Official Report 1014KB pdf
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-19003, in the name of Kenneth Gibson, on giving congratulations to the Community Housing Advocacy Project on 25 years of serving the community. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates the Ayrshire-based charity, Community Housing Advocacy Project (CHAP) on marking 25 years of service; recognises that the organisation began with volunteers offering free housing advocacy and, since becoming a registered charity in 2000, has expanded to provide professional advice and support in welfare rights, debt management and the delivery of educational sessions on homelessness awareness and financial literacy in secondary schools and colleges, alongside outreach services across Ayrshire; notes that CHAP has retained Type III accreditation under the Scottish National Standards for Information and Advice Providers since 2009, reflecting, it believes, its commitment to quality and consistency; acknowledges that the charity achieved a total of £10.4 million in financial gains for its clients between August 2021 and July 2025, helping to alleviate poverty for 1,230 individuals; commends the organisation for its independence and its commitment to offering all services free of charge, despite the ongoing challenges of sustaining operations in an environment marked by reliance on short-term, non-recurring external funding; understands with concern that few charities achieve such longevity without the security of long-term core funding; believes that advice and advocacy services, such as CHAP, save public funds while building resilience and stability in communities, contributing to both national and local strategies, and welcomes greater priority being given to safeguarding and financially supporting CHAP and similar organisations, so that they can continue to thrive and deliver value for money in Cunninghame North and across Scotland.
17:59
I am grateful to Scottish National Party, Conservative and Green colleagues for enabling the debate to take place.
Today, we recognise an important milestone for Ayrshire and for Scotland’s wider third sector community. For 25 years, the Community Housing Advocacy Project, known as CHAP, has provided guidance, advocacy and practical support to people who are facing some of the most challenging circumstances that a household can encounter. CHAP’s longevity is testament not only to the necessity of its work but to the dedication, professionalism and resilience of the staff and volunteers who have shaped it over the past two and a half decades.
What began as a modest group of volunteers offering basic housing advice has grown into a respected multiservice organisation that supports individuals and families across North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire and much of South Ayrshire. When CHAP opened its doors in 2000, it operated from a small office in Stevenston, supported by community activists who recognised that a growing number of local households were struggling with household insecurity. Today, CHAP provides six service streams, employs 26 dedicated staff in its modern Ardrossan premises, and, as its most recent annual report shows, achieves a highly impressive 98 per cent client satisfaction rate.
CHAP’s early volunteers saw the pain that was caused when people lacked clear information on their rights or were unable to navigate the maze of processes required to resolve disputes or prevent homelessness. From the outset, CHAP’s founders understood a reality that continues to define the organisation’s work today—that housing problems and financial difficulties rarely arrive one at a time but tend to cluster, often appearing suddenly and without warning. Illness, redundancy, caring responsibilities, relationship breakdown and bereavement can all destabilise a household that had previously been secure.
Despite relying heavily on short-term, non-recurring funding, CHAP has maintained its commitment to free, accessible support. Its ability to continue providing vital services in the face of financial uncertainty is a remarkable achievement that reflects not only good governance but a deep dedication to the communities that it serves, ensuring that no one is turned away because they cannot afford help.
CHAP achieved charitable status in 2000, which formalised its position in the advice sector. With that change came a period of expansion. While housing advocacy remained its core function, CHAP soon recognised the need to broaden its remit. Debt advice, welfare rights support, mediation services and, later, financial education initiatives all emerged from the same underlying purpose: to help people to regain control of their lives at moments when everything feels uncertain.
One of CHAP’s most recognisable contributions today is its work in schools and colleges. Its homelessness awareness sessions, which began in the mid-2000s, were developed in response to feedback from young people who felt ill prepared for the financial realities of independent life. Over time, those sessions evolved into a comprehensive programme of financial literacy workshops covering budgeting, household bills, borrowing, savings and consumer rights. Those workshops, which are delivered with a clear focus on prevention, equip young people with the knowledge and confidence to navigate adult life.
Alongside its educational work, CHAP has invested heavily in improving the professional standards of its advice services. Since 2009, the organisation has held type III accreditation under the Scottish national standards for information and advice providers—the highest level available. Securing and maintaining that accreditation is no small undertaking; it requires audits, staff training and consistent demonstration of excellent case management, record keeping and client care.
