Contents

Enabling Information: A report on improving access and raising standards in information services for disabled people and their carers in Scotland.

5 Funding

The development of effective information and advice provision depends on adequate and reliable funding.

5.1 Funding of national organisations

National information providers at UK level, and in Scotland, rely on grants made by central government. The trend in this funding involves a move away from funding on the basis of the core costs of the organisation to one which focuses on particular projects. This trend will inject more uncertainty into the present situation.

The final report by the project team on the NDIP project makes the point that compared with other areas, eg information about housing rights, the funding of organisations providing disability information is relatively generous. There is also quite a high level of funding of generalist advice services which can already meet many of the information needs of disabled people. For example, the Citizens Advice Bureau information system costs 1.5 million to produce annually.

One of the features of the funding of national organisations in Scotland is a wide variation in the level of funding between different organisations. Appendix 9 contains a list of grants made by the Scottish Office in the year 1993-94. The Working Group has felt constrained in the extent to which it can comment on these figures. Most of the organisations listed will be involved in active fund raising to supplement their grants, and they vary considerably in the level of their capital reserves. Furthermore it is not possible to specify what proportion of an organisation's funding is devoted to information services. The level of funding also bears some relation to the range of services provided by the organisation.

It can be seen from Appendix 9 that the funding of organisations which provide an information service as part of their remit ranges from 319,028 to Disability Scotland to 10,000 to the Disablement Income Group Scotland and 12,489 to DIAL Scotland.

The Working Group considers that the wide variation in funding at national level may be partly the result of the historical development of these organisations and that longer established organisations are often in a better position to receive funding than newer organisations.

One of the factors which limits national organisations in generating income from other sources, such as from sales of publications or other information products is the lack of purchasing power in the system. Disabled people and their carers are on lower than average incomes, and local information services frequently mentioned funding as a problem in responses to the Working Group's statement.

The Working Group believes that the Scottish Office Home and Health Department will remain the most important source of funding for national organisations. In allocating funding to national organisations the Scottish Office should ensure that these organisations are meeting national standards, and in particular that they are providing a service which meets the needs of their users.

5.2 Funding of local information and advice services

The funding of local services is to a large extent dependent on grants from local authorities. In addition, the Urban Programme can provide funding for projects in Areas of Priority Treatment (APTs), and has supported several information projects in Scotland which have subsequently gained main line funding from local authorities. In general the level of funding of local services means that these services usually have no long term stability and have an over-reliance on volunteers.

As has been discussed above, the practice of local authorities in relation to information varies widely as does the extent to which they support and collaborate with services in the independent sector. The move towards establishing more formal contractual relationships between local authorities and the independent sector through service level agreements will give voluntary organisations a longer term security and define more clearly the relationship between the sectors. In order to ensure that voluntary organisations continue to be accountable to users as well as to their funders, it is important that local authorities ensure that these organisations meet quality standards, in particular that the service is accountable to users.

Health boards also have a significant role in relation to funding as can be seen in joint initiatives such as Grapevine in Edinburgh. There is also a potential for the funding of advice services in health centres and hospitals.

5.3 Possible new structures

There will be funding implications as a result of some of the recommendations which the Working Group is making. Nonetheless, the Working Group believes that one of the results of a restructuring of the way in which information for disabled people is collected and disseminated will be greater value for money and a reduction in duplication of services. The effect of adopting national standards will have funding implications for local authorities, other service providers and for information services, in relation to training and the cost of equipment or adaptations necessary to improve accessibility of information to disabled people and carers.

5.3.1 Advisory body

As described above the cost of setting up the advisory body will depend on how it is done. Assuming that it is broadly acceptable for the advisory body to function under the auspices of an existing organisation, it seems likely that the cost of this will be significantly less than those involved in setting up an organisation from scratch. The following figures refer to the costs of using an existing organisation to provide premises for meetings and office space for staff and secretariat.

Central support

Staffing
Project development officer Part time personal assistant Courses/conferences Travel Total:	25,000 7,000 500 500
Committee expenses		33,000 15,000
Office expenditure and equipment
Supplies and stationery Postage Computer equipment Telephones Proportion of overheads	1,000 1,000 2,000 500 5,000
TOTAL		10,500 58,500
Funding to allow for
Development of national standards Monitoring of standards Forum of national providers (3 times a year) Annual conference Newsletter (4 times a year)	5,000 5,000 1,500 5,000 6,000
TOTAL OVERALL TOTAL		17,500 76,000

5.3.2 Scottish Disability Information Service

The costing is based on the use of an existing organisation.

Clearing house
Staff Policy Officer Information officer Training officer Computer support worker Admin staff (two full time) Travel Conferences/courses	20,000 17,000 18,000 20,000 25,000 2,000 1,500
TOTAL		103,500
Office equipment and expenditure Supplies and stationery Postage Computer equipment Telephone Proportion of office overheads	2,500 2,500 5,000 2,000 5,000
TOTAL		17,000
Creation of information products Publication costs Printing Newsletter	22,500 22,500 5,000
TOTAL OVERALL TOTAL		50,000 170,500