Public sector partners across Dumfries and Galloway have made a commitment to move towards fully embedding Fair Funding principles for the region’s voluntary sector over the next three years.
The move will ultimately give local charities, community groups and social enterprises greater funding security.
The Community Planning Partnership (CPP) Board backed a new partner strategy on Friday, developed with Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway (TSDG).
It commits partners, including NHS Dumfries and Galloway, South of Scotland Enterprise, the Health and Social Care Partnership and the Local Authority, to move away from short-term, inconsistent funding and towards a more strategic, sustainable approach.
Funding has often been short-term and fragmented despite a longstanding partnership with the third sector, with aims now to include introducing full cost recovery and consistent practice between partners.
“A coordinated approach, supported by TSDG, can enable partners to move at pace while recognising different starting points and constraints,” TSDG noted in the strategy paper endorsed by the Board. “Without this support, there is a risk that Fair Funding remains partially implemented rather than being embedded in practice.”
Under the strategy, partners will move through phases of awareness, adoption and normalisation over three years. Commitments include:
- Multi-year, outcomes-focused funding in place of short-term, project-based grants
- Full cost recovery and inflation-linked uplifts built into funding decisions
- Support for Fair Work principles, including the Real Living Wage
- A dedicated Lead Officer for Fair Funding, offering one-to-one support to each partner
- A new tool to record all public sector investment in the sector, with TSDG reporting annually to the CPP on collective spend
- A shared baseline and set of metrics to track progress across all partners
Alan Webb, Chief Executive at TSDG, said: “Over the last few years, our local third sector has made significant progress as a true partner with our public sector, with a presence in every partnership decision making space. But we also know that without the long-term investment in our sector’s capacity, resources and our collective contribution to outcomes for our communities, our potential remains limited.
“I am delighted that the CPPB has endorsed full adoption of Fair Funding for our sector across Dumfries and Galloway. We will now take the lead to work with partners and our sector to maximise the benefits for all.”
The approach is grounded in national Fair Funding guidance issued by the Community Planning Improvement Board, which calls for funding relationships built on trust, a focus on outcomes over activity, and minimal restriction on how funding is used.
In practice, this means CPP partners will move towards funding terms of three years or more, flexible and unrestricted core funding, and application and reporting processes that are proportionate to the size and nature of the work being funded.
TSDG will lead delivery of the strategy locally, acting as coordinator, data partner and adviser to partners, and providing tools, templates and peer learning to help organisations apply Fair Funding in practice.
Partners will begin to work with TSDG on baseline data collection, a partner-wide registration and evaluation approach, and a shared framework for measuring progress, ahead of the first annual report on collective investment in the sector.