Funding of RFFs for supporting Social Action

The extent to which the RFFs have been successful in raising funding for this work varies greatly between regions. Generally speaking, the amount of funding bears a fairly direct and obvious relationship to the amount of work undertaken and the effectiveness of the RFF. However, it is striking that both NWFF and SEEFF have had no funding for this work, yet NWFF reports much more activity than SEEFF. The crucial difference is that NWFF is serviced by a full-time member of staff paid for by a faith community, receives in kind support from the RDA, is located in the NWDA offices and has good relationships with the structures and officers of NWDA. SEEFF, on the other hand, is supported by some time and office costs from existing staff from the churches in the region, and GO SE is supporting a consultation conference on the future development of SEEFF. This demonstrates the vital difference made by having core staff that are fully committed to the development of the RFF.

The following table relates to sources of funding and resources for the support of social action in the financial years 2006-7 and 2007-8. In addition to the sources listed below, the following RFFs reported that they generated income through contracting delivery of services to other organisations: faithnetsouthwest, FaithNetEast, WMFF.

	Cap B £	FCCBF £	Reg gov £	Faith Coms £	Other £	In Kind
*faithnetsouthwest*	yes	yes		South West Churches		Nat gov: speaker Reg gov: conference venue, printing Faith coms: % of salary and costs
South East England Regional Faiths Forum						Faith coms: some time of their own paid staff, some office costs GOSE: supporting a conference
East of England Faiths Council and faithneteast		yes	EEDA: % of core work, research. GO-East: research	% of core work		GO-East: conference venue
Faiths Forum for the East Midlands
West Midlands Faiths Forum	yes	yes	GOWM: grant		Local business	GO provides meeting rooms Faith communities and members give significant time and resources in kind
Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum	yes		YHRA, Yorkshire Forward			YHRA: temporary staff
North West Forum of Faiths				Salary		NWDA: office and costs.

Cap B: Capacity Builders
FCCBF: Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund
Reg gov: Regional Government
Nat gov: National Government
Faith Coms: Faith communities

The amount of funding varies considerably across the regions. Three RFFs do not receive any funding, though one of these does receive regular in-kind support from the RDA and states that it sees its role as limited and specific and does not seek funding. The other two would like to further develop their potential for supporting faith based organisations.

Four RFFs do receive funding for their role in supporting faith based social action. Three of these (EEFC, faithnetsouthwest, WMFF) have received grants from the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund. Three (faithnetsouthwest, WMFF, YHFF) have received funding from Capacity Builders.

A number of different government departments have programmes that are interested in encouraging faith based social action. The funding streams associated with these programmes have sometimes been applied in a manner that has seemed, to those in the RFFs, not to be well coordinated. An example was the funding of Faith Action by the Office of the Third Sector, to be the voice of faith and community organisations delivering public services, and to develop regional hubs to carry forward this work. Two RFFs are now involved, but there is a feeling that better coordination by government funders could have used resources more efficiently.

Some RFFs receive funding from the regional governance organisations. This supports their engagement with regional governance, but also helps maintain a core from which to build the support of social action. YHFF receives funding from the RDA and the regional assembly, WMFF receives a grant from GOWM, EEFC received some core funding from the RDA.

All RFFs receive occasional support from the regional governance organisations, most often in the form of payment for conferences or specific pieces of work.

All RFFs depend heavily on in-kind support from faith communities, for example SEEFF depends on the work of paid employees of a number of churches and EEFF receives funding for its core work from the Church Leaders of the Region. The staffing for the NWFF is provided by the Churches Officer for the North West.

A number of the RFFs have funding which will run out at the end of March 2008. The funding they have received so far has been used to develop capacity, to engage with regional governance and support faith based social action. If CLG wishes to build on this capacity in the new 'Framework for Inter Faith Dialogue and Social Action' it is vital that there is cover for the gap in funding between the end of current programmes and the start of the new programmes associated with the Framework.