Agenda item
MSG Performance Report - Variation Request Report
- Meeting of Grants Scrutiny Sub-Committee, Tuesday, 1st November, 2016 6.30 p.m. (Item 5.2)
- View the background to item 5.2
Minutes:
The Sub Committee considered the MSG Performance Report – Project Variation Requests submitted by Steve Hill, (Head of Benefits Services) who informed the Sub Committee that the Commissioners at the September Grants Decision Making Meeting highlighted 3 organisations with variation requests who were not able to deliver what had originally been agreed and raised concerns that the report did not provide sufficient detail to enable them to make an informed decision and requested a further report. The 3 organisations were Ragged School Museum, the Shadwell Community Project and the Green Candle Dance Community.
Steve Hill provided the following information relating to each of the 3 organisations: -
1. Ragged School Museum
a. The project has been classed as RED for two consecutive periods; January to March 2016 and April to June 2016;
b. The organisation submitted a “significant variation” request; and
c. Due to the two periods of being rated RED, two periods of funding were withheld totalling £3000.
Recommendation – given the unique nature of the project and the value of the learning outputs and outcomes, an exceptional variation to the current policy for RED rated projects is recommended. It is recommended that the project variation request be approved and the evidence of the organisation’s ability to deliver the revised outputs is reviewed and the outcome of the evidence review is reported in the next quarterly MSG Performance report.
The Sub Committee agreed to support the recommendation.
2. The Shadwell Community Project (SCP)
a. The project has been classed as RED for two consecutive periods from September to December 2015 and January to March 2016;
b. The organisation submitted a “letter of representation” to the Grants Scrutiny Sub Committee and the Tower Hamlets CVS submitted a letter seeking referral to the Commissioners Decision Making Meeting;
c. A contributing factor to the poor project management has been the reporting of the overall organisation’s finances and activities rather than project related costs and delivery;
d. The organisation has requested a decrease in the stated match funding from £270,806 to £96,428;
e. The organisation are also requesting the deletion of a small number of outputs relating to referrals as follows –
i. Number of residents to other organisations – 18
ii. Referral to and from school – 12
iii. Referral from Children’s Centre – 10
iv. Referral to Social Services - 8
f. With regards to the request to reduce the match funding – the revised match funding amount of £96,428 over the lifetime of the project represents 79.4% of the total budget, this is well over the required minimum of 15%.
Recommendation – It is recommended that the variation to the level of match funding is approved by Commissioners.
The Sub Committee agreed to support the recommendation.
3. Green Candle Dance Company
a. The project was classed as AMBER for the January to March and April to June 2016 periods;
b. Due to a number of reasons the organisation has not been able to recruit the agreed target number of beneficiaries to its activity sessions, which has had a negative impact on overall project performance;
c. A “significant variation” request has been received and the organisation has cited a number of reasons as to why the variation has been sought which in the main centre around the health issues and ill health recovery times of clients which are impacting on delivery;
d. The organisation serves participants who in the main are people suffering from dementia at the Dance for Health at Oxford House Programme;
e. The number of projected regular attendees is expected to be lower than originally expected due to their health condition;
f. Not all participants are able to attend every week for several reasons therefore the average number of regular attendees is lower than the total cohort; and
g. The requested variation outcomes are not considered to be acceptable as they are proposing an “up to” target which is not considered to be sufficiently robust.
Recommendation – Commissioners are recommended to note the work undertaken by the Green Candle Dance Company and its specialist provision for people with dementia and it is recommended that the proposed variation is not accepted at the present time. It is also recommended that officers undertake further work with the Green Candle Dance Company to establish revisions to the targets that provide sufficient measurable outputs and outcomes before reporting back to Commissioners as part of the next quarterly performance report.
Councillor Clare Harrison enquired if more detail regarding the organisations could be made available in the reports in future as it would be useful to know about the organisations and what their projects entail. She also stated that Green Candle Company basically did not meet the basic requirements and why wasn’t it picked up earlier to avoid the organisation going from Green to Amber and was there no additional support that could have been provided.
Steve Hill informed the Sub Committee that it was an oversight, but it was quickly corrected and monitored, however, if the variation is approved then it would return to Green.
Councillor Peter Golds informed the Sub Committee that he had attended the Green Candle Dance Company and had actually seen a class in progress. He stated that it would be a tragedy if the variation was not approved as the project is the only one of its kind in the Borough, it is a relatively small sum of money and the services provided are for the elderly with disabilities and has a rich multi-cultural attendance which is reflective of the Borough.
The Sub Committee agreed to support the recommendation.
Supporting documents:
- Item 4.2 MSG Variation Request Report_V4 261016 with highlighted changes (3) (3) (3), item 5.2 PDF 133 KB
- Item 4.2.1 Appendix 1 Ragged School Museum correspondence, item 5.2 PDF 54 KB