Sector instability warning in open letter to Greater Manchester commissioners
The Greater Manchester VCFSE Leadership Group has written an open letter to commissioners in the city-region calling for urgent action to support and protect the local voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector due to significant systemic issues.
The open letter notes that the sector has endured years of challenges, including:
Contracts that fail to keep pace with inflation and relevant pay scale.
Delayed decisions that undermine the ability to plan.
A lack of funding uplifts, even as operational costs surge.
Lack of long-term funding.
Lack of a level playing-field in commissioning decisions.
On top of this, new financial pressures such as the recent increase to National Insurance Contributions, which has been forecast as an additional £20,000–£50,000 annually per organisation, have increased the strain.
The open letter asks for an open and honest dialogue with commissioners to protect the future of the sector in the city-region. Whilst support has already been seen from local and GM leaders, including Mayor Andy Burnham and Councillor Arooj Shah who called on Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, to urgently reconsider proposed NIC changes to protect the VCFSE sector in Greater Manchester, the open letter calls upon commissioners to support their shared vision of a thriving sector.
Organisations have already been forced to make staff redundancies, to make real-time pay cuts and to scale back services, leaving the most marginalised members of society without essential services.
Without consideration of increased costs for VCFSE organisations, continued short-term and unreliable funding, and a lack of consistency, transparency and dialogue from commissioners, the valuable and much-needed VCFSE sector in Greater Manchester is at risk.
The Leadership Group, for which VSNW act as secretariat, are dedicated to promoting the role and involvement of the sector in Greater Manchester (GM).
Find out more about their work: www.vcfseleadershipgm.org.uk/our-work