Criticism after youth groups told to take out Covid loans
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A north-east MSP has hit out at the SNP for suggesting youth organisations take out loans to get through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Scouts Scotland's chief executive in Scotland last month announced a consultation with employees of the charity’s outdoor centres, with no income and a £1.5 million loss projected for the financial year,
Aberdeenshire West MSP Alexander Burnett has raised the prospect with Scottish Ministers of third sector interface funding for youth organisations who maintain outdoors centres and headquarters across Scotland, but he was “severely disappointed” by an official answer from SNP MSP Richard Lochhead that the Scouts and Boys’ Brigade can take out “fully flexible, zero percent interest loans” instead of grant funding similar to other charities.
Commenting Mr Burnett said: “Hundreds of thousands of people in the north east will have felt the benefit of youth organisations, volunteering and the many community goods they perform.
“We are routinely told that outdoor and group experiences are crucial at helping increase attainment and fighting multiple deprivation and young people are welcome no matter what their background.
“It is particularly important that this remains on offer.
“Beyond inviting the Scouts and Boys’ Brigade to take out a loan, the SNP have put nothing new in place to support them.
“Richard Lochhead mentions a package of non-financial support and I am wary that this will result in more talking shops while outdoors centres start paying back loans.
“This is bitterly disappointing, and I ask the Minister to consider using a tiny portion of the Scottish government’s additional Covid funding from the Treasury to secure youth facilities for the future.”
Some 105 Scout groups work with almost 5,000 young people aged six to 25 across its north east districts, including Moray and Shetland, and 38 Boys' Brigade groups in the region have an estimated 1,200 members.
Scottish Scouting’s chief executive Katie Docherty said youth work and outdoor education should be a priority for the government, but “worryingly, neither of these are specifically mentioned in the Scottish Government Route Map” out of lockdown.
Scouting – and other youth organisations – will only qualify for Scottish government resilience funding when it has three months’ operating costs left in reserve.
In an open letter to MSPs, Scouts Scotland's public affairs officer Janis McCulloch wrote: “We have continued to be disappointed by the lack of engagement from the Scottish Government.
“Where we have actually received a response from Ministers they have missed the point or simply brushed us off by directing us to the Third Sector Resilience Fund - a fund that us and many more charities like us will only be eligible for by the time it is too late.”
