CALLS for the government to move charities onto multi-year funding cycles have gained fresh momentum in the wake of the Jersey Employment Trust’s financial difficulties.
Marcus Liddiard, interim chief executive of the Association of Jersey Charities, said that longer-term funding commitments could help the government avoid “difficult” discussions each year.
His comments come after JET, which provides vocation training and employment support for Islanders with disabilities and long-term health conditions, said it may have to cut some of its services after learning it would not receive a repeat of a government £785,000 top-up grant which helped sustain its services in 2024. All 38 jobs at the organisation were also placed “at risk” last week.
The charity, which is contracted by the Employment, Social Security and Housing Department with agreed funding of around £1.9 million, revealed last week that it had been reliant on additional “one-off” payments for the last four years “to cover increases in demand and the cost of living”.
Social Security Minister Lyndsay Feltham announced on Sunday that budget money originally earmarked for disability and inclusion initiatives would now be used to provide “stabilisation funding” for JET in 2026.
A recommendation to review the current funding cycles for charities – with a view to moving towards a guaranteed three-year cycle – was included in a 2025 report by the Public Accounts Committee, which contended that the move would “assist charities in terms of financial security and also feed into the long-term vision for government services”.
The AJC has also previously stated that “multi-year, index-linked funding arrangements” should be standard, citing short-term funding cycles as “one of the biggest causes of frustration and stress among charities”.
Mr Liddiard said: “It puts a cadence on the government, which actually isn’t very helpful for them either – the fact that they have to have these difficult funding discussions every year.”
“Anyone who has had any experience in running a business or a charity, anybody having to employ people, realises that year-on-year funding for a committed service is a very inefficient and expensive way to run [it].”
Deputy Feltham previously said that multi-year funding was “something that I think should be adopted” and “would very much like to work towards”.
