Single issue funding cuts

Lost your money because you work with particular communities? Here's help to challenge the decision

One of the concerns about single issue funding, and the current move towards cohesion policies that fund only mainstream groups, is that this fails to give appropriate weight to public funders' statutory duties under the equalities legislation.

Specifically, there are duties on public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate race, disability and gender discrimination, to promote equality of opportunity, good race relations and more. Any decision to stop single issue funding, and to fund all services via a mainstream provider, risks breaching these duties, if the public body in question does not consider the adverse impact such decisions may have on the protected groups (i.e. disabled people, BME groups and women).

Public Law Project (PLP) has advised on a number of cases recently where decisions based on a cohesion strategy or similar has led to a possibly unlawful decision that does not address these duties, and withdraws services unfairly from particular groups. It is a worrying trend that we are keen to tackle.

Voluntary sector organisations can contact PLP for free advice on 020 7697 2198, Monday to Friday 10 am to 4 pm, or at evs@publiclawproject.org.uk."