The outcomes that CHAP achieves speak volumes. Pro rata projections from the organisation indicate that, if every local authority had an accredited debt recovery service, more than £493 million would accrue to local economies across Scotland. Between August 2021 and July 2025, CHAP alone secured £10.4 million of financial gains for 1,230 clients; that includes £85,980 of individual debt written off last year alone. For many, those figures represent far more than improved finances, with 75 per cent of clients reporting reduced stress levels over the past year.
It is important to recognise the role that emergency Scottish Government funding has played in enabling CHAP to sustain its operations during particularly challenging periods, and I thank the Cabinet Secretary for Housing personally for her intervention in that regard. That support has allowed essential services to continue uninterrupted and ensured that front-line advisers could remain available to the people who depend so much on them.
That recognition of CHAP’s value has made a meaningful difference to so many. However, CHAP’s experience highlights a broader truth that is a shared experience for many organisations across Scotland’s third sector. Over the past year, CHAP received 2,422 referrals, which represents a 37 per cent increase in comparison with the previous 12 months. While emergency or short-term funding can provide temporary relief for CHAP and similar organisations, long-term security is essential for organisations that deliver core services. A more stable funding landscape—one that supported core operating costs as well as project-based activity—would allow organisations such as CHAP to plan confidently, retain staff and continue to deliver the high-quality services on which constituents rely.
Initiative-itis, whereby funds are provided only for shiny new pilot projects, should never come at the expense of funding proven, impactful work that organisations know and trust will definitely help their clients. That is a practical suggestion that is grounded in evidence and common purpose.
CHAP’s success demonstrates the enormous value of early intervention support. When organisations such as CHAP are given the resources to succeed, families stay in their homes; debts are resolved more constructively; young people make informed decisions; and communities become more resilient—everyone benefits.
As we reflect on CHAP’s 25 years of service, we also reflect on the thousands of lives that have been shaped by its work. CHAP reminds us that communities are built not only through public services but through grass-roots organisations that understand the complexities and pressures of everyday life in their communities.
I am honoured to have the opportunity to recognise that achievement today and to celebrate the lasting impact that CHAP has had across Ayrshire and beyond, and I wish the Community Housing Advocacy Project all the very best for the next 25 years.
18:06
I congratulate my colleague Kenny Gibson on securing the debate. I am very pleased to speak in support of the motion congratulating the Community Housing Advocacy Project on an extraordinary 25 years of service to the people of Ayrshire.
The charity’s origins lie in the simplest but most powerful of ideas: that everyone deserves access to independent, free and compassionate housing advice. What began with volunteers offering advocacy support has evolved into delivering professional welfare rights assistance, money and debt advice and vital outreach services across the region.
CHAP has shown what it means to put dignity, prevention and empowerment at the heart of community support. It has retained a high level of accreditation under the Scottish national standards for information and advice providers for more than a decade—that is no small achievement. Between August 2021 and July 2025, it delivered more than £10 million in financial gains for its clients. I repeat that: £10 million in financial gains for its clients. That is money going directly into the pockets of the people who need it most—it is poverty alleviated, homelessness prevented and lives stabilised. Importantly, in addition, it is public money saved through early and effective intervention.
I warmly congratulate everyone who is involved with CHAP—its staff, volunteers, trustees and partners. The organisation’s commitment to providing all its services free of charge, despite operating in a funding landscape that is dominated by short-term and non-recurring grants, is testament to its integrity and determination. Few third sector organisations manage to survive, let alone thrive, for 25 years without stable core funding. CHAP has done so because the need for its work is profound and because its impact is undeniable and it succeeds.
However, today’s debate is about not just celebrating one organisation but recognising the principles that sit at the heart of CHAP’s success. Those principles apply far beyond Ayrshire, including in my constituency of Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.
The number 1 principle is prevention. CHAP intervenes before crisis hits, before someone loses their home, before debt becomes unmanageable and before a young person slips into homelessness. Prevention must be the cornerstone of our national approach to housing and poverty, especially as councils prepare for new ask and act homelessness prevention duties. Rural communities in Midlothian and the Borders know all too well that prevention is not just good policy—it is essential when services are stretched and distances are long.
Principle 2 is accessibility. CHAP takes its services into communities, through outreach and partnership, and it goes to where people actually are. For my constituents, those are places such as Innerleithen, Lauder, Stow and West Linton. Access to advice often depends on such a model. We need more organisations, not fewer, to adopt that outward-looking, barrier-reducing approach.
Principle 3 is independence. People who are facing crisis, whether it is financial, house related or personal, need advice that they can trust. CHAP’s insistence on being independent and free from conflict is a core reason why individuals feel safe seeking its help.
That principle is vital across Scotland, especially in rural and semi-rural areas, where anonymity can be harder to maintain and trust is everything. CHAP treats people as citizens with rights, not as problems to be managed, and that sensitive, personal ethos is essential if we are to build resilient communities.
While CHAP’s work is rooted in Ayrshire, the lessons that it offers are national. There is not a CHAP in my constituency, but we have the citizens advice bureaux, which deliver much of what CHAP delivers. Having recently visited our CABs—in particular the CAB in Penicuik—I can testify to that.
Today, we congratulate CHAP on 25 remarkable years. It is there when it is needed, and one cannot say more than that. I commend CHAP, and also—if I may, Deputy Presiding Officer—the citizens advice bureaux in my constituency.
18:10
I, too, thank my colleague Kenneth Gibson for bringing this important members’ business debate to Parliament. I congratulate the Community Housing Advocacy Project, commonly known as CHAP, on its 25th anniversary and thank it for the great work that it does. CHAP offers free housing advocacy, professional advice, support on welfare rights, debt management and education services on homelessness awareness.
On Friday, I was fortunate enough to visit CHAP in Ardrossan and meet the team members Laura, Liz, Andrea, Christine and Joyce. During that visit, I got to hear at first hand about all the excellent work that CHAP does for the community and in local schools. I was very pleased to hear that one of the areas that CHAP is working on is providing vital life skills to secondary school children. That includes lessons on how households work and managing finances at home, including gas and electricity bills, mortgage payments, car payments and budgeting.
We all know how important it is to equip our youngsters in school with the right skills. Those skills will not only benefit them in the long term but assist them to help their parents. Those preventative measures will help not just individual households but, in the long term, the Government, as people will be less reliant on public services, which will—we would hope—result in less pressure on the public purse.
After all, according to the Sutton Trust,
“96% of teachers think life skills are as or more important than formal academic qualifications in determining how well young people do in adulthood”.
That is of particular interest to me as, a couple of years ago, I put forward a policy that would involve teaching children such basic life skills. However, in order for CHAP and other organisations to be able to conduct those important lessons, they need to be properly funded. Right now, CHAP is the only independent organisation in Ayrshire that is delivering such work in schools and the community. Inadequate funding, which leads to instability, could prevent that work and other important projects from happening.
Another greatly challenging issue that CHAP highlighted to me was the lack of connectivity and public transport in Ardrossan and the surrounding areas. I heard at first hand from one of the employees that she relies solely on car travel from Dalry to Ardrossan—a privilege that not everybody has. Connectivity and access to good public transport are important, both socially and economically, for towns such as Ardrossan, especially as the rate of unemployment in North Ayrshire is above the Scottish average. Good transport links help people to join the job market and make their everyday lives easier.
I hope the cabinet secretary, in her closing remarks, will join me and other members in congratulating CHAP on its great work and its 25th anniversary and will outline how the Scottish Government will address some of the challenges that I have mentioned.
18:14
I thank Mr Gibson for his motion and for his on-going support and advocacy for the Community Housing and Advocacy Project, which is clearly a valued support for many in his constituency. I also thank him for providing the opportunity for me, on behalf of the Government, to reflect on the truly life-changing work that is delivered by the third sector across our country, including, of course, by CHAP, which complements and contributes to the Scottish Government’s priorities.
I have listened carefully to contributions during the debate, and I am heartened that members across the chamber so value the work of community-based organisations such as CHAP, which we all know are often a lifeline for struggling households. I have also heard their concerns about the fragility of the third sector, and I want to cover that in my remarks.
First, however, I am delighted to acknowledge the inspirational volunteers who founded CHAP and those who have carried its mission forward over 25 years. Their determination and commitment will undoubtedly have changed thousands of lives across Ayrshire. The Scottish Government recognises the skills, kindness and commitment of volunteers, and I put on the record, on behalf of the Scottish ministers, our thanks to them all.
Volunteers are the backbone of our third sector. They are the invisible threads that bind communities together. Hundreds of volunteers step forward and give their time freely. They make an extraordinary contribution to other people’s lives and support the wellbeing of our communities the length and breadth of the country. They are people who make vital contributions without fanfare and without reward, simply because they believe in a better society. Of course, volunteering benefits the volunteer as well, building skills, enhancing employability and supporting physical and mental wellbeing.
Our rich and vibrant third sector continues to make Scotland a better place. Although we invest heavily to support those organisations, I recognise the real pressures that they face, given the financial context. In light of that, we are committed to doing all that we can to improve their sustainability.
In that respect, we are delivering on our commitment to develop a fairer funding approach by providing more multiyear funding to third sector organisations that are delivering front-line services, providing the opportunity for the long-term planning and development that we know is so important. In that regard, Kenny Gibson recognised the funding that the Scottish Government has offered to CHAP this year to help to sustain its debt service while it explores sustainable funding solutions. That is vital support for the local community, given that there is an absence of other advice services in the area.
The cabinet secretary will be aware that many in the voluntary sector are suffering from the national insurance increase for employers, which is impacting on many charities. Should the United Kingdom Treasury look again at the impact that that has had on the charitable sector?
Yes, I whole-heartedly agree with that. Every third sector organisation or charity that I meet, virtually without exception, will mention to me the strain that the national insurance contribution change has placed on them. We will continue to advocate for the UK Government to change that policy, and I make that call again today.
I want to put on record how important a role support services play in contributing to the Government’s central aim of eradicating child poverty in Scotland and, ultimately, freeing children from the harm, pain and limitations of poverty. Members will know that we are due to publish by the end of March next year our third child poverty delivery plan, which will set out the actions that we intend to take in pursuit of our targets. I can be clear today that the third sector will be an important part of that.
We are also working with local authorities to deliver the fairer futures partnership programme. Supported by key local third sector organisations, it is tailored to local areas and co-designed with the community and is now working in 16 areas across Scotland, including North, East and South Ayrshire. It is important that we turn that best practice and groundbreaking work into business as usual.
I also want to mention the importance of that work to my housing portfolio. I spend a lot of time working with people who have lived experience of homelessness, and they often reflect three key points. First, as Kenneth Gibson alluded to, they tell me that, although most people can withstand one issue going wrong in their lives and many will be able to deal with two, most people who end up with two, three or four cumulative problems in their lives will find themselves unable to cope. That often leads to homelessness.
As the cabinet secretary said, many components are important to people’s lives, including jobs, housing and good connectivity. It would be good to hear a little about connectivity, because CHAP brought up that issue. It is great that there is multiyear funding coming into the area, but I would like to hear a bit more about connectivity, which is important to the many small towns that we have in Ayrshire in enabling people to access not only jobs but the services that are provided by CHAP.
I quite understand the demographic that Pam Gosal highlights, because it is reminiscent of my constituency, where there is no single major centre of population and there are lots of towns and villages. I am very seized of the issue that she mentions, and I know that the transport team in Government is, too. We are determined to work together to make sure that, for example, what the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice is doing in her portfolio and what I am doing in housing can be facilitated by what the transport team is working on.
The core issue for organisations such as CHAP is the insecurity of funding. Much of their resources has to go into chasing project funding—£10,000 here, £20,000 there—and it is extremely difficult for them to maintain a strong service, particularly when they have to be involved in all sorts of multifactorial issues that face individuals. Would it not be much more cost effective for the Scottish Government to ensure that, instead of organisations having to spend so much time chasing small amounts of money, there is solid core funding that enables them to consolidate the work that they do, thereby ultimately saving the Government money and people a lot of the pain that they have to go through if they do not have organisations such as CHAP to rely on?
Absolutely. I know that Mr Gibson has a keen understanding of those issues, owing to his time and position on the Finance and Public Administration Committee. He will understand that the Government itself has been bound by annualised budgets, which has had a knock-on effect on the third sector and others that we fund. Increasingly, we are seeking to move away from that arrangement and, through measures such as the fairer funding pilot work, we are trying to institute multiyear funding more often, because we understand the benefits that it offers in terms of planning and delivery.
I am conscious that I am over time, but I was just reflecting on the fact that people who have lived experience of homelessness raise three key points with me, the first of which is multiple issues going wrong. The second point is another that Mr Gibson reflected on, which is the energy that it takes to bring oneself out of a period of difficulty.
The third point—I will conclude on this—is the one that people with lived experience of homelessness raise most often with me, which is the importance of relationships that can help them to go from the period of crisis that they are in to a period in which they can move on with their lives. I think that that speaks, perhaps most of all, to the value of an organisation such as CHAP. As well as its exceptional expertise, it ultimately provides a human face, a kindness and a presence on the ground in our communities, standing shoulder to shoulder with people who need support, building relationships with them and, in doing so, building a bridge to the support that they need. I conclude by saying that that relationship, that expertise and that presence in our communities is absolutely central to the Government’s aims of eradicating child poverty and providing warm, safe and affordable homes as a foundational part of that.
Meeting closed at 18:24.Previous
Decision Time