Supporting Communities Fund: evaluation

7. Looking forward

7.1 Gaps in provision

Anchor organisations that responded to the follow-up survey were asked to identify any gaps in provision that their project was unable to address. Organisations were not asked to report on gaps in provision in their monitoring forms, however, where organisations chose to identify gaps these are reported alongside the results from the survey.

Of the 161 organisations that made up the analysis sample, 96 organisations provided an answer to the question on gaps in provision. Of those that answered the question, the majority of organisations (52) stated that there were no gaps in provision that were left unaddressed, while 44 organisations identified specific gaps.

Specific gaps mentioned by the 44 organisations that identified gaps were coded and aggregated into the broad categories shown in Table 5. As organisations tended to identify multiple gaps in provision that they were unable to address, the proportions shown in the table do not equal 100%.

Although 52 of the organisations that answered the question stated there were no gaps in provision that were left unaddressed, these organisations often identified the reasons why their approach to service provision had been successful. These responses were also analysed with the aim of providing insight into how organisations set out to address gaps in the community.

Table 5: Organisation identifying gaps in provision

Gaps in provision	Number of organisations sampled identifying gaps	Gaps identified as a proportion of those that answered the question
Health and wellbeing	13	30%
Poverty and unemployment	10	23%
Digital inclusion	6	14%
Geographic coverage	3	7%
Other	12	27%

When grouped into these broad categories, just under a third of organisations identified gaps relating to health and wellbeing. These included gaps around mental health and wellbeing support, issues around engaging with those who were lonely and socially isolated and a lack of expertise among staff and volunteers who identified service users with severe mental health issues.

Of those organisations that identified gaps in provision, just under a quarter of these related to poverty and unemployment, including gaps in financial assistance, benefit and welfare advice, and food insecurity. Gaps in provision around digital inclusion were also identified, with 14% of organisations who identified areas of unmet need commenting on this theme. Most commonly gaps in digital inclusion related to issues around access to broadband and devices. Finally, 3 organisations (7%) identified gaps relating to geographic coverage. These organisations identified unmet need in certain areas of the community where if given the chance again, they would have applied for wider geographic coverage. The 20% of needs categorised as "other" were those specified by two or fewer organisations.

7.1.1 Health and wellbeing

The majority of organisations that identified gaps in provision identified unmet need relating to health and wellbeing. In most cases, organisations felt their project was unable to adequately provide for those that were lonely and socially isolated. Organisations identified reasons behind this as a lack of funding; a need for a more structured response; challenges around engagement; and, in one case, simply not having enough time. Most of the comments around loneliness and social isolation were focused on older people, where these gaps tended to be identified in the course of food provision/delivery. For example, one organisation delivering hot meals found there was a lack of uptake linked to a need for social interaction among older people:

"The main gap we identified was the lack of uptake by older people for the delivery of cooked meals. This service was targeted towards isolated older people who had previously attended the lunch club within the centre. [There] was limited uptake for the meal delivery service but this would seem to be due to the fact that the older people targeted were able to prepare meals for themselves. Their attendance previously at the lunch club would seem to be more about the social interaction available. The delivery of cooked meal did not provide the social interaction required." (Community anchor organisation, East Ayrshire)

Some organisations identifying unaddressed gaps highlighted the severity of mental health issues that service users presented with. One organisation reported that they were simply ill-equipped to deal with the most severe cases and had to signpost these cases elsewhere. Although it was recognised this was the appropriate course of action, the organisation felt that they could have done more with access to professional expertise. Another organisation highlighted the difficult situation their volunteers found themselves in dealing with situations they were unqualified for where they were the only contact people had:

"Our team were placed in difficult situations as we were on the ground seeing people. […] We included a mental health counsellor on our team to support the team as it became stressful for volunteers. We volunteers were very concerned that we were able to provide emergency support when paid officers were sitting at home calling us to visit their clients. The service providers should not have reduced their staff to calling clients or providing a service while using unqualified volunteers to do their job. The panic among public services was appalling, proper risk assessments could have been carried out to allow workers to carry on their normal duties safely. We felt like firefighters rushing into the fire to put it out while the qualified people ran away." (Community anchor organisation, Aberdeenshire)

Other organisations emphasised the toll the Covid-19 pandemic had taken on the mental health of their volunteers as they struggled to respond to an unprecedented situation. One organisation highlighted the need for volunteers to have social interaction and purpose and noted that this had been impacted due to the circumstances of lockdown.

