Annabelle Ewing's plan to support local charities and voluntary groups
Annabelle Ewing has spent decades listening to community organisers, trustees, and volunteers across Ochil and South Perthshire. Her plan for the next parliamentary term places the voluntary sector at the heart of local recovery. Drawing on her background as a solicitor and her record of campaigning alongside community groups, Ewing wants charities treated as essential civic infrastructure rather than an afterthought in Westminster budgets.
Across small towns and rural parishes, the people who staff food banks, run befriending services, and coordinate youth clubs keep the social fabric intact. Ewing believes these organisations deserve stable, long-term funding and a louder voice in policymaking. Her proposals focus on practical measures that reduce administrative burdens, protect frontline services, and give local groups the tools they need to weather economic pressure.
The cost-of-living squeeze has hit every community hard, from a coastal town losing its last youth worker to a village hall fundraiser falling short of repairs. Ewing's approach recognises that charities and voluntary groups are often the first responders when statutory services cannot keep up. By supporting them properly, she argues, we strengthen the resilience of every neighbourhood.
Fair funding that reaches the front line
One of the central pillars of Ewing's plan is a funding model that channels money directly to frontline delivery rather than layering it through multiple intermediaries. She has proposed ringfenced multi-year grants for small charities, mirroring practices used in places where remote community organisations have learned to stretch every dollar. In rural Australia, similar thinking underpins federal volunteer grants and the work of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, which emphasises transparency and accessibility for grassroots outfits.
Ewing also wants to widen eligibility for the Third Sector Resilience Fund, extending it to groups with annual incomes below £250,000 that currently fall through the cracks. Many of these are the equivalent of a regional Landcare collective or a suburban playgroup, organisations that depend on a handful of committed volunteers and a treasurer who answers emails after hours. Her model offers predictable baseline funding alongside flexibility to respond to local need, a balance that Australian rural advocacy groups have long called for.
Cutting red tape so volunteers can get on with it
Volunteers across the constituency regularly tell Ewing that paperwork eats more time than the actual work. Whether it is a parent-led toddler group in Auchterarder or a mental health peer support circle in Alloa, compliance demands pull people away from the activities that matter. Ewing is advocating for a streamlined reporting framework that asks small organisations to submit a single annual return rather than navigating separate portals for every grant stream.
Her proposals would also create a shared digital onboarding platform where new trustees can access induction training, safeguarding guidance, and background checks in one place. The aim is to make volunteering feel less like filling out a tax return and more like rolling up to your local footy club on a Saturday morning, where everyone knows their role and the focus stays on the game. Communities that already share resources through community hubs and progress associations have shown how collaboration reduces duplication, a lesson Ewing wants to translate into national policy.
| Current approach | Ewing's plan |
|---|---|
| Short-term, project-by-project grants | Multi-year ringfenced core funding |
| Multiple reporting portals for different streams | Single annual return for small charities |
| Informal consultation, often after decisions | Statutory duty to engage before commissioning |
| Volunteers absorb compliance costs | Shared training, induction, and background checks |
| Charities briefed after policy announcements | Dedicated parliamentary liaison with the sector |
A stronger voice at Westminster
Ewing has pledged to establish a dedicated parliamentary liaison role for the voluntary sector, ensuring that when Treasury decisions are announced, charities hear about them from someone who understands their operating reality. She points to the strong advocacy tradition seen in organisations like the Country Women's Association, where a single representative can mobilise thousands of members to raise concerns with elected officials. Her Westminster liaison would similarly gather intelligence from local groups and feed it directly into parliamentary debates.
She will also push for a statutory duty on public bodies to consult community organisations when designing services. Too often, a council reshapes a care pathway or a health board redesigns a clinic without speaking to the volunteers who quietly fill the gaps. Ewing wants early, meaningful engagement written into procurement rules so that lived experience shapes policy from the outset.
Local campaigning and constituency casework
Beyond legislation, Ewing remains committed to the everyday work of constituency support. Her office will host quarterly surgeries specifically for charity leaders to raise operational concerns, from premises access to recruitment challenges. She is also building a Community Champions network of volunteers who can act as two-way connectors between their neighbourhood and her parliamentary team.
This ground-level approach draws on a tradition of community organising that thrives in regional towns, from bushfire recovery collectives in the Adelaide Hills to surf lifesaving clubs along the coast. Ewing believes politics works best when it shows up at the fundraising morning tea, not just the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Her team will publish an annual report documenting how many local groups have been supported and what difference that support has made.
Recommendations for a stronger voluntary sector
- Multi-year, ringfenced grants for charities with annual incomes under £250,000
- A single annual reporting portal replacing fragmented grant compliance
- Free shared training for trustees, safeguarding leads, and treasurers
- A dedicated parliamentary liaison role for the voluntary sector
- Statutory consultation duties for public bodies commissioning services
- Quarterly constituency surgeries for community group leaders
- A published annual impact report on local voluntary sector support
If you believe local charities and voluntary groups deserve a champion in Westminster, get involved with the campaign today. Volunteer your time, share your story, or make a donation to support Ewing's community work. Together, we can build a stronger, fairer Ochil and South Perthshire where no group is left to struggle alone.