Kirsten Hogg

I love the Scottish Third Sector Tracker. Having robust data to evidence the issues the sector is facing is absolutely key to shaping our influencing work at SCVO, and adds vital weight to our asks of decision makers. From the most recent (wave 9) data, we know that four most... Read more

Over the past few months, the implications of the increase in Employers’ National Insurance Contributions for medium and large employers in the voluntary sector has attracted lots of media coverage. This has helped to increase public understanding of the precarious nature of... Read more

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance said that yesterday’s budget was one of hope. If you look hard enough, I do think there are glimmers of hope in there for Scotland’s voluntary sector, but overall I’m not sure it will do much to dispel the immediate sense of financial... Read more

Kirsten Hogg shares what she learned from her time in Cardiff Bay where she attended a conference on Strengthening Civil Society Impact. Read more

I can tell you three quarters of voluntary organisations just like them are facing financial difficulties. Read more

SCVO were invited to give evidence to the Finance and Public Administration Committee on the 9th of January 2024 as part of the Committee’s scrutiny of the 2024-25 Scottish budget. SCVO were also invited to suggest key issues that the Committee should be made aware of. For SCVO... Read more

Summary The current situation for voluntary organisations is worse than pre-pandemic, or even during the pandemic. This is because, just as voluntary organisations were at a low ebb post-pandemic, they were hit with the cost of living crisis, which has seen them facing a perfect... Read more

In a country well known for our implementation failure, we could all learn a lot from this group of volunteers about how to have a plan and implement it effectively. Read more

It is important to remember that we’ve heard things like this before, and there is no way to tell from a one- year budget how this on paper commitment might be implemented.  To Read more

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... Read more