Council set to cut funding for additional support needs charity SNAP
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Proposals to cut funding to vital additional support needs service SNAP Inverness would put the charity at risk.
SNAP currently supports 100 service users but still struggles to break even each year despite increasing fees to service users by 50 per cent last year so the loss of £65,000 in council funding “jeopardises the charity’s long-term viability”.
Don Robertson, chairman of SNAP Inverness, said: “While I recognise the major financial challenges that Highland Council is facing I feel that withdrawal of support to an organisation that serves the most vulnerable members of our society is a fundamentally flawed decision.
“In many ways, SNAP can also be seen in early intervention capacity – giving vital support to carers to maintain their energy, mental health and capacity to care. The consequential costs of the loss of SNAP services would undoubtedly result in a significantly increased financial burden to Highland Council.”
He continued: “While many councillors and council staff recognise and value the services that SNAP provides it is not clear to me that those involved in making this decision really understand what SNAP does and who it supports. SNAP is fundamentally different to providers of mainstream childcare services with whom we appear to be compared.
“It has been suggested that SNAP can compensate for the removal of Highland Council support by identifying alternate sources of funding. This is at best disingenuous as it fails to recognise what SNAP currently does to secure funding.
“The charity is constantly looking to identify potential additional funding and in a typical year makes 30 to 40 separate funding applications. It is naïve to assume that there is an unidentified source of money that could offset the loss of Highland Council support.”
Council leader Raymond Bremner said: “I recognise that our budget proposals may also impact on organisations that have regularly and continually relied on the council to provide them funding.
“In a number of cases, rather than cut funding completely, we have looked at reducing funding with a commitment to assisting organisations access funding from other areas.”
He added: “The council’s own core services have had to be the primary focus.”
Council leader Raymond Bremner said: “This is one of the most difficult budget years in the history of the Highland Council. Many factors are impacting on the Council’s ability to deliver its own core services as well as discretionary service support including third sector and private sector organisations.
"The council’s own core services has had to be the primary focus of the council’s budget group.
"I recognise that our budget proposals may also impact on organisations that have regularly and continually relied on the council to provide them funding however, this has become much more challenging when being able to do this impacts on the council providing its own statutory core services in such an adverse economic climate.
"In a number of cases, rather than cut funding completely, we have looked at reducing funding with a commitment to assisting organisations access funding from other areas. There are a number of funds that the Council administrates as well as external funding opportunities that exist.
"I’m aware that this will make it harder for some to continue delivering their project or service but we remain committed to supporting these groups and organisations access support in other ways.”
