Reading’s ruling Tory-LibDem Coalition has “suspended” the grants process for up to 100 local charities with immediate effect, the Council admitted in a press release late on Friday.
All local charities that have been getting “core funding grants”, and had been told to apply for 2011-12 funding by 4 October, ranging from Readibus (£390,000 this year) down to Caversham Globe (which got £329), “will be reviewed”, the Compact Steering Group (a partnership between voluntary organisations the Council and other funders) was told last week (see attached). Groups have to wait until the year’s end to be told if they will go on being funded or be subject to “transitional arrangements”.
There is no indication of the criteria for the Coalition’s reviews, nor of any possibility of appealing a review decision to cut or end funding.
Labour’s Bet Tickner, who was at the Compact meeting, explains: “The Coalition wants to move away from voluntary groups getting annual grants to the Council ‘contracting out’ services as and when it wants. But voluntary groups need core funding if they are going to be there when the time comes to bid! And contracting out tends to exclude small groups who work, often in innovative ways, with people the major charities don’t reach
“More important still, our voluntary groups need core funding if they are going to be there when the public in Reading go to them for help!
“This ‘review’ is stealthily paving the way for major cuts to funding for Reading charities through which the Council has long supported vital services for the elderly, disabled and vulnerable adults and children, and other disadvantaged groups. The guarantee of continuity which Labour maintained for so many years is to go, and it could leave people stranded at home or without the care they need to live with dignity.
“It’s a dramatic if poorly publicised move sitting very oddly with Mr Cameron’s Big Society - when he came to Reading in January he talked of being “more ambitious” for what the voluntary sector could bring! Moreover it sits very badly with the Tory-LibDem Coalition’s leaked plans to reduce community care in Reading.
“The Coalition are creating huge uncertainty for voluntary groups – those that employ staff, and lease premises or IT equipment now have no idea whether they should act responsibly by giving notice to end all those agreements by 31 March 2011 or gamble that somehow or other they’ll be able to keep them going.
“Labour in Reading worked for quarter of a century to build up a supportive but performance-oriented partnership with the town’s rich and varied voluntary sector. Within four months of the Tories taking control they’ve put a wrecking ball through a well tried and tested system and erected huge question marks over the future of every voluntary group in town, including some that have served this town and its people for decades. No Big Society here, just small minds.
“Labour in Reading is proud of its record with the voluntary sector, and we will fight to stop that legacy being destroyed.”
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