Good Dog SPOT? Single Pot Funding of Local Voluntary and Community Groups

Abstract

This paper reports on a recent pilot project by the English government aimed at introducing ‘single pot’ funding for local voluntary and community groups. It finds that implementation difficulties undermined the success of the scheme. Moreover, whilst local voluntary and community groups were initially enthusiastic about the scheme, this was eroded both by the shortfall in funding for the initiative and by conflicting priorities for it from its national and regional flinders and from local groups.

Acknowledgement

The evaluation research upon which this paper is based was funded by the Government Office of the West Midlands upon behalf of the consortium of SPOT funders. Responsibility for the views expressed within this paper lie entirely with the authors.

Notes

¹ Single Pot Funding is also a common mechanism at the European level, such as in the co-financing principals of the European Social Fund.

² These figures are only approximate as there was some minor (non-significant) variation between the samples in the baseline and final surveys.