Maeve Monaghan, the Chief Executive of the NOW Group has sent out a warning signal that many charities and social enterprises will be wiped out as the transition from European Social Funding to new forms of financial support will not make it to those who need it in time.
She also claims that thousands of participants – for example, those with disabilities, autism and economically inactive on the cusp of entering the labour market – will be left without any support as the organisations delivering vital programmes will be forced to shut.
The comments come as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Plan for Northern Ireland has been published by the UK Government. Monaghan says that time has now run out for many organisations who have used any funding up to sustain day to day running and depleted reserve funds in the struggle for survival, especially post pandemic.
Maeve Monaghan, Chief Executive, NOW Group said: “Despite the UK Government promising for several years now that a smooth transition from European Social Funding to Shared Prosperity Funding would happen, it simply has failed to materialise in the way it needs to.”
“This promise was to ensure that the many thousands of vulnerable participants on programmes assisting them into employment or helping to train and skill them in the right way would not be impacted. This is now all in jeopardy as many of the organisations who provide these programmes will be forced to close.”
“As a sector we are facing a cliff edge and have only months left to go before we will start to see automatic closure. Many organisations are right this minute preparing to send their members of staff notification of potential redundancies as we face Christmas.”
“The launch of an investment plan and the outlining of potential funding does nothing to support organisations right now. The sector is in extremely difficult position and we only expect it to get worse in the first quarter of the new year.”
“This is such a stressful position to be placed in despite planning, and it is creating chaos in every organisation. There are huge fears that due to the amount of time it has taken to get to this point that many organisations in the social economy and charities will simply have to shut as they run out of money.”
“We are calling on our local representatives here and decision makers in London to bring renewed focus for the need to bridge the funding gap. Many are facing business failure through no fault of their own and the government now needs to take greater responsibility and be accountable for their actions in causing this chaos.”
