A lack of clarity over social services funding has put Peel volunteering services in jeopardy, according to Labor and volunteering professionals.
Peel Volunteer Resource Centre Manager Vicki Pollard said the federal government has been unclear about how funding will be applied to volunteering support, with no clear future plan for budgeting the sector.
“Half of our funding comes from the federal government, and to really have no information on when and were the funding will come from, it just creates a lot of issues,” Ms Pollard said.
“Without a clear idea of where funding is coming from, what am I supposed to tell my staff? What am I supposed to tell all of the programs that we help manage, when I can’t guarantee we’ll be there six months from now?”
Several local and national volunteering organisations responded to the news that $12.1 million in funding would be cut from the federal government’s Stronger Communities Fund this week, with no information so far on alternative funding.
“I can understand if the government is trying to change over the model, and it would make sense to streamline it,” Ms Pollard said.
“But at this stage it’s incredibly difficult to work out what’s going on. The grants we’ve been given were until July this year, which were then extended to December, and – as I learnt late Friday night – now until next year.
“I’m trying to budget for a very large volunteer management program, and I can’t do that when I’ve got no guarantee we will have funding next year.”
In an interview with Pro Bono Australia, Volunteering Australia CEO Brett Williamson said the DSS grants structure promised to provide greater certainty for service providers through longer-term funding arrangements.
“But if anything, the volunteering sector has been beset with more uncertainty as a result of this restructure and the budget only exacerbates that,” he said.
Mandurah MLA and state Shadow Minister for Volunteering David Templeman slammed the government’s decision, saying it will directly affect volunteer services’ abilities in Mandurah and throughout the state.
“This huge cut to this program threatens the viability of the Peel Volunteer Resource Centre because the centre is partly funded by the Volunteer Management Grants Program and the Volunteer Innovation and Collaboration Grants Scheme,” he said.
A DSS spokesperson said the 2015/2016 budget included additional funding of $12.5 million over the existing funding model, used to provide grants, with the shorter funding times put in place to “ensure future funding decisions could align with emerging government priorities”.
