‘It’s the knock-on effect’:

5th August 2024

The cost-of-living crisis and Glasgow’s third sector

Research findings from Strathclyde University and GCVS

This guest blog shares research findings from a small focus group study conducted in partnership between GCVS and Strathclyde University’s Department of Work, Employment and Organisation. Participants included a range of people working in Glasgow’s third sector.

Understanding the Challenges

At a time of great political change in UK politics, third sector organisations and the communities they support across Glasgow, are struggling financially. Costs associated with inflation, such as fuel and food costs, are some of the factors that have made delivering effective and equitable services very challenging. We therefore set out to understand the nature of this challenge and what could possibly be done.

The seismic issues: work intensification, funding cuts, increased costs, recruitment challenges

The cost-of-living crisis has increased anxiety and precarity across the third sector in Glasgow. A major issue for workers and volunteers was ‘work intensification’. Increases were reported in the pace and volume of work. Funders were felt to be demanding more for less or the same, and frequently posts were not renewed. This also increased the level of work, whereby posts were often changed, and it was increasingly expected that workers would take on the tasks of team leaders.

Funding is always an issue of strategic importance for third sector organisations. Increasingly, however, the focus groups uncovered evidence of the use of short-term funding arrangements, funding being frozen or cut, and oversubscribed. This drastically restricted the provision of good employment contracts and future planning. There was also debate about the ethics of setting up services which were only funded for short periods. This had two elements, firstly, trust is important in delivering good services and people accessing services need stability to enable them to engage with services well, something which is not possible with short-term services which may be withdrawn at the end of the funding contract due to no further funding. Secondly, staff are being employed on short-term contracts only, which does not give them security in their employment leading to people leaving before the end of contracts and further compounding issues around trust with service users.

Tighter and more challenging funding arrangements were also coupled with increased project costs, building costs, travel costs, and personal costs of staff. A common view was that, if you owned a building, you may have thought it would enable a sustainable income stream, but ‘that’s really being hit tough, and there’s no money’.

Coupled with work intensification, funding challenges, and ever-increasing costs, were challenges associated with people: recruiting and retaining good workers, precarious contracts, lower wages, competition between workers, and attrition. Short-term funding was found to enable growth in precarious contracts, enable lower wages, meaning workers now needed to be ever more flexible and mobile to achieve roles they were passionate about.

Long waits for access to statutory services was a theme, and partially blamed for an increase in the complexity and level of needs which people were coming into services with. This, in turn, required more pastoral support for staff. This contributed to staff burnout.

‘It’s the Knock-On Effect’

The cost-of-living crisis followed quickly after covid pandemic measures, which saw many third sector services adapt quickly to support people during the lockdowns. It was noted by some focus group participants that this is only the latest in a list of issues that have impacted many areas of society, including the third sector: austerity, pandemic then cost-of-living crisis, with little time for staff to recover from the intensification which each of these crises had brought.  

‘we’ve not really had the period to recover terms of well-being and energy and demand’.

The culmination of the cost of living and its ongoing impact was therefore across many levels and, in our data, best understood through its knock-on effects throughout organisations.

‘it’s the knock-on effect and the way through the organisation: the person coming in the door, the person supporting them, the person that manages that person. I’m spending most of my day trying to make the budget balance because of all these increased costs. So they’ve got more to worry about. And they’ve got all the way through that process more support needed. It’s actually, when you start to talk about it, really concerning.’ 

How have things moved on?

Some organisations reported ways they are attempting to ameliorate some of the above issues for staff and volunteers. Some ideas included moving to a 4-day week, offering expenses in advance to volunteers, and some flexible working arrangements such as some time working from home. Other services were attempting to change the way services were offered, for example, offering a less intensive service earlier in the process so that people did not wait for so long for support. This fits in with what was seen as a decrease in the importance and funding of preventative services in the public sector.

Perhaps with a new Labour government at a UK level, things will improve for Glasgow’s voluntary sector. But major risks and tensions remain.

Share your experiences

Do you recognise some of these issues in your organisation?

Is there anything you’ve found helpful for staff and people accessing services?  Or successful changes you have implemented to address recent challenges?

Would you like to contribute to the conversation? We would love to hear from you.

Please share your thoughts with GCVS and the University by using this link.