collate our latest blogs, briefings, and position papers, and to update on opportunities for you to help shape our work in this area.

Over the last few months we have ensured the sector’s voice is heard in national conversations including the Framework for Decision Making, the Social Renewal Advisory Board, the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery, several Scottish Parliament Committee enquiries and in the House of Lords.  We gathered evidence to inform our work directly from the sector through online events, from #NeverMoreNeeded and from SCVO’s Policy Forum Manifesto for the Future. 

One of the key points we have raised in these forums is that while emergency support is much needed and very welcome, we must also recognise that the operating environment for voluntary organisations before the pandemic was far from perfect.  This was recognised in the recommendations of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery and accepted by the Scottish Government, and we are now beginning to discuss with Scottish Government and COSLA how we can engage the sector in a conversation about increasing collaboration with national and local government to achieve better outcomes for the sector and the people we work with/causes we champion. 

Alongside our collaborative work with a range of funders on their emergency responses to Covid, we have also been involved in shorter term lobbying on Gift Aid, and were successful in widening access to business support grants to the sector in the early days of the pandemic.

We have collated and summarised the research available on the impact of Coronavirus on the voluntary sector in Scotland, and our statistics have been used in parliamentary debates and on conference platforms.