Edinburgh Napier University

  The Scottish Government has acknowledged that the third sector has a key role to play in delivering public services that are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local people’s needs.


This study explores the experiences of third sector organisations (TSOs) in Scotland over time in response to the challenges and opportunities of the political and economic environment in which they operated over 2009-2013.


During this period, the study considered the impacts of policy and funding changes on TSOs and organisational responses to change. TSOs have enacted radical change to their internal management and Board structures to better align their function with the changing external environment.
The report uses qualitative longitudinal research within 21 third sector organisations to investigate their responses to the opportunities and challenges of the changing public services landscape in Scotland between 2009 - 2013. It builds upon the earlier reports on each of the first three years of the project