7.1.2 Poverty and unemployment

Gaps in provision relating to poverty and unemployment were also prevalent in the comments provided by organisations, with 23% of organisations identifying gaps on this theme. Where these gaps were reported by organisations, they tended to centre either on food insecurity or gaps in financial support.

In terms of financial support, organisations reported gaps around the level of financial support they were able to provide and the form in which they were able to provide it. Gaps related to benefits and welfare advice were also identified. Although direct cash payments were within the scope of the fund, one organisation felt that delivering financial assistance in this way was not possible. It is unclear if this was due to a miscommunication around what could be delivered or if their own internal processes prevented it. In their response to the follow-up survey, this organisation felt that on some occasions it would have been more appropriate to distribute direct cash payments to allow people to use the payments as they saw fit:

"In terms of provision, there were occasions when it would have been appropriate and best to distribute cash payments to those most in need, for them to make the best choices in what they wanted to do with the funds in terms of food or clothing or heating purposes. But this was not always possible/secure and did not provide a best audit trail." (Community anchor organisation, Renfrewshire)

Highlighting the way in which needs changed over the course of the pandemic, some organisations felt they had not applied for enough funding initially to cover the financial emergencies people were experiencing and this had delayed their response as they waited for more financial support. For example, one organisation working with people shielding or socially isolated; households on a low income; and those who were digitally disadvantaged reported that due the nature of the pandemic and the impact on the service, they weren't able to offer financial support as quickly as they would have liked:

"We started by focusing on food insecurity and supporting people in continuity of access to basic services (medicines, shopping etc). We later felt we needed to incorporate more support (wellbeing, access to economic support etc) as these became needs as a result of circumstances. We achieved this in the main but the speed of the impact of the situation, the continuing requirement to provide those initial response services, and the the pressure on capacity despite financial support meant that these services were not as quick to materialize as we might have wished." (Community anchor organisation, Glasgow City)

Organisations also highlighted the severe financial toll the Covid-19 pandemic had on communities in terms of unemployment, loss of earnings and increased financial insecurity in general. Many of these comments highlighted the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the labour market, where organisations noted that many people were facing unemployment and at risk of redundancy, and these effects were likely to become more acute as the full impact of the pandemic became clear. In particular, the end of the furlough scheme was seen to be of concern due to the anticipated increase in job losses.

Alongside the rise in unemployment, several organisations expressed concerns around an increase in the number of people claiming benefits. As a result, organisations highlighted emerging needs for access to support and advice relating to benefits, personal finances and debt, and support in seeking employment. One organisation noted that access to digital upskilling was particularly important given the increased focus on digital provision and the move to remote working. Increased reliance on benefits was seen to be of particular concern for some, due to a perception that the benefits system, in general, was inadequate and that families were likely to struggle once top-up payments came to an end.

Increased financial insecurity was seen by organisations as heavily linked to food and fuel poverty as people struggled to deal with reduced income due to job losses and debt. Several organisations noted the increased demand for emergency food parcels and meals during the lockdown and this was expected to continue as people continued to experience the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Several of the organisations that highlighted unaddressed gaps on the theme of food poverty did not go into detail on the specific circumstances of ongoing food insecurity but simply noted that this was likely to be a concern going forward. One organisation reported that they had identified a gap in relation to food insecurity during the course of their project and attempted to include it in their SCF spend, however, due to the time when this need was identified it was seen as more of a recovery activity and considered more appropriate for CRF funding. As a result, the activity was rejected, resulting in a delay of 3 months:

"We discovered that some of our elderly residents were having difficulty cooking meals, […] there were many reasons for this such as not having access to as much fresh food, usual in house support unable to visit due to pandemic . We looked to start a Casserole Club which volunteer Cooks would be matched with a diner to share a portion of home cooked food. The idea that this approach would be sustainable and reduce food waste. This was an unknown need so had not been detailed in our application, we asked if we could include it as part of our project costs but it was seen more of a recovery activity. This gave us a delay of 3 months before we were able to start the project with the underspend." (Community anchor organisation, Highland)

7.1.3 Digital exclusion

As has already been discussed in more detail earlier in this report, just over one in ten organisations identified digital exclusion as a gap in provision that they were unable to address. Organisations commenting on this theme tended to report ongoing issues with broadband, limited access to digital devices and services and challenges in providing staff and volunteers with digital access.

