In response to proposals from the City of Edinburgh Council to cut budgets to services for children, young people and families Bridie Ashrowan our Chief Executive led a deputation to the Finance and Resources Committee meeting on Tue 7 Feb 2023. This also involved Laurene Edgar (Director, LAYC), Amanda Farquhar (Co-Chair, SW Locality Operational Group) and Andy Thomas (Co-Chair NE Locality Operational Group).
You can watch the deputation here (starts at 0:59:00)
You can read the Council paper that includes details of the proposals here.
Our key asks from the committee were:
- More clarity around the proposals, the language used in relation to grants and funding mentioned and the potential areas of duplication mentioned.
- A collaborative approach that involves the community and voluntary sector that is also informed by best practice.
We note that big budget challenges need us to be brave and focus on early prevention.
- We highlighted the ongoing return on investment provided by the community and voluntary sector that was recently evidenced in an Edinburgh IJB paper – £3 return on every £1 invested.
The deputation was warmly welcomed by both members of the Committee and people in the Chamber. In response to a number of follow-up questions the deputation team highlighted Edinburgh’s Locality Operational Groups (LOGs) as an existing example of effective cross-sector collaboration along with other models of good practice that might be explored – the community commissioning approach used for Edinburgh’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund.
The Committee also thanked the deputation for their offer of further discussions and collaborations and this will be actively followed up.
Third Force News reported on the proposed cuts on Fri 6 Feb 2023. Read the article here.
Further Evidence of the Impact of Our Sector’s Return on Investment
In 2019 we made a survey of 22 organisations who received funding from the City of Edinburgh Council Communities & Families Grant Funding:
- They received a combined £1,284,865 and raised £2,845,701 more for their services from other sources
- They supported 6769 children/young people, 470 parents and 1,840 families
