Scottish Government

4 CHARACTERISTICS OF DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS

4.1 Disability organisations that were identified during the mapping exercise varied widely in their status, range of activities, level of user representation, sources of funding and level and type of engagement with public bodies. This section describes the key characteristics of the disability organisations in Scotland.

Types of organisations

4.2 Nearly 90% of all disability organisations responding to the survey were charities and part of the voluntary sector. The others described themselves as private companies or social enterprise. One quarter (25%) of local organisations reported that they were a branch or local office of a national, mostly Scotland-wide organisation.

4.3 Disability organisations taking part in the qualitative fieldwork were allocated to one of the following categories:

• National organisations - with a Scotland wide remit, often will provide services in different parts of the country
• Local service provider -with a contract or service level agreement with a public body, usually a local authority
• Local panel or forum - includes access panels, provider forums and forums of individuals
• Organisations without contracts - mostly volunteer-led groups or clubs

Table 4.1: Type of organisations participating in qualitative fieldwork

(Source: Fieldwork)

4.4 The fieldwork gathered contributions from a good mix of types of organisations. However the mapping exercise does not allow for categorisation of all 1,400 organisations in this way, as full information about funding was not gathered. From the database of 1,400 organisations, 215 organisations (15%) are national, of which 19 (9%) are also network/forum organisations. Among local organisations 46 (4%) are access panels and 90 (8%) are local networks/ forums.

Funding

4.5 The survey findings indicate that local organisations are more reliant upon shorter term funding via contracts or time limited charitable grants. Overall however national and local disability organisations are funded by similar sources but to different extents.

4.6 One major difference between local and national organisations sources of funding is the percentage of local organisations funded via a private trust. Only 6% of local organisations have this source. This is compared to a third (32%) of national bodies with private trust income. Private trust income accounts for an average of 33% of national disability organisation funding.

4.7 Another difference is the percentage of national organisations funded by Scottish Government sources. Over two-fifths (45%) of national disability organisations receive funds from central government compared to just over a tenth (13%) of local organisations. Central government was found to be a significant source of funding for national disability organisations, accounting for, on average, nearly half the total income of those in receipt of it.

Table 4.2: Funding sources of disability organisations

(Source: Online Survey; 314 of 505 organisations provided data)

% do not add up to 100 as organisations could indicate more than one source of funding

4.8 The majority of local disability organisations (70%) receive funding from one or more local authorities. This is either as part of a service contract or a grant. Over a fifth (22%) of local disability groups that are funded by local authorities receive 100% of funding from this one source.

4.9 Both national and local disability organisations use National Lottery funding. However local disability groups are more dependent upon it. On average funding of a local disability group from the Lottery will account for just under half (47%) the total income of that group. For national organisations this source only accounts for an average of 11% of total funds.

4.10 Organisations responding to the survey were asked if they received any resources in kind from local authorities. Only a handful of national organisations do but a third (35%) of local disability organisations receive resources in kind, such as free or subsidised office services or accommodation.

Organisations for or of disabled people

4.11 Within the survey three-quarters (75%) of local and two thirds (66%) of national organisations described their organisation as user-led.

4.12 The British Council of Disabled People ( BCODP) only allows user-led organisations to become members. User-led organisations are local organisations, run and controlled by disabled people. These organisations are often referred to as organisations 'of' disabled people or user-led organisations.

4.13 The BCODP sets membership criteria for organisations and groups wishing to join them as having a minimum of 51% of voting membership made up of disabled people, and 75% of executive members made up of disabled people.

Table 4.3: Percentage of executive members that are disabled people - organisations considering themselves to be user led only

(Source: Online Survey; 163 of 505 provided data)

4.14 Some interviewed organisations consider themselves to be 'user-led' not in relation to the percentage of members who are disabled but in terms of their ethos. These organisations consider themselves to be 'user-led' by virtue of the fact that they have, for example, adopted person-centred approaches to their work:

"We try to take user opinion into account in all of our decision making and we try to have a very person centred approach" (Service provider)

"We could make a good case for being user led - for involving service users - one of the things I am doing is trying to get money to recruit a service user involvement person" (Service provider)