Reflecting the unique challenge a rapid move to digital provision has presented for individuals and the third sector, organisations commonly highlighted that digital exclusion is likely to be an ongoing issue as we move into the recovery phase. Organisations felt that they had underestimated the number of people who did not have internet access and that those in more rural and remote parts of their community were the most acutely affected. Issues around providing staff and volunteers with digital devices and adequate connectivity to fulfil their roles were also reported, highlighting an ongoing need if the focus on remote working continues.

7.1.4 Geographic coverage

Three organisations reported that there were unaddressed gaps relating to geographic coverage. Organisations commenting on this theme expressed the view that there was a lack of coordination between groups working in the same area, resulting in duplication and, in some cases, unmet need. As one organisation in Shetland noted, this meant there could be a lack of consistent provision across the local authority as certain activities were offered in some local areas but not in others. For example, this organisation felt that they should have applied to offer provision of electricity top-up vouchers in all areas within the local authority rather than only in their immediate local area, as it soon became evident during the funding period that this support was not offered by other organisations in the surrounding areas.

7.1.5 Other

Twelve organisations identified gaps in provision categorised as 'other'. These gaps were each identified by one organisation, apart from ongoing gaps in funding which were identified by two organisations. Unaddressed gaps in this category included:

• a lack of outdoor spaces for young people;
• a need for better coordination around transport and logstics;
• transport for medical appointments;
• support for carers;
• sustainable long-term interventions;
• identifying hard to reach people in the community;
• support for minority ethnic groups;
• support for women experiencing domestic abuse;
• PPE for NHS staff;
• hygiene supplies for the third sector;
• and ongoing gaps in funding.

7.2 Emerging needs and priorities

Anchor organisations that responded to the follow-up survey were asked to identify any emerging needs or priorities they had identified over the course of delivering their projects. Organisations were not asked to report on emerging needs or priorities in their monitoring forms, however, where these were identified these are reported alongside the results from the survey.

Of the 161 anchor organisations that made up the analysis sample, 75 organisations identified emerging needs or new priorities in their communities. Organisations that did not identify any emerging priorities did not specify these in their response or monitoring form, or their response wasn't clear enough to be included in the analysis. Some organisations explicitly stated that they did not notice any additional emerging needs.

Where emerging needs were identified, these were coded and aggregated into the broad categories shown in Table 6. As organisations tended to identify multiple emerging priorities in their answers the proportions shown in the table do not equal 100%.

Table 6: Organisations identifying emerging needs

Emerging needs	Number of organisations sampled identifying need	Proportion of organisations sampled identifying need
Poverty and unemployment	51	68%
Health and wellbeing	44	59%
Support for community organisations	32	43%
Digital inclusion	12	16%
Community recovery	10	13%
Staffing/volunteer capacity	9	12%
Other	9	12%

When grouped into these categories, organisations generally identified emerging needs or priorities that broadly mapped onto the gaps in provisions identified in the previous section (see section 7.1). In addition to needs relating to these gaps, organisations most commonly identified support for community organisations, in the form of core operating costs, as a priority.

7.2.1 Poverty and unemployment

Needs relating to poverty and unemployment were the most commonly identified by organisations, with around two in three organisations citing this as an emerging need. Organisations reporting this as an emerging need tended to highlight the severe financial toll the Covid-19 pandemic has had on communities, and as financial measures (such as furlough) end, needs relating to financial insecurity were likely to continue as they moved into the recovery phase and the full impact of the pandemic becomes clear. Similarly to those groups identifying gaps in provision relating to this theme, organisations identifying emerging need also highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the labour market and the resultant rise in unemployment, leading to greater financial insecurity, food insecurity and a rise in people claiming benefits.

7.2.2 Health and wellbeing

After poverty and unemployment, needs relating to health and wellbeing were the most commonly identified, with 59% of organisations reporting these needs in their comments. Similarly to those organisations identifying gaps in provision relating to this theme, the majority of these comments referred to the considerable impact the Covid-19 pandemic and accompanying restrictions had on the mental health of individuals. In particular, organisations emphasised that loneliness and isolation were already significant problems for their communities and this had only been exacerbated by the pandemic. Where mental health needs were discussed, organisations tended to identify concerns around existing mental health conditions; newly emerging mental health issues; and concerns around access to mental health support including a resultant increase in demand for services.

7.2.3 Support for community organisations

Just over two fifths of organisations that identified some form of emerging need emphasised the need for more support for third sector organisations. To some extent, these comments may reflect the structure of the fund where funding was targeted through CAOs and disbursed at a local level. Commonly this was linked to a recognition of the key role that the third sector had played during the Covid-19 pandemic. Recognising this role and the amount of trust placed in community organisations by the Scottish Government during the funding process, organisations frequently noted that the SCF funding process should be used as a model going forward. Many of the organisations commented on the way that the pandemic had highlighted the importance of third sector organisations and their role in the community, meaning that these organisations were uniquely situated to identify need and respond quickly. As a result, funding and investment in local organisations was seen by organisations as key to support recovery and renewal in communities. Alongside this, local networks on the ground should be better supported and ways should be found to better align local authority resources within these networks.

7.2.4 Digital exclusion

Echoing those organisations who identified gaps in their current service provision relating to digital exclusion, organisations commenting on emerging needs again identified this theme as a priority going forward. Organisations raised many of the same issues that have been discussed elsewhere in this report. Namely that a move to online provision only has limited access to, and the affordability of, services for those without digital access. Organisations also noted a concern that the 'digital divide' had been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, with concerns raised around the impact that this had on service delivery and the ability to reach those most in need.

7.2.5 Community recovery

Several organisations highlighted emergent needs around preparing the local community for the easing of restrictions as we move into the recovery period. Comments on this theme included concerns around the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism, improving infrastructure and restoring community confidence.

Organisations also felt that due to the impact of the pandemic and the level of support provided, there was now a certain degree of dependency in some communities. Several organisations noted that there was a need to design interventions to address this going forward, with the aim of empowering communities to support themselves.

7.2.6 Staffing/volunteer capacity

A small number of organisations emphasised the severe toll that the Covid-19 pandemic had taken on their staff and volunteers and identified that addressing this was an emergent need. For some, this involved recruiting new staff to reduce the burden on existing staff or to hire staff for a specific role. While others recognised the need for their projects to continue and as such were looking to maintain staff that they had hired during the pandemic.

Many organisations recognised the important role that volunteering had played throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and that maintaining this was a priority for them going forward. For example, one organisation reported that the pandemic had led to increased enthusiasm for volunteering and there was a desire to capitalise on this, while another felt it was imperative to ensure that people were empowered to continue making a difference in their communities.

7.2.7 Other

Twelve per cent of emergent needs were coded into the "other category". These were needs identified by two or fewer of the 75 organisations identifying emergent needs. Priorities identified by these organisations included a need to respond to the climate emergency; to address the impact on the self-employed and small businesses; and a need to evaluate their project and identify outcomes as well as producing detailed reports to evidence impact.

7.3 Key learning

All of the organisations that responded to the follow-up survey were asked if they gained any key learning from their experience of delivering their project. For example, with hindsight, would they have done anything differently if they could run their SCF project again or did their approach to delivering the project change over the course of the funding period. As with gaps in provision and any emerging priorities, organisations were not asked to provide details on lessons learned in their monitoring reports but where these were mentioned, these have been reported alongside the responses from the follow-up survey.

Of the 161 anchor organisations that made up the analysis sample, 119 organisations, representing 74%, identified key learning points that they had gained through the SCF funding process. Organisations that did not specify any key learning points did not identify these in their response or monitoring form, or their response wasn't clear enough to be included in the analysis. Some explicitly indicated that they were happy with their approach to delivering the project and would use the same approach if they were to deliver it again.

The responses that indicated that they would do something differently were coded into the categories in table 7 and analysed to understand the challenges that these organisations had faced and what they might change if they were given the same opportunity in the future. The aim of this was to determine if there were any lessons to be learned for future funding processes. As organisations tended to identify multiple learning points the proportions shown in the table do not equal 100%.

Table 7: Organisations identifying key learning points

Key learning	Number of organisations sampled identifying learning	Proportion of organisations sampled identifying learning
Approach to service delivery	77	65%
Strong Partnerships	49	41%
Volunteer contribution	27	23%
Insight into community issues	25	21%
Community-led initiatives	24	20%
Effective communications	17	14%
Funding process	15	13%
Use of evidence	2	2%

The areas where organisations indicated they had learned lessons were around their approach to service delivery (65%), the importance of strong partnerships (41%), volunteer contribution (23%), insight into community issues (21%), the importance of community-led initiatives (20%) and effective communications (14%), lessons around the funding process (13%) and on the use of evidence (2%).

7.3.1 Approach to service delivery

Most commonly organisations identified learning around their approach to service delivery. Of these, a third of organisations (33%) noted that they would change their approach to service delivery if given the opportunity to deliver the project again. In these cases, amendments tended to relate to the type of activities offered, the beneficiaries targeted, the medium through which services were delivered or the way in which they communicated with their clients.

Some organisations reported that they changed their approach because they became aware of unanticipated unmet needs, or found that the original service they offered was already available from other organisations. For example, one organisation in Glasgow changed their approach to target those most in need after becoming aware that were several other avenues of support available:

"At the beginning we were focused on addressing the crisis that had been created by COVID-19 and at first were supporting everyone who approached us. As a collaborative we began to reflect that not everyone required the same support and that there were other avenues of support/funding being provided from other sources. Considering this we moved our attention to seeking out those individuals and families who had been impacted severely, i.e. furloughed and lost employment." (Community anchor organisation, Glasgow City)

Another area where organisations noted a need for change related to the method of delivery. For example offering food vouchers rather than food parcels or providing beneficiaries with cash payments. For one organisation the provision of food parcels led to concerns that people were becoming too dependent and they changed their method of delivery accordingly:

"As the lockdown measures eased we moved from food parcels to food vouchers. This encouraged people to purchase their own shopping, get out to the shops which helped their mental health and anxiety. People were getting used to having food parcels delivered but we knew that we needed to encourage people to get back to some sort of normality hence the reason for move onto food vouchers." (Community anchor organisation, Glasgow City)

One organisation reflected that, with the best of intentions, they had in some cases pushed too hard as a team to support the community and this had come at the expense of their own wellbeing. With hindsight this organisation felt they would have paced themselves better if they had known how long the pandemic would last.

The other two thirds (67%) of organisations did not change their approach during the course of delivering the project but did identify aspects they would change or learning they would utilise if they were given the opportunity again. Several organisations commenting on this theme emphasised the importance of speed and efficiency in their approach to delivering the project, recognising that there was a need to get the funds and benefits to people as quickly as possible. For example, one organisation reported that if they were to deliver the project again they would focus on streamlining their process of delivering food vouchers as the system they used placed an unanticipated amount of pressure on staff. Whereas, for another organisation, the biggest takeaway was the speed with which they could respond when they had to: receive funding; request proposals; shortlist these and allocate funding within a month. There was also a perception expressed that the Council and other services often weren't as agile as organisations had initially thought, often responded slowly and this had impacted on delivery.

Several organisations identified learning around managing the increased workload of administering the projects under the Covid-19 pandemic. Lessons learned around this theme included remembering to include administration costs in funding applications, while another organisation noted the importance of having administration guidance and templates available to speed up processes. One housing association reported learning that having up to date information on their tenants had been key to their approach.

Many of the organisations highlighted the key role that staff and volunteers played in making sure their approach to service delivery was effective. For example, one organisation reported that the manpower provided by volunteers was "immense" in terms of the breadth of activities they carried out and the amount of time they gave up for the good of the community. Another organisation highlighted the strength of their paid staff members in terms of their ability to adapt and respond quickly to unique and continually changing circumstances.

A small number of organisations highlighted the importance of a holistic approach to service delivery, recognising that people are different and are likely to have varying needs. As one organisation states:

"One size does not fit all - there can never again be a tick box requirement for communities to 'fit' into the national or regional policies…The right way is the way it works, at the local level for the wider benefit of all in the community and that should be the basis of policy, adopted from the grass roots to the top table." (Community anchor organisation, Scottish Borders)

Other learning around approaches to service delivery included a need for effective communications across a range of platforms; allowing teams to work autonomously to deliver services; collaboration early on in the project and, in general, taking a flexible approach.

7.3.2 Strong partnerships

After approach to service delivery the most common learning identified by organisations was around partnerships, where 41% of organisations identified lessons learned on this theme. Organisations emphasised that they had learned the importance of strong partnerships through their experience of delivering the project, highlighting the importance of collaboration, coordination and sharing knowledge.

Several organisations reported that the experience of the fund had strengthened existing partnerships and how this had been important to reach the most people possible. For example, one organisation identified a preconception that people in rural communities look after each other and this belief had led to some of the most vulnerable being overlooked. For this organisation, coming together with other organisations as part of a resilience group allowed them to access funding and resources they wouldn't have been able to otherwise in order to support these hard to reach groups.

7.3.3 Community

The same proportion of organisations (41%) identified learning related to community. Generally, this learning could be split into two themes, with organisations highlighting learning around the importance of community-led initiatives (20%) and others that gained insight into community issues through their experience of delivering the project (21%). Organisations that reported that they had learned lessons on the importance of initiatives being community-led highlighted the unique position of community organisations, noting that their knowledge of the community was key to the successful delivery of the projects.

Commonly, organisations emphasised that their position in the community allowed them to respond quickly, efficiently and effectively to address local priorities. For example, one CAO highlighted that they learnt the importance of a community anchor taking the lead on behalf of others to ensure effective coordination during the funding period. Organisations emphasised that the unique position and expertise of community organisations and the third sector should be recognised by the Government. For example, as one organisation noted:

"The value of the third sector is often undervalued and the contribution it can make is often ignored. When larger public sector organisations were unable to move swiftly to respond to the crisis we became invaluable and showed just what can be achieved." (Community anchor organisation, Highland)

Related to this, several organisations emphasised that community organisations were best placed to deliver projects in the community as they already have a certain awareness of the needs and priorities of the area, including existing relationships with local services. Placing more trust in these organisations was seen as preferrable to national organisations 'parachuting' into local areas without a local presence.

Twenty-one per cent of organisations identified learning around community issues, where their experience of delivering the project allowed these organisations to identify and develop insight into issues which they had previously been unaware of. Organisations commenting on this theme identified issues around mental health and wellbeing, food insecurity, poverty, social isolation and inequality.

Organisations reported that better engagement during the delivery of their projects allowed hidden needs to be identified, meaning that they were able to respond effectively. Several organisations noted that, in responding to immediate needs in the short term, they identified the need for a longer-term, more sustainable approach and that this had become their priority going forward.

7.3.4 Effective communications

Fourteen per cent of organisations identified lessons learned around communication, including more effective or different ways of engaging with the community or improved communication between organisations and services. For some organisations this involved the distribution of surveys to the community to allow their voices to be heard and to identify need, while other organisations re-developed their websites or provided information through other mediums such as newsletters, after reviewing how people were engaging with services.

For some, the experience of delivering the project taught them the importance of having a good social media presence and the need to develop the use of online materials to better engage with local communities. One organisation noted that although communication with the community was vital they also learned that good internal communication within the organisation was just as important. Another organisation emphasised the importance of listening, particularly when people are stressed:

"Listening is essential, early on in the pandemic you could hear the panic and concern in many voices and being calm and cheery was very important." (Community anchor organisation, Highland)

For organisations that identified learning relating to improved communications, better communication between organisations was seen as necessary during the funding period to ensure adequate coordination and to avoid duplication. For two organisations, learning centred around the need for clear and regular communication between anchor organisations and funded groups, while the other viewed communication as important to understand whether their funded organisations were in difficulty or needed further support.

One organisation felt that all communities should have an effective communications system, highlighting that this was crucial to deliver projects in communities:

"An effective communication system is also integral to all the good work undertaken within communities. In our opinion all communities should have their own community portal, helpline and COMM's team that Is responsible for ensuring communication is accurate and flows between organisations and the wider community. Although city wide initiatives such as the Glasgow Helpline are of value many local residents responded better to the idea of a more localised support service." (Community anchor organisation, Glasgow)