Coronavirus and its impact on the Scottish Voluntary Sector: A review of the literature (September 2020)
This paper presents a summary of the existing literature on the impact coronavirus is having on voluntary sector organisations in Scotland. It includes research published primarily by Scottish voluntary organisations and infrastructure bodies between June and early August 2020. It is a follow-up to SCVO’s paper, Coronavirus, and its impact on the Scottish voluntary sector –what do we know so far?, published in June. As with that paper, the focus here is largely on the impact of coronavirus on voluntary organisations, not the people and communities they serve.
The purpose of synthesising the existing literature is to identify trends and gaps in our understanding of the impact coronavirus is having on voluntary organisations in Scotland. This work contributes to discussions SCVO are having with a range of partners about developing a systematic/strategic approach to future research projects in this area.
The previous SCVO report identified that at the outbreak of the pandemic (March-April) the three main issues organisations were facing were: meeting immediate needs, staffing and digital capacity and funding. However, come May, these issues had shifted to include financial sustainability, adaptation of services in the longer-term and ‘building back better’.
As we can see from the research included in this paper, the main themes emerging from the sector between June and early August included many of those already highlighted in SCVO’s June paper, but also an emerging theme around workforce issues: furlough and staff morale. Issues pertaining to ‘return to work’ and mental health and wellbeing, both of staff and service users, also came across strongly.
