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Third sector organisations & the delivery of welfare

Public services are crucial for addressing needs and safeguarding rights (Cookingham Bailey and Sarter, 2023)

Third sector organisations are a crucial part of the mixed economy of welfare and deliver a range of crucial public services, including for marginalised groups.

Double role:

Advocating: lobbying, campaigning, awareness raising, service user empowerment, and community development (Cambridge and Wilson, 2004; Mosley, 2010)

Service provision: with specialist knowledge, including the ability to identify emerging needs, and an ability to successfully reach and engage with groups and individuals that government may not be able to easily reach (Murray, 2011)

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The impact of Covid 19

Governments across the world introduced strict measures to curb the spread of the virus, among which included social distancing measures and temporary lockdowns.

The pandemic had disproportionate impacts on different groups, affecting for instance Black and Ethnic minority communities disproportionately (Bhatia, 2020; Jones, 2021)

For organisations, including those providing public services, it created a need to adapt to carry out key functions (Špaček et al., 2023).

It was also a driver for (temporary?) digitalisation of public services (Cookingham Bailey and Sarter, 2022; Knights et al., 2021; Lunt et al., 2021)

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Fighting at the margins

Impact of pandemic on third sector organisations in Wales and Scotland
Focus on organisations that provide advocacy alongside delivery of human services for marginalised groups.
Case Studies based on semi-structured interviews
Organisations provided a range of services

Refuges
Advocacy and advice
Social activities
Wellbeing checks

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Advocacy

Many of the organisations benefitted from strong existing relationships with local and regional bodies to lobby for action on issues and to advocate for the specific needs of local groups.

During the pandemic, this role intensified for TSOs as the sources of up to date on the ground information about challenges faced by their service users.

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Existing Relationships

Training on core issues for public services

"We've got that those kind of sessions, or awareness sessions, we deliver for free in the communities and to service providers, but their also like our specialist key areas. For example, we deliver trainings to professionals, teachers, the health, social services and local authority on domestic violence from a BME perspective." (Welsh Domestic Violence TSO)

"Anti racism workshop to professionals and Key Stage people cross Wales, key stage two and three " (Welsh Young People's TSO)

Open relationships with devolved and local government

"I’ve got to say Welsh Government civil services, and our local MSs as they are now known. Actually, really open to conversation. It's not like in London, so I know I can email any of them." (Welsh Refugee and Asylum Seeker TSO)

"We are hugely influential with the government and with this government... I don't use it very often, like maybe once every two or three years, but I do have direct access to the first Minister if I need it." (Scottish Domestic Violence TSO

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Ear on the ground

Some organisations reported that the pandemic raised the profile of the organisations as on 'ear on the ground'

"Yes, they recognized that we had kind of connections and I think that's the key thing that's come out of covid for me, other agencies recognition of our value, and our access to people that they don't have access to. when suddenly when covid hit, they really needed access to people to persuade them to stay in or have vaccines. Yeah, we have that we have those relationships.” (Welsh Community Centre)

"We only work with refugees and asylum seekers are all very relational and organic in our approach. And the pandemic has been really ... interesting the way that community groups and the anchor organisations, like the police and the NHS, can engage together. I think they've suddenly discovered that we're out there and that we have some influence, and we know people and we do stuff and actually we want the same outcomes as they do actually." (Welsh Refugee and Asylum Seeker TSO)

This, however, had workload implications

“One of the things that happened is there was such a ... driving market within government for having to have data, data, data, right? So justice analytical services were hounding us for information, you know. ‘We know that this isn’t robust but just give us some information about what is happening on the ground, tell us how many women are ... you know experiencing more serious domestic abuse?” (Scottish Domestic Abuse TSO)

“You know, in the Central Office we were working 50 and 60 hours a week to try and manage the transitions and it was certainly no better in the local services. So asking them to stop and put things aside to count things that we already knew the answer to was... I just refused eventually and I said to justice analytical services leave them alone and then they a couple of them still went around me and asked directly.” (Scottish Domestic Abuse TSO)

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Service Delivery

The initial reaction by many TSOs was to shift to digital services delivery with many of their users, but with this brought both successes and challenges.

There were also a range of services that could not be moved digitally. This meant organisations had to consider how to continue to engage in mutual aid safely going forward in non-digital spaces.

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Transcending local boundaries

The shift towards digital provision of services allowed smaller organisations to extend the reach of their provision

"We went wholly to detached, we extended our geographical area because all we could do was detached really so we were you know in a broader patch we were pretty much all over {the town}, and we became way more community orientated” (Welsh Community Centre)

“We started having new engagements. We had new members who started joining our groups online from all across the city... When our centre is open we usually have people coming from {local area in city}, but because of zoom we had then people joining from the other side of the city and different areas.” (Scottish Refugee TSO)

and to mitigate a local lack of volunteers

“It's provided opportunities being digitally, you know, whereas we've got volunteers now across the whole of Wales, and we can support, who when, whatever, you know whatever place somebody lives we can support them. And because it doesn't mean we've got to find somebody who's a volunteer within 10 miles of where that person lives. So digital for us has enabled us to be able to...we haven't said no to anybody yet because of where they live.” (Welsh Older People's TSO)

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However...

