Terry Parkin, Interim Service Head, Learning & Achievement and Mohammed Jolil, Interim Children’s Centre Locality Lead, presented the report which asked Commissioners to note the reported expenditure on Early Years’ Service grant funding in the period 2015/16.  The funding was dispersed over some 50 awards and originated from the Dedicated Schools Grant and was managed by the Schools’ Forum

The Chair invited Councillor Pierce, Mayor Biggs, Councillor Saunders and Commissioners to comment on the data reported.

Councillor Pierce indicated that GSSC had no comments that it wished to make.  Mayor Biggs indicated that he broadly supported the arrangements but there needed to be clear and rigorous structures around the management of the grants.  Councillor Saunders expressed concern that some organisations would not receive funding under the present funding arrangements.  Commissioner Max Caller expressed concern that, that under these arrangements some organisations appear to have failed to receive a grant but did not have access to other funding streams; he noted that during the determination of the MSG awards in July 2015 Commissioner has specifically sought to guard against this.  He discussed the difficulties that would be encountered by some organisations under the current arrangements with Debbie Jones, Corporate Director for Education, Terry Parkin, Interim Service Head, Learning & Achievement and Zena Cooke, Corporate Director for Resources and noted the following information:

•         there needed to be a wider consideration and discussion concerning unallocated and underspent funds in this scheme

•         transitional funding needed to be available to mediate the proposed changes in grant arrangements from grant funding to commissioning

•         Commissioners had not been kept up-to-date on changes in the arrangements for some funding schemes

•         The process for administering these grants needed to be rigorous and

•         there needed to be clear rules about how these grants were managed

•         the change in approach from a grant funding basis to a commissioning basis had not been clearly communicated

•         the rationale underpinning the intention to move towards a commissioning arrangement was to ensure that no group was favoured over another

In noting the information provided, Commissioner Max Caller observed that all information (concepts, intentions and data) concerning the award of grants must be clearly communicated to Commissioners; however Commissioners did not oppose the proposal to progress from grant funding based arrangements to commissioning arrangements.

RESOLVED

That the report on the Early Years Grant expenditure and the disbursement of these funds in the period 2015/16 be noted