Thursday, November 30, 2006

Sticky times for Shopmobility

The plight of Shopmobility illustrates the problem that voluntary organisations face when they are built up on time limited funding such as the lottery.

Tory Councillors should be wary of immediately criticisng a "cruel Council" for not doing more when it already funds part of the service. It could be argued that now the lottery money has run out the Council should increase its funding due to the excellent work of the organisation, but this might have to be at the expense of the other services, so any changes that "mainstream" Shopmobility as a local Council discretionary service. should be done through the budget appraisal process rather than on its own. Other organisations in a similar situation might apply, so unless a fair process exists, how do we treat all voluntary organisations fairly?

More and more nowadays sustainable funding needs to be a key prerequisite for an appraisal process for pump-priming the start of a new project unless its aims are specifically time limited.

No doubt the Council will put a few more pounds in to the project in due course, but I suspect this will be on the basis of a revised SLA that seeks an ongoing comittment to efficiency savings such as shared back-office functions with other appropriate bodies.

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