TSOs found that owing to the nature of their work and service users not all services can be delivered digitally. This meant that a division emerged in their activities.

Not-location bound services

Service provision not dependent on a particular location
Location can be changed
Service can be provided online
Examples: advice, some social activities
Could shift to digital provision

Location bound services

Service provision depends on a specific location
Service cannot be provided online
Location cannot easily be changed
Service relies on being together in a physical space
Example: refuges, wellbeing check
Could not shift to digital provision

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Social distancing in confined spaces

Logistics: How to social distance in a shared space

“But just the technicalities of understanding about PPE about you know how to manage infection control, what to do about refuges that had multiple families in them, that were in a shared space.” (Scottish Domestic Abuse TSO)
“you are using the same equipment and the same utensils in the kitchen. How sure are you, that once I have done my cooking, and I've eaten, I have washed the utensils, that are clean. So, again, it was about ensuring that we then look for funding to make sure each and everyone has their own cutlery. So, it was a lot, a lot of work that was going on, just to make sure that the confined spaces are a safe for the women and the children.” (Welsh Domestic Abuse TSO)

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How to preserve anonymity?

Refuges require anonymity of residents
Food deliveries with specific requirements (halal) risk comprising anonymity

“And the efforts of you know, most of the women on the ground were heroic. I mean, I mean, I know what the one of the stories I heard halfway through 2021 was about the head of a small service who had all the halal meals for the women in refuges delivered to her home because it was too small of an area for those to be delivered directly to the refuge and women needed food, you know they kept their families needed food and that it had been managed by staff and by other, you know other ways it was that were no longer possible under COVID and so every day, every day she took that halal meal and took them to the refuge. You know, I mean. Just for months.” (Scottish Domestic Abuse TSO)
“I am engaging with a lot of WhatsApp groups as well actually making sure they've got right information, anybody you know, UK, Islamic mission have come into [town]. Every, every once a month they are coming to [town] actually to distribute food parcels. […] Some people are okay but other parts of our delivered to my house, to my car that you need from their car, and then either I distribute, or the organisation will collect from me, because […] there are one or two I can't give them their address actually because they are very vulnerable.” (Welsh Young People's TSO)

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Summary

Some challenges and opportunities were the same

Funding
Adaption to new situations
Importance of local relationships

Pandemic created different challenges in the adaptation for

Not location-bound services such as advice, social activities

shifted to digital delivery and some later to open spaces
additional demands on resources to facilitate digital delivery – met by addtional government funding

Location-bound services such as refuges and shelters

faced new logistical challenges due to the spatial elements of these services
additional funding needs to accommodate social distancing within a confined space – met by addtional government funding

While managing space safely became a challenge for location-bound services, the option to shift to digital working enabled non-location-bound services to transcend the confines of local boundaries.

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Referenced literature

Bhatia, M. (2020). “Covid-19 and BAME Group in the United Kingdom”, International Journal of Community and Social Development, 2(2): 269-272.
Cambridge, P. and Williams, L. (2004): “Approaches to Advocacy for Refugees and Asylum Seekers: A Development Case Study for a Local Support and Advice Service.” Journal of Refugee Studies, 17(1), 97-113.
Cookingham Bailey, E. and Sarter, E.K. (2023): „Introduction: Defining and understanding public services.“ In: Sarter, E.K. and Cookingham Bailey, E. (eds.): Understanding Public Services. A Contemporary Introduction. Bristol: Policy Press, 1-11.
Cookingham Bailey, E., Sarter, E.K., and Terry, V. (2022): "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Advocacy Work of Voluntary Sector Organisations in Wales." in: Rees, J., Macmillan, R., Dayson, C. Damm, C., and Bynner, C. (eds.): COVID-19 and the Voluntary and Community Sector in the UK. Responses, Impacts and Adaptation. Bristol: Policy Press, 118-129.
Lunt, A., Llewellyn, C., Bayley, J. and Nadarzynski, T. (2021): “Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study.” International Journal of STD & AIDS, 32(12): 1138–1148.
Jones, C. (2021): “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the third sector and carers in the UK.” International Journal of Care and Caring, 5(3): 529–534.
Knights, F., Carter, J., Deal, A., Crawshaw, A. F., Hayward, S. E., Jones, L. and Hargreaves, S. (2021): “Impact of COVID-19 on migrants’ access to primary care and implications for vaccine roll-out: a national qualitative study.” British Journal of General Practice, 71(10):BJGP.2021.0028, DOI: 10.3399/BJGP.2021.0028.
Mayblin, L. and James, P. (2019): “Asylum and refugee support in the UK: civil society filling the gaps?”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(3): 375-394.
Mosley, J. E. (2010): “Organizational Resources and Environmental Incentives: Understanding the Policy Advocacy Involvement of Human Service Nonprofits”. Social Science Review, 84 (1): 57-76
Murray, G. (2011): "Third sector commissioning and English local government procurement." Public Money & Management, 31 (4), 279–286.
Špaček, D., Navrátil, M. and Špalková, D. (2023): “New development: Covid 19 and changes in public administration—what do we know to date?” Public Money & Management, DOI: 10.1080/09540962.2023.2199545

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