Voluntary support in a post-welfare state: Experiences and challenges of precarity

This paper examines voluntary sector care and support provision under a context of significantly reduced government funding. Whilst geographers have analysed the causes and aftermath of austerity on different populations, our focus is on how managers of voluntary sector organisations have had to learn and evolve through bidding for non-statutory funding to sustain their core provision. Drawing on research with voluntary support organisations in the learning disability social care sector in England and Scotland, the paper examines the effects of the state's continued reliance on the sector for core 'public' services whilst simultaneously withdrawing its funding. Using accounts from managers, the paper offers a particularly novel and potent example of voluntary sector precarity and the deepening unfinished and unsettled nature of care and support that has unfolded in the wake of austerity. Through the empirical research, attention is drawn to three levels of precarity that are experienced by those seeking to sustain voluntary support provision: voluntary sector organisation and structures, the voluntary sector workforce, and individual managers' everyday emotional and affective experiences.

Automated summary

This paper examines the impact of significantly reduced government funding on voluntary sector care and support provision, focusing on how managers have had to adapt to bidding for non-statutory funding. It highlights the state's continued reliance on the sector for core services while withdrawing funding, leading to instability and unresolved issues in care and support provision. Through empirical research, the study reveals three levels of precarity experienced by those seeking to sustain voluntary support provision, including organizational structures, workforce, and individual managers' emotional experiences.