ONE of Scotland's leading experts on child abuse describes Falkirk Council's decision to slash the funding of the charity Open Secret by 40% as "unthinkable".
Author and academic Dr Sarah Nelson says having worked with the charity and evaluated a number of its projects, she is convinced of its worth. Working with hundreds of adults and children affected by childhood abuse every year, Open Secret offers an excellent service to victims of awful crimes, she says. "They show a great sensitivity to the varying needs of child and adult survivors of sexual abuse, men and women," she adds.
Falkirk Council appears less convinced, with officials having recommended Open Secret lose £60,000 of the £149,000 it was being paid.
That recommendation - which the charity says would threaten its future - is now on hold, with the council having postponed a decision until new information submitted by the charity can be considered. But supporters of Open Secret are not hopeful that this marks a significant change of heart.
The 20-year-old charity has been under pressure from officials and councillors to demonstrate the benefit the service provides to the local area. "There remains some lack of clarity regarding what service delivery Falkirk Council is paying for", a report commissioned by the council concluded.
The biggest concern it has is that the charity, once local, is now operating on a more national basis and providing services in other council areas. Crucially the council appears to feel other councils should pay their share of its core costs such accommodation and the training of volunteers, and is refusing to foot this bill unless others do too.
The charity has also faced criticism for inadequately demonstrating the outcomes it achieves for survivors.
Open Secret believes much of the reasoning behind the cut is flawed, with Falkirk misrepresenting how its service operates and is funded to justify it.
The council, like all others, is trying to make savings, and you can understand why it would not want to pay over the odds for a service which others are also benefiting from.
However I wonder whether there is a clash here between the way charities often operate and the disciplines increasingly enforced on them by council commissioning. This is not the first charity with a strong mental health role that I have seen battling a council which doesn't like the fact that support can, in some cases, be offered to the same clients for years.
Meanwhile the demands for clear outcomes and evidence can cut across the role of charities in innovating to meet need. Open Secret has pioneered work with families of abuse victims, especially the non-abusing parent of an abused child. Just last week it was awarded a GSK Impact Award from the King's Fund.
Open Secret has argued that any external funding and work it does outwith the area benefits and reinforces its local presence.
Charities can't operate without core funding. But at a time when all councils are looking to make savings, they must also be more transparent about what public bodies are paying for and what that is achieving.
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