Agenda item

Report of Director of Service Delivery.

Cabinet lead member: Councillor Alan Shuttleworth.

Exempt information reason 3.  Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Proposals for award of small grants as recommended by grants task group and set out in report approved.

(2) Reasons given by task group for allocation of funding based on assessment against the criteria in council’s community and housing grants policy endorsed.

(3) Noted that above decisions subject to approval by full council of the council’s budget for 2017/18.

(4) Priorities for award of small grants in 2018/19 agreed.

(5) Reduction in the maximum grant level (upper limit of £5,000 per application, replacing the current limit of £10,000) approved and revised policy (appendix A to report) endorsed.

78.1 Cabinet considered the report of the director of service delivery on the small grants element of the community grants programme.  It was proposed that a budget of £60,000 continue to be made available.  Given the financial constraints on the council at present, the proposed budget continued to protect the voluntary and community sector as a whole from significant reductions in spending on their activities by this council.

78.2 In addition to the small grants programme, cabinet had previously agreed major grants for the three years to 2018/19 as follows:

78.3 It was reported that the council also supported voluntary and community organisations in a variety of other ways including:

·         The award of rent support grants to some organisations occupying council properties to the value of £142,795. 

·         Discretionary rate relief awards to voluntary and community sector occupying premises in the town with a budget in 2016/17 of £145,598.

·         Allocation of £90,000 each year to the council’s devolved ward budget scheme, with ward councillors were able spend up to £10,000 on quick fix one-off works or initiatives to improve the lives of local residents. Local residents could make suggestions on how this money should be spent by contacting their local councillor.

In total the council’s direct support to voluntary and community organisations amounted to approximately £621,000 at a time when spending in other areas had been significantly reduced.

78.4 The current housing and community grants policy agreed by cabinet in 2015 set out the eligibility criteria for applications. These were designed to reflect the limited budget available and the wide demand for funding within the voluntary and community sector. The aim is to encourage volunteering and support the work of the voluntary and community sector in Eastbourne and new initiatives to meet local needs.  Applications for large capital items could not be considered.  Similarly applications for services which duplicated existing services and were available and funded elsewhere were ineligible. There must also be a clear financial need for funding and organisations with large unrestricted reserves or which made a significant surplus could not be funded.  The policy also excluded any organisation which itself awarded grants to other organisations.  Applicants are also required to have adequate governance and equality policies in place.  Applicants were also required to have adequate governance, equality, safeguarding and health and safety policies in place as well as insurance covering their activities.

78.5 Submissions of interest were invited for projects which would address the following agreed priorities:

·         Projects designed to promote inclusion and the needs of those communities and groups protected under current equality legislation.

• Projects which provide mental health services with a particular focus on young people.
• Projects to reduce social isolation in vulnerable people.
• Community buildings – one off small grants to help voluntary organisations increase the involvement of local residents as volunteers to help run the buildings and/ or new activities within those buildings; or to develop business plans to put them on a more sustainable financial footing.

78.6 Forty-six expressions of interest had been submitted totalling £335,052.  Eight were judged ineligible or did not address the agreed priorities.  Of the 38 organisations invited to apply in full 35 applications were received totalling £278,406, almost five times the funding available.

78.7 The grants policy stated that small grants were not awarded for core funding, but were designed to support new activities and projects and for one year only.  A number of the applications received were ineligible as they related to ongoing activities, including a number where East Sussex County Council and other commissioners had withdrawn funding.  Some others were for funding for projects or services already provided or eligible for funding from other sources such as Department for Work and Pensions or the Council’s own devolved ward budgets.

78.8 The grants policy set out the process and criteria against which eligible applications were to be assessed with 40% based on the degree to which the project proposals showed they would address a need in line with the agreed priorities, 20% based on quality issues such as planning, consultation and the approach to equality and diversity, 20% based on the expected impact of the project proposed, and 20% on value for money including the value of other funding, volunteer time and other funding ‘in kind’ and shared resources through effective partnering.

78.9 The following recommendations were made by the council’s grants task group:

78.10 The recommended allocations reflect the relevance of the application to the priorities agreed and the quality of the application itself.  A list of the applications not recommended for approval was given in the report together with details of funding approved in 2016/17.

78.11 The task group recommended that cabinet approve the following priorities for the small grants programme in 2018/19.

• Projects which promote the inclusion of groups protected under the Equality Act 2010.
• Initiatives designed to develop volunteering and/ or self-help activity which need funding to get started and will focus on one or more of the following:-

-      Improving people’s mental health and wellbeing.

-      Supporting carers.

-      Reducing social isolation.

-      Tackling financial exclusion.

-      Tackling digital exclusion.

78.12 Resolved (key decision): (1) That the proposals for the award of small grants as recommended by the grants task group and set out above be approved.

(2) That the reasons given by the task group for the allocation of funding based on an assessment against the criteria set out in the council’s community and housing grants policy be endorsed.

(3) That it be noted that the foregoing resolutions are subject to the approval by full council at their meeting on 22 February 2017 of the council’s budget for 2017/18.

(4) That the priorities for the award of small grants in 2018/19 be agreed.

(5) That the recommended reduction in the maximum grant level (an upper limit of £5,000 per application; replacing the current limit of £10,000) be approved and the revised community and housing grants policy (appendix A to the report) be endorsed.

(Notes: (1) Exempt information reason 3 (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority) holding that information).

(2) The above minute and associated report to cabinet was made public following the cabinet’s decision.)