Brexit Stakeholder Engagement Fund

Background

On Europe Day - 9 May 2018 - the Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland's Place in Europe, Michael Russell MSP, announced a new £150,000 Brexit Stakeholder Engagement Fund. The fund helped to ensure that a range of voices can be heard to inform the Scottish Government's position in relation to EU exit.

We had been carefully targeting key partners, listening to new ideas and offering grants from the fund to carry out specific pieces of work. Community, third sector and other smaller organisations, particularly those without specific resources to otherwise develop Brexit positions or consider the consequences of Brexit, were invited to apply.

Purpose

The fund was used to support a broad range of projects and activities that support local community based organisations across Scotland to plan ahead, facilitate dialogue and inform policy development on the impacts of the UK's exit from the EU. It focused particularly but not exclusively on enabling community and third sector organisations to listen, think, plan and highlight any concerns about leaving the EU, and provided a platform for them to be heard on the wider national and international stage.

Objectives

As communities and organisations faced the consequences of Brexit, the Scottish Government used the fund to:

• support organisations to facilitate constructive dialogue and action planning in order to ensure that communities are able to have a voice in regard to Brexit
• help organisations who are themselves thinking about how Brexit affects their own future to plan ahead and prepare
• link together and convene conversations between different communities and organisations who are exploring the consequences of Brexit, and facilitate the sharing of information and publication of evidence
• inform an evaluation report for the Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland's Place in Europe, building the evidence base to feed directly into the UK-EU negotiations

Timings and governance

Spend was focussed between June and December 2018, the key remaining window of opportunity to influence the UK-EU negotiations, and subject to approval, review and evaluation by the Scottish Government.

Links to some of the funded and supported projects

• Scottish Rural Action (SRA): what does Brexit mean for rural Scotland?
• Children in Scotland: report on Brexit by the Children and Young People’s Panel on Europe
• My life My Say: a youth vision for a common future after Brexit
• Youth Link Scotland: Brexit and youth work 
• Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland: Brexit - what matters to you (local communities)  
• Scottish Islands Federation: helping to shape a new rural future
• EU Citizens Rights Project