Organisations within the voluntary and charitable sector could be given grants for projects Social Security thinks would aid the departments work under proposals to go before the States early next year. The suggestion will be included within Social Security’s review of the supplementary benefit system.
Deputy Chief Officer Ed Ashton said Guernsey had a very strong third sector and such a system would be mutually beneficial.

“There are charities in the UK doing this kind of work all the time. It’s dipping our toe in the water.”

He said such schemes could see, for example, a charity with an understanding of a certain health condition working with employers to help individuals back to work.

“It would be for organisations to come forward with ideas and a business case. If the department thinks it fits with what we’re trying to do we would want to encourage that.”

If approved the initiative would be funded from the insurance fund. The Guernsey Community Foundation published research by Bristol University that looked at the island’s voluntary and charitable sectors and relationship with the States.
Text by Jess Stevenson and photo by Steve Sarre. Reproduced courtesy of Guernsey Press and Co Ltd.