Issue - meetings
MSