Active Communities Initiative
The next item of business is a statement by Jackie Baillie on the active communities initiative. The minister will take questions at the end of the statement, so there should be no interventions.
I am conscious of the time, so I will try to be brief.
Voluntary action, volunteering and community action are essential to the Scottish Executive's vision of creating an inclusive and mutually supportive society. We want to empower our communities, to make it easier for people to get involved, to strengthen their desire to get involved and to encourage more and higher-quality opportunities for participation.
The active communities initiative is a UK cross-Government programme first launched by the Prime Minister in January last year with the aim of promoting a step change in public involvement in the community. Scotland was represented on the UK working group by Liz Burns, the director of Volunteer Development Scotland. I welcome Liz to the public gallery today.
At the time of the launch, ministers agreed that there should be a clear and distinctive identity to the programme in Scotland, building on existing work and taking account of our social justice agenda. As a result, the Scottish active communities working group was established to advise on the development and implementation of the strategy in Scotland. Chaired by Laurie Naumann, it brought together an extensive range of expertise from across the public and voluntary sectors.
The working group identified four key objectives that underpin the strategy: first, to bring about a change in attitudes towards community activity; secondly, to increase the number of volunteers; thirdly, to draw in people from a wider range of backgrounds; and last, to act with other initiatives to promote a community empowerment approach. That provides us with a focus and a starting point. It assesses where we are and where we want to get to.
We wanted a strategy that would take account of particular Scottish circumstances, such as the better developed infrastructure of the voluntary sector and our compact with the sector. We wanted a strategy that would be cross-cutting, recognising the role of central and local government and the voluntary and private sectors. We also wanted a strategy that would be widely understood and disseminated and capable of commanding broad ownership and support.
The culmination of the working group's considerable time and personal effort—the report "Supporting Active Communities In Scotland"—was published earlier this year for consultation. At this point, I wish to record my personal thanks, and the thanks of the Scottish Executive, to members of the working group for their efforts.
Aside from the written consultation, which generated 140 responses—a summary of which is available on the Executive's website and from the Scottish Parliament information centre—there was a convention in Edinburgh and consultation roadshows in Castle Douglas, Dundee, Glasgow and Inverness. Many voluntary organisations held their own consultation events to discuss the strategy and I am grateful for their efforts. Overall, the responses were generally positive. At one event that I attended in my constituency in Dumbarton, I heard someone remark that it was refreshing and long overdue that a strategic approach was finally being taken to developing active communities.
The responses highlighted a number of issues: the need to cast the definition of volunteering and community participation as widely as possible; the need to balance a grass-roots or bottom-up approach with driving change through Government and voluntary sector networks; the need to ensure that we set realistic targets and time scales and monitor progress; the need to co-ordinate and link with other initiatives; the need to engage the public, private and voluntary sectors in taking forward the strategy; and, of course, the need to ensure adequate resourcing.
Although the strategy focused in the main on excluded groups, there is a need to recognise and support the voluntary and community work that is carried out by Churches and faith groups and in areas where volunteering is strong, such as sports and the arts.
In responding to the active communities strategy, the Executive is not starting from ground base zero. There is considerable commitment and support for the voluntary sector and volunteering on which we will build. In Scotland, we already have a strong and firm foundation, with some 600,000 people regularly giving of their time and effort, but we know that there are as many people again wanting to get involved, waiting to be asked. We need to harness that potential and to provide opportunities for more people to participate in their communities.
The Executive is committing some £6 million in support of the voluntary sector and volunteering infrastructures, with core funding for national bodies such as Volunteer Development Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations as well as support for the networks of CVS Scotland and volunteer development agencies.
We are also supporting the millennium volunteers project, a programme for government commitment that will see 1,000 young people each undertake 200 hours of voluntary work that will enhance their self development and benefit their communities. Other programmes that assist the development of volunteering and community activity include the unemployed voluntary action fund and the ethnic minority grant scheme. Last year, to support the active communities initiative, we funded five demonstration projects on volunteering, covering ethnic minority volunteering, rural volunteering, volunteering by disabled people and volunteering among older people. Those projects will help us to learn how best to involve people and to remove barriers to participation.
Yesterday, I was particularly pleased to meet Mrs Pettigrew at CSV Scotland. Mrs Pettigrew is a rather remarkable woman. She is 106 years old and Scotland's oldest volunteer. I can safely say that she was more alive than some of us. The project with which she volunteered involved older people and younger millennium volunteers doing reminiscence work and developing photographic archives.
The Executive endorses the draft strategy. We have been much impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment of those who have responded and we will match that. The Executive is the subject of a number of the action points, one of which is that a Scottish minister should be the active communities champion. I am delighted to have been asked to take on that role and it is my intention to report progress to Parliament annually.
While I commend the strategy to public, private and voluntary sectors alike, I am conscious of the need to provide guidance and support to make it a reality. Equally, a number of salient points that we wish to take on board were made by organisations during the consultation phase. For that reason I am announcing the establishment of an active communities forum that will oversee the implementation of the strategy and advise ministers of progress. Details of the composition of the forum will be provided to Parliament shortly.
In addition, I am pleased to announce an initial package of measures totalling £650,000 to move the strategy forward. It consists of £100,000 to establish an active communities development unit, based in Volunteer Development Scotland, which will be tasked with taking forward many of the practical action points. Secondly, £100,000 will promote volunteering and community action among older people, building on the work of CVS Scotland and Age Concern. A further £130,000 will support the Scottish employee volunteering initiative, the production of the media resource kit and TimeBank's campaign work in Scotland.
I said that the active communities strategy is aimed at involving excluded groups. One of the most excluded groups in society is people who are housebound. We shall fund a feasibility study to examine ways of enabling those who are housebound to participate in volunteering and in other community activities.
The package of £330,000 I have outlined is a first step in taking forward the strategy and a measure of the Executive's commitment to developing active communities. We shall announce the allocation of the remaining £300,000-plus for further projects during the year as ideas on taking forward the initiative develop.
Active communities, of place and of interest, are important across the whole range of areas for which the Executive has responsibility, whether it is education, health, housing, our cultural heritage or sport. The strategy will help us to build on the tremendous contribution that has already been made by the voluntary sector and volunteers across Scotland to build strong and active communities and bring about a positive view, at all levels, of volunteering and community action.
The benefits to the individual and to society are self-evident. Every man, woman and child has something to offer their community. The challenge for us all is to build strong and active communities that support our vision of a Scotland that is characterised by social justice and opportunity for all.
I commend the active communities initiative to Parliament.
The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow up to 20 minutes for questions, after which we will move to the next item of business.
I thank the minister for her courtesy in providing an advance copy of her statement and I welcome her appointment as the active communities champion because I know of her personal commitment to the voluntary sector.
As the minister said, volunteering has always been an important part of community life in Scotland; from those who help out in charity shops to those who offer specialised help to voluntary organisations, or those who simply go for the messages for an elderly neighbour. The active communities scheme is about more than just individual action; it is about how people get involved in all areas of community life.
One of the criticisms of the draft strategy was that it took a top-down approach that focused particularly on the role of statutory organisations, and that the majority of those on the working group were not from the voluntary sector. I am pleased that the minister has announced that she will set up an active communities forum to monitor the progress of the scheme, but will she guarantee that the forum will have a majority of voluntary sector participants on it?
The minister also announced funding of £650,000 to take the strategy forward. Will she confirm whether that is new money?
Finally, there was much criticism that the lines of communication between London and Scotland were not clear. What is the minister doing to address that criticism?
I congratulate Tricia Marwick on her new responsibilities. I look forward to working with her in future. She raises the essential point, which is that volunteering and community action are very much part of the fabric of community life in Scotland.
We were concerned to involve people from the voluntary sector and directly engage volunteers—and, equally, to involve people from the public sector organisations that need to learn that message. The active communities forum will have a balanced composition, but I am happy to give an assurance that the majority representation will come from the voluntary sector.
The £650,000 is part of the £6 million that we commit to supporting the voluntary sector and the volunteering infrastructure. Today, we are announcing the detail of how that money will be committed in line with the action points that were raised in the strategy.
Many members have indicated that they wish to ask questions, so it would be helpful if questions could be as brief as possible.
I welcome the statement. Does the minister agree that local development agencies, like councils of voluntary service and local volunteering agencies, are vital to achieving a bottom-up approach in supporting communities, that they encourage those who are excluded to participate and that they have a key role in developing active communities?
I can assure Cathy Peattie that we are clear on the need to ensure that there is a bottom-up approach to taking the strategy forward. An important part of that is building the capacity of the voluntary sector on the ground. Key to that will be local volunteering development agencies across Scotland—which we support to the tune of £1 million a year—and councils for voluntary service. As Cathy will know, we are undertaking a review of councils for voluntary service with a view, first, to completing the network to ensure that there is one in every area of Scotland and, secondly, to putting them on a stable funding regime. The review presents an opportunity to consider the role and the potential of councils for voluntary service in local communities. That also feeds into the strategy.
I too am grateful to the minister for the pre-release of the statement and I generally welcome the announcement. We welcome her appointment as the champion of the voluntary sector. While that is undoubtedly at lightweight, we have no doubt that she will punch her weight.
In generally welcoming the statement, we note especially that the £100,000 earmarked to promote volunteering and community action among older people is worthy of some praise. I am sure that the formidable Mrs Pettigrew would agree. However, I ask the minister to confirm that the £100,000 allocated to the active communities development unit is the only sum allocated to what is in effect a bureaucracy and that the rest of the funding will go to projects that support the sharp end of community activity.
I am curious about how long it took Bill Aitken to work out his joke.
It was entirely spontaneous.
It was spontaneous? He should not give up the day job.
The £100,000 for the active communities development unit is essential. I take issue with Bill Aitken when he says that it is simply for bureaucracy. The work of the unit will be strategic in putting forward guidance to a number of public sector agencies and to the private sector, to try to progress the essence of the strategy. The success of the strategy will depend on how successful we are in progressing the detailed action points around that, but equally around the media strategy group that will be set up to take forward some of the work. It is £100,000 that is well invested—the unit could not be described as a bureaucracy.
I too welcome the minister's statement and the resources. There had been serious concern at one stage that there would not be a distinctive Scottish approach, so we welcome that.
I wish to take up the point about active communities being not only about volunteering and to ask what steps the minister will take to ensure that the strategy expands into more active communities. That point has been made to me by volunteers in the community working on social inclusion partnerships. The problem, especially in the network, is that volunteers who get together to exchange information have a limited budget to allow them to do the vital work they need to do, for example to take part in SIPs.
I wish to ask about the TimeBank campaign. It is run by the Home Office, with a lot of co-operation from Scottish organisations, but there is concern that people who registered in February still do not have places allocated to them.
Finally, will the minister ask the forum to consider the perceived problem that people on benefits have difficulty volunteering because they have concerns about the impact volunteering would have on their benefits? What representations and monitoring will she undertake to ensure that everybody can volunteer and that we do not have selective volunteering?
We are keen to consider active communities beyond the concept of volunteering, which is why we are taking a community empowerment approach to the matter and why we are trying to put it within the wider social justice agenda.
Fiona Hyslop will be aware that over the summer, culminating in a seminar in the late summer or early autumn, we will discuss directly with social inclusion partnerships and the community representatives on them what additional support they require, not only in travel and child care, but to be equal partners at the table. That feeds into the strategy—close connections will be made between the two.
Fiona Hyslop is right—our negotiations with TimeBank were not all that we would have wanted them to be. Negotiations have continued and there is a much better relationship now. Indeed BBC Scotland is keen to take forward some of the volunteering initiatives and to present volunteering as new, exciting and part of the fabric of Scottish life. I am convinced that the minor difficulties that existed have been resolved.
Although benefits are reserved, I understand that the Department of Social Security is keen to encourage voluntary work because of its value to the individual and the community. Steps have been taken at an operational level and more can be taken. Jobseekers allowance, income support and incapacity benefit permit unlimited voluntary work, within certain conditions. We need to consider whether those conditions present barriers. That is one of the action points arising from the strategy that the active communities forum will take on board.
Will the minister seek to involve organisations such as the excellent Mark Scott Foundation—a foundation born from past tragedy that attempts to give hope for the future? As well as providing young people with the opportunity to volunteer it seeks to develop their leadership potential.
I entirely support foundations of that kind that engage young people in learning, volunteering and developing a range of life skills. To a large extent, such foundations exist because of charitable giving. In recent budget announcements on gifts of money, Gordon Brown has made us one of the most favourable countries in Europe for the voluntary sector. There is now more encouragement through taxation for people to dig deep and dig often in their pockets and to support foundations such as the one Hugh Henry refers to.
I join in the welcome for the statement and the minister's appointment—there is no one more suited to that role.
Does the Executive have a strategy to secure longer-term and more stable funding for the large number of voluntary sector groups that are funded through local government? Will the Executive be able to support such groups? Will the minister elaborate a little on how she sees her role as active communities champion—what does it mean in a practical, day-to-day way?
Robert Brown will be aware of our compact with the voluntary sector, which clearly sets out the responsibilities of the Executive and its agencies on funding. To supplement that, on 13 June we published good practice guidance notes. It is of course one thing to issue guidance and another to monitor and follow up progress. There is an opportunity, as we report progress on the compact to Parliament annually, to see how we have done and to look at areas for improvement.
I see my role as champion for the active communities initiative as working alongside those with expertise who will be represented on the active communities forum. It will be about saying that volunteering has a special place in Scottish society, not just in its traditional and well loved forms but as a wider approach based on principles of community empowerment. We know that strong communities give rise to stronger individuals. That is the kind of vision that I will be promoting as the champion.
I too welcome the statement. From what the minister said, she clearly agrees with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations that a radical shift is needed from the top-down culture pervading public service delivery towards a community-led and empowered ownership of the means to address community needs and issues. However, will she accept that at present there is little evidence that such a policy shift is being implemented or even considered comprehensively? Will she actively champion such change in her exciting new role?
I cannot take the excitement, Kenny.
I assure Kenny Gibson that the Executive is committed to a bottom-up approach. Community planning represents one opportunity. Another opportunity that we are piloting is locality budgeting in communities such as Easterhouse and Wester Hailes, where the community is sitting down alongside all the agencies providing services in their area to have a discussion about priorities within that area and the reallocation of budgets. I am happy to champion something that is already going on.
I welcome Jackie Baillie's comments on how we take volunteering and active communities forward. I draw her attention to uniformed and non-uniformed voluntary youth organisations that make a vital contribution to Scottish communities. They are concerned about the financial implications of implementing police checks, which may threaten their viability and deter volunteers—especially those from deprived communities who might be put off volunteering if it has a cost. Does the minister agree that it is essential to recognise and address those concerns if we are to ensure that the voluntary youth sector is supported and volunteering is to be encouraged to be inclusive?
I recognise, as Karen Whitefield outlined, that many concerns have been expressed by the voluntary sector, Churches, faith groups and uniformed organisations. That is why we set up a review group that included Volunteer Development Scotland, the SCVO, YouthLink Scotland—which represents the uniformed bodies—and the Scottish Churches to examine part V of the Police Act 1997. The group was set up to examine the costs of the proposed checks and to consider the administrative burden that would have to be borne by small voluntary organisations to comply with the code of practice.
Our current deliberations focus on whether there is a possibility of establishing a central register body to assist the voluntary sector, which would be similar to the pre-employment consultancy service model in Northern Ireland. At this stage we have not covered the topic of the cost of checks, although it is in the forefront of our minds, because we must scope the likely demand from the voluntary sector.
I assure Karen Whitefield that we are mindful of those issues. However, I stress that having a Scottish Criminal Record Office check does not replace the need for the voluntary sector to have robust and effective child protection policies.
I too welcome the minister's statement, the strategy and her appointment as champion—which just confirms what we already knew.
If we are going to ensure a bottom-up approach, what action will the Executive take to end the artificial bureaucratic structural division between voluntary organisations and volunteering? Will she agree that what we ideally need—I know this already happens—is that in each community, not just each local authority area, there is a one-stop shop for voluntary organisations seeking advice and for those who want to volunteer to find out more about volunteering?
I will reiterate, in a slightly different way, the point Robert Brown made. What action is the Executive taking to diversify the income stream of voluntary organisations so that they do not become too dependent on any one source? That hampers organisations in many areas, especially those that are dependent on finance from local authorities.
What is important is not the structure, which in some senses was Keith Raffan's first point, but how we operate on the ground. We must recognise that volunteers are the lifeblood of the voluntary sector. Keith Raffan alluded to the point that co-location of services often exists. There is great co-operation in communities between volunteering interests and voluntary sector interests—whether it be a one-stop shop or one organisation collaborating with another to provide the same services in different parts of the community, which is a model that I have seen elsewhere and which we could usefully examine—because they are mutually dependent
Diversity of income is critical. The voluntary sector recognises that and has done a lot of work on donated income; the SCVO set up a working group to examine how to maximise it.
The Executive is setting up a community investment fund of £10 million, which will enable social economy organisations with income to tap into a source of loan funding so that they can grow their organisations. We will constantly search for diverse methods of funding. We regularly meet the National Lottery Charities Board, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and other funders to agree ways forward.
I, too, warmly welcome the minister's appointment as a champion—if anyone deserves that title, she does. Fiona Hyslop, who is a fellow member of the Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee, and I recently met community activists from social inclusion partnerships in the Dundee area. They stressed the importance that they attach to the establishment of a national association or network of community activists which would allow them to become more equal partners with government.
Can the minister assure the Parliament that when she meets community activists she will take on board their criticism that the £50,000 that has been allocated to set up the network is inadequate and that more resources will have to be found to create a genuine national network that will allow them to become equal partners with government?
That is why we want to talk directly to community representatives in social inclusion partnerships over the summer. I recognise that experience has varied. Some of the older established partnerships are functioning very well. Those with dedicated resources for community representatives are functioning very well, but elsewhere there are struggles, which we want to address.
Last year, we gave funding to the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum with a view to supporting and sustaining networks of this nature. In recognition of the issues that John McAllion raises, we gave additional funding to the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations to develop that network further. We see this a starting point. I hope that in our dialogue with community representatives we can identify key issues that we can address for them.