The beginning of February has seen a flurry of announcements of direct relevance to the charity sector. Richard Sagar, CFG's Head of Policy, takes a look at the policy details.
The Government has offered its response to the Kruger Report on civil society, and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund: pre-launch guidance has also appeared. But perhaps of greatest importance is the launch of the much anticipated (and much delayed) Levelling Up white paper.
As others have pointed out, the overall sense from the almost 400-pages long document is that the ambitions laid out are noble ones. The 12 Levelling up missions offer a renewed focus to address spatial economic disparities throughout the United Kingdom.
A role for civil society
The paper also signals a step change in that government recognises the importance that social infrastructure has for our collective wellbeing. There is also a frequent acknowledgement that civil society has an important role to play working in partnership with public and private sectors to overcome the challenges outlined in the paper.
It is also positive that the Levelling Up Advisory Council has representation from Civil Society, with Sacha Romanovitch, CEO of Fair4all Finance, providing advice on matters relating to the design and delivery of levelling up. Romanovitch will be a lone voice as civil society's only representative, sitting alongside colleagues from the private and public sectors.
In addition, there will be a number of expert advisory sub-committees, but the membership of these is currently unclear, although their themes listed include 'local communities and social infrastructure' i.e. examining the role of neighbourhood policies and strategies for building community capacity in left behind areas. We would hope to see strong representation from the charity and voluntary sector on this sub-committee.
It is also hard to determine exactly how else the charity sector will be engaged directly in the delivery of this ambitious programme. As plans develop, we can expect to be engaged in representing the interests of service users and beneficiaries, and working to have their voices heard.
The biggest criticism we have of the white paper is the lack of tangible investment. There are three pieces of funding that relate directly to the charity sector (aside from the Shared Prosperity Fund which we shall address later):
- £44m from dormant assets, of which £20m will go through the Youth Futures Foundation to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. It’s a multi-year programme, yet it doesn’t specify for precisely how long the funding will be for. But it will focus on young people progressing into work in their local area.
- £20m to Access (the Foundation for Social Investment) to provide finance to over 1,000 charities in the more deprived areas in England.
- £4m to Fair4all Finance to provide affordable consolidation loans for people in financially vulnerable circumstances.
While these additional pots of money are to be welcomed, they aren’t remotely sufficient to match the scale of the problem outlined in much of the white paper.
Big concerns about the UKSPF
Perhaps the most concerning announcement did not come directly from the Levelling Up white paper, but from the accompanying UK Shared Prosperity Fund: pre-launch guidance.
It confirmed what was announced at the Spending Review: that the amount provided (£2.6bn by March 2025) will not match the amount provided by the EU.
So far so bad, but there was also further bad news that funding for ‘people and skills’ will not begin until 2024-25. This is deeply disappointing as it would support those furthest from the labour market to develop skills and overcome labour market barriers. However, the guidance does state 'we will maintain the flexibility to fund voluntary sector organisations delivering locally important people and skills provision, where this is at risk due to the tail off of EU funds.'
There is at least a commitment to provide stop-gap funding for projects that are winding down in the interim. Although with ESiF funding running out, 2024-25 will be too late to support many projects and therefore could fall short on the Government's mission to reduce economic inequality across the UK.
Final thoughts
There is much to commend in the Government taking a new approach to building social capital and prioritising wellbeing within the economy, but it is too soon to tell how much impact that this will have on overall government policy.
As Pro Bono Economics have pointed out much of the success of this programme of work will depend on how much buy-in occurs outside DCMS and DLUHC, particularly if there is buy-in within the Treasury. If additional money is not made available, then the ambitious 12 missions to level up the UK will not be delivered.
Aside from the scepticism and concerns about some of the specific policy announcements, there is much to embrace for civil society here. It is up to us to try to work with the Government, to push them further and ensure delivery of the funding which will make the levelling up ambition a reality.