At the launch of REACH Community Health Project's new national programme, on 19th December 2006, Health Minister Andy Kerr spoke of his "endless frustration" that good projects close because of lack of secure funding. He also said that in his previous role as Finance Minister he had wanted to offer local authorities 3year funding cycles to allow for budgetary planning. What is your experience of how projects are sustained in your area? What can be done to end the minister's frustration?

Its not just the Health Minister who is frustrated by the lack of commitment to sustainabiltiy - we all are.

I fear the Government has either failed to inform us of possible funding streams or they are perhaps living in cloud cuckoo land.

Its common sense that anything that costs money to set up and run for three years is STILL going to cost money in subsequent years if its to continue.....now call me naive if you like but surely that cash has to come from somewhere?

Its unlikely to come from Local Authority or NHS budgets since they struggle to maintain current services let alone take on the financial responsibility for new ones.

I too have seen some sterling community development work lost simply because no one is willing to fund it. This, despite excellent evaluations and community support. Whats even more frustrating is that the services provided by these projects often surface in a much diluted form three years later when funding for 'new developments' become available.

In my opinion the minister might be less frustrated if he actually took on board what community workers have been telling hs predecessors for years, ie. three year funding cycles dont work. The work we are involved in is generational and not a quick fix.

Hi Christine
Thank you for your very coherent remarks in response to my initial comment on this topic.
Hi to the over a thousand other folk who had a peak but didn't feel moved to respond! Please, please, please tell us if that is because our site was too difficult to work out HOW to respond. We are now promoting on our home page information to encourage organisations to offer an opportunity to prospective candidates for Local Authority elections and the Scottish Parliament elections to speak AND be questioned in a local hustings meeting. However when we speak to people around the country they seem to view this as having the potential danger of being perceived as 'trouble makers' While I appreciate that no organisation wants to be seen in a bad light locally, I do think the next few weeks offer a UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY to raise awareness of the work undertaken in community health initiatives and to bring it to the attention of potential politicians who will shortly be in the position of making decisions around the allocation of resources. If you are in any doubt let me quote what Mark Ballard MSP mentioned in his key note speech yesterday at 'Equipping the Community and Voluntary Sector for Health Improvement' conference, about being lobbied. He said "At the parliament we are always being lobbied by the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing and other professional bodies. They are clear about what they do and clear about what they want us to do for them. You should never miss a photo opportunity. Use it to get political buy in. Recognise your power. You are too impartant to continue to be the 'Cinderella' of health improvement delivery in Scotland. Develop the skills for PR, presentation and lobbying use those well to solve your problems of sustainability. Raising awareness of your existence and what you do would be a major step forward" What do people think?

CHEX continues to get reports from accross the country of funding uncertainty and in some instances cuts or clawbacks. One local authority has told voluntary organisations that it needs to make savings and so is asking for underspend money back from community and voluntary sector organisations. 'What underspend?' However I am heartened that some collective action is happening. CVS Fife worked with local organisations to reverse planned cuts earlier this year and the Ediburgh Community Food Initiative has just stopped the imminent loss of further funding in a swiftly organised campaign. CVS Inverclyde tells me they are organising 'Getting to know you' events so that organisations can get to know the local councillors and that a previous event resulted in one councillor discovering that what he thought was a council run child care service was in fact run by a voluntary organisation! Getting together with other organisations in the same position offers real possibilities of making a difference and having your collective voice heard. Local CVSs or other networks or Fora also offer this possibilities. These are the things that can be done. Any more good stories out there?