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Matter for
Decision
This was the second year of the Community Grants fund for voluntary and
community not-for-profit organisations. The Officer’s report provided a brief
overview of the eligibility criteria, support provided and process undertaken.
Applications received were detailed in Appendix 1 of the Officer’s
report, alongside recommendations for awards.
The Officer’s report also detailed the budget available for Area
Committee Community Grants 2016-17.
Decision
of Executive Councillor for Communities
Approved the Community Grants to voluntary and
community organisations for 2016-17, as set out in Appendix 1 of the Officer’s
report, subject to the budget approval in February 2016 and any further
satisfactory information required of applicant organisations.
Reason for the Decision
As set out in the Officer’s report.
Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected
Not applicable.
Scrutiny
Considerations
The Committee received a report from the Community Funding and
Development Manager.
The Executive Councillor for Communities made the following comments in
response to the report:
i.
Thanked Officers for their hard work.
ii.
There was less funding available this year to
support community and voluntary organisations. This was because last year there
was a special, one off, ‘transition fund’ of £75,000 to take into account
changes to the eligibility criteria and the overall Community Grant fund pot.
iii.
Officers were doing all
they could to support applicants and maximise their
value for money.
In response to Members’ questions the Community Funding and Development
Manager said the following:
i.
A range of applications had been received from
community/voluntary organisations, some were strong (ie
met criteria for funding) and some were not.
ii.
Officers had provided a range of support for
applicants who sought funding such as offering training to help them progress
their applications. Organisations known to be interested in making applications
were approached to signpost assistance available. Help guides had been updated
to make the application process as user friendly as possible.
iii.
An annual monitoring report would be produced for
all councillors circa June 2016.
iv.
It was difficult to compare the number of projects
to last year as some forms contained multiple applications for funding, some organisations had submitted multiple
applications.
v.
Applications could be made for more than one
funding stream, so officers allocated them to the most appropriate.
vi.
There were a similar number of organisations that
made applications for this year’s funding round compared to last year.
There were 15 applications supporting mental
ill health.
The Community Funding and Development
Manager undertook to circulate figures regarding the number of organisations
who had made applications to councillors. Specifically the
number of applications and funding awarded for this year and last broken down
by categories for comparison.
vii.
Officers would advise applicants if projects could
attract funding from multiple sources. If projects could apply for more than
one source of funding, this may affect the amount the City Council was prepared
to offer them.
viii.
Funding had been offered to the University of
Cambridge over various years where their projects benefitted the community and
contributed to outreach work, and could not be funded through ‘usual’
University sources.
ix.
Community/voluntary organisations did not have to
pay the living wage in order to get funding under the current scheme, this would be reviewed in future. The grants team
are collating information regarding the living wage from funded organisations.
A lot of applications were made by voluntary rather than paid staff, so they
would not be covered by living wage criteria.
Officers undertook to review the impact of
the living wage policy on general partnership working arrangements, and report
findings back to councillors.
The Executive Councillor for Communities
offered to liaise with any Councillor regarding living wage policy outside of
the meeting.
The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendation.
The Executive Councillor approved the recommendation.
Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any
Dispensations Granted)
No conflicts of interest
were declared by the Executive Councillor.