Decision details

11.1

The Executive Director, Communities submitted a report seeking approval for recommended investment in the voluntary and community sector for 2015/16 from the Voluntary Sector Grant Aid budget. This budget is subject to approval of the Council budget for 2015/16 to be adopted at Council on 6^th March 2015.

11.2

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:-

(a)

having had due regard to the provisions of Sections 149 and 158 of the Equality Act 2010 and Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and to the issues raised by those provisions, approves the grant agreement extension recommendations listed in Section 4 of the report, and detailed further in Appendix 1 of the report;

(b)

endorses the grant agreement extension process described in Appendix 2 of the report and approves the actions, arrangements and recommendations at Sections 4 and 11 of the report, and the following specific delegations;

(c)

delegates authority to the Executive Director, Communities:-

(i)

to administer the Lunch Clubs Small Grants Fund as described in Appendix 1 of the report;

(ii)

to agree the terms of and authorise the completion of all funding agreements, including amendments to the terms of any existing grant funding agreements, relating to grants made from the Lunch Clubs Small Grants Fund and the Voluntary Sector Grants Fund, together with any other associated agreements or arrangements that she may consider appropriate, provided that if the terms of a proposed funding agreement or amendments to the terms of an existing agreement involve the variation of any standard terms previously agreed by Internal Audit and/or Legal Services, the agreement shall not be completed without the consent of the Chief Internal Auditor and the Director of Legal and Governance;

(iii)

to review, adjust or suspend grant awards where (a) a change of circumstance affects the ability of an organisation to deliver the purpose of the grant awarded, the Executive Director, Communities considers the performance of the organisation to be below an acceptable standard or (c) an organisation has breached any of the award conditions contained in their funding agreement,

(d)

delegates authority to the Executive Director, Communities, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health to:-

(i)

agree the amounts, purposes and recipients of any individual grants awarded in year from the Grant Funds, including any additional sums received or returned or unpaid funds;

(ii)

to withdraw grant awards where (a) a change of circumstance affects the ability of an organisation to deliver the purpose of the grant awarded or (b) the Executive Director, Communities considers the performance of the organisation has breached any of the award conditions contained in their funding agreement, and

(iii)

to allocate any other additional sums that may be received in year from other parts of the Council or other partners as part of the Voluntary Sector Grant Aid process to fund local voluntary sector activity.

11.3

Reasons for Decision

11.3.1

The allocation of this funding to preventative services will fundamentally contribute to the Values, Priorities and Strategic Outcomes of the Council’s Corporate Plan 2015-18. In particular:-

Values

·         Prioritising those with greatest need

·         Working with, and within, communities

Priorities

·         Tackling inequalities

·         In-touch organisation

·         Strong neighbourhoods and communities

Outcomes

·         Specifically ‘Tackling Poverty and Increasing Social Justice’ but also-

·         Health and Wellbeing

·         Successful children, young people and families

·         Housing and neighbourhoods

·         Safe and secure

11.3.2

In addition, the allocation of this funding will contribute to the Fairness Commission’s recommendations around:-

·         Health and Wellbeing for All

·         Fair access to High Quality Jobs and Pay

·         Fair Access to Benefits and Credit

·         Housing and a Better Environment

·         A Safe City

·         What Citizens and Communities can do

11.4

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

11.4.1

The proposal and recommendations within the report had been submitted by the Grants Awards Recommendations Panel, which is made up of the Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health, his advisors and the Head of Libraries and Community Services. Details of the whole process used to come to this proposal and recommendations can be seen in Appendix 2 of the report.

11.4.2

In order to inform recommendations on the grant extensions and award amounts to Cabinet, each of the 24 Voluntary Grants Fund current grant recipients were invited to complete an Impact Form. This asked organisations to profile the impact of a 20% reduction in grant on their service and their service users, including an analysis of the impact on different communities of interest within their service users.

11.4.3

Officers made a recommendation on the amount to be awarded to each organisation during the extension period, having regard to the impact form and budget proposal, considering the impact on the service and service users, including an assessment of equality impact, as reported in the impact form, organisational performance, whether the budget was balanced or shows a shortfall, proposals for covering shortfall and the continued viability of the service/project funded in 2015-16 if a reduction was to be applied.

11.4.4

The Grants Awards Recommendations Panel considered the option of reducing the total Grant Aid budget by 20%. As a result of the information provided by organisations (as described in section 9.3 of the report) and having consideration for the statutory Best Value Guidance, the Panel are recommending that the budget is only reduced by 9%.

11.5

Any Interest Declared or Dispensation Granted

None

11.6

Reason for Exemption if Public/Press Excluded During Consideration

None

11.7

Respective Director Responsible for Implementation

Laraine Manley, Executive Director, Communities

11.8

Relevant Scrutiny and Policy Development Committee If Decision Called In

Safer and Stronger Communities