4. Will the Deputy Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's support for the voluntary sector in Montgomeryshire? OAQ53647

In 2018-19, Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations received £315,957 in core funding to help local community and voluntary sector organisations with fundraising, good governance and volunteering.   

Thank you for your answer, Deputy Minister. A Voice for You has provided citizen advocacy for people with learning disabilities in my constituency for over 30 years, and they are certainly concerned about the effect of the potential reduction of core funding that they receive from the local authority, and I share much of Lynne Neagle's views in her question that she brought to you and raised with you a few moments ago. This organisation is in the same position as many others. If they lose their core funding, then this makes it extremely difficult for them to secure match funding from other avenues as well. I wonder how you believe the Welsh Government can support this particular issue. Clearly, if we can lever in third party sector funding, this is extremely helpful to support our voluntary bodies, but they can't do that if they are losing that funding from local authority sources.

Clearly, the funding that we provide to Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations is key to providing that infrastructure support for organisations like A Voice for You, in terms of citizens' advocacy. And, we also need to look at the ways in which we support organisations, for example, through the community facilities programme. Capital grants can be extremely helpful, and I'm sure you will have welcomed the fact that there's £500,000 in capital grants to two community projects in Montgomeryshire. You're probably aware of them. So, we are trying to find other ways to lever in funding.

But also, the crucial point that we're making in terms of European transition funding is that we are looking into ways that we can support voluntary sector and third sector organisations of the kind that you mention. But, it is a key pillar in terms of sustainability of funding. Much of our discussion last week at Gofod3 was about ways in which we can support the voluntary sector and third sector in those communities, of the kinds that you've said today, which are crucial because they are, clearly, volunteer led and they are providing a service.

I'd like to refer the Minister back to points that I've raised with her before, with regard to services provided through the third sector for women and girls needing support. I'm thinking particularly of domestic abuse and of rape support services. We know that those are very often most effective if they are small, locally led and locally supported, and with the active participation of volunteers. We know that providing those services can be particularly challenging in rural communities like Montgomeryshire, like the whole of Powys. We also know that those services are increasingly under pressure from large commercial companies that tender against them when local authorities or community safety partnerships or whichever public bodies are putting out the tenders. What further steps can the Deputy Minister take to ensure that those local services, led by women and girls and provided for women and girls, continue to receive the public support that they need in order to ensure that the services that really meet the needs of those communities are not some kind of top-down model from big commercial companies, which we know often don’t meet the needs, and we also know often, in the end, are not sustainable.

Not surprisingly, this question came up directly to me last Thursday at the Gofod3 event. We know what impact the whole commissioning regime has had in terms of sometimes smaller organisations—local organisations cannot compete within that environment. We know also that there are funding streams that actually respond to regional as well as local funding arrangements. But it’s very clear that we need to ensure that, for those local organisations who can prove that they are providing a service that is needed, meeting the requirements and the specifications, there should be a level playing field in terms of their opportunities.

One of the points I made at a conference yesterday, organised by Welsh Women’s Aid for leadership in the public sector, was that we need to look at and listen to the voices of survivors and also local communities and volunteers who have the experience of what local women and people need.