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Government funding guidelines 'could cut funding'

By Marianne Powell, Third Sector Online, 2 May 2008

The National Equality Partnership fears that new draft guidelines from the Communities and Local Government department could reduce the funding available and is encouraging charities to make their views known.

Last year, the department published a report that recommended that single-group funding, which is awarded to organisations with particular ethnic or cultural identities, should be the exception, not the rule. The new guidance, Cohesion Guidance for Funders, does not contain the same recommendation, but looks at the scenarios when single-group funding might be appropriate or not.

The National Equality Partnership, which is the lead body in the equality and diversity ChangeUp national support service, raised concerns that moving away from single-group funding would discriminate against ethnic minority groups.

It wants charities to take part in the department’s consultation and is holding a series of free events for them to discuss it.

“We’re already seeing a loss of funding,” said Isabel Hudson, interim programme manager for the National Equality Partnership. “We’re encouraging all third sector organisations to engage with the consultation, even if they don’t think it is affecting them, because it will have wider implications for the sector.”

The free events will be held on 8 May in Bristol and 15 May in Leeds.