Society’s most vulnerable will suffer as charity cash dries up

The fund was aimed at improving the skills of some 4500 people farthest from the labour market, including the homeless, those with mental health problems and drug addiction.

Some 50% of those who went through these various projects went on to employment, education and training.

The national funding package of approximately £3m a year finishes in two weeks and many bodies claim it has not been replaced in their area.

Under the new Scottish Government funding concordat, ministers say the fund will be replaced by the Fairer Scotland Fund, which will be allocated by Community Planning Partnerships.

But many of the organisations losing the New Future (NF) funding say they have been told they will be unable to apply for other funds until the summer and that they have no money to plug the gap.

Critics say the move undermines the Scottish Government rhetoric on trying to get people off drugs and into work.

Bodies such as the Aberlour Child Care Trust, which helps families affected by drug misuse, and the Salvation Army, have given staff redundancy notices.

Realise, a Glasgow-based organisation which has helped to get dozens of former drug addicts and homeless people into work and training, say it will close unless an immediate funding solution can be found.

Almost half of the NF fund was allocated to Glasgow, which has an estimated 12,000 heroin addicts and an employment rate of 66%, well below the national average of 75%. Glasgow is one of the areas worst affected by its termination.

Bruce Thomson, assistant regional director of the Aberlour Child Care Trust has worked with around 400 families. "We are a city-wide service but we have been told that if we want to access alternate funding we have to approach five different community partnerships and there is no guarantee that it will bear fruit," he said. "Even if we could access this new funding it would not be available until later in the year and by then we will have had to close."

"We have continually emphasised the need for education and training to be linked up to people's treatment and care on the drugs side," said Dave Liddell, head of the Scottish Drugs Forum.

"We have to see drug issues as a social problem and wider support in terms of employment and housing is key. A lot of these projects have taken years to build. It can cost society £35,000 a year for one problematic drug user so the cost of this funding was not really that expensive."

Iain Gray, Labour's spokesman on the voluntary sector, said ministers need to help. "The SNP government should be offering immediate funding to ensure that these organisations can continue their work," he said.

A spokesman for Glasgow Community Planning Partnership (GCPP) said: "All projects receiving New Futures Funding were made aware in writing when they were awarded grants that the funding was time-limited to March 31, 2008.

"Extra funding was made available to help projects supported through the New Futures Fund during this transition. Glasgow Community Planning Partnership (GCPP) is responsible for the administration of the new Fairer Scotland Fund which replaces former funding streams. The fund, which the Scottish Government has emphasised is a brand new fund, aims to focus more on the causes rather than the consequences of deprivation. In Glasgow, the CPP is seeking to invest resources in initiatives which support the city's five strategic themes of a healthy, learning, safe, vibrant and working Glasgow."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) have been aware from the outset that this successor funding would finish at the end of March this year.

"NFF successor funding comes from a combination of Community Regeneration Fund and Workforce Plus money. Both of these funds, as well as five others, have been replaced by the simplified Fairer Scotland Fund which is designed to cut bureaucracy and free CPPs to use their allocation as they see fit for the benefit of their communities. It is for CPPs to decide which projects will benefit.

"This is in line with the historic concordat agreed by the Scottish Government and Cosla."

I was going to get murdered or die of an overdose'

DANNY was sleeping under bridges and in burnt-out cars, selling drugs, chasing heroin and a regular visitor to Barlinnie when someone suggested getting help to find a house. He was 35 years old.

"I was either going to get murdered, die of an overdose or end up murdering someone myself I was such a mess," he says. "I was so bad the courts banned me from the city centre between certain hours. Then I was told about this place that would help. I nearly ripped the door off the hinges when I first came up here I was so high. But they were great with me. They put me through a range of projects to help with confidence and self esteem and got me in touch with services to stabilise me on methadone."

Four years on and Danny is living in a flat, passed exams and been accepted at college to study car mechanics.

The intensive support he received from Glasgow-based charity Move On was entirely paid for by the New Futures Fund (NFF), a programme for people aged 15 to 34 facing serious disadvantage in the labour market.

Move On is one of a number of voluntary organisations which has now been forced to give some staff their notice as a result of the fact the eight-year funding stream ends in two weeks time.

Jackie, 45, is one of the addiction training officers losing her job, a reality made bleaker by the fact that she is a former addict herself who turned her life around.

"My life was completely unmanageable and when my daughter was born she was taken into care," she explains. "It was really bad but I got help, went through detox and have been abstinent for four years."

In the first six years of the initiative more than 8000 people were given access to the programmes and more than 50% went into employment or training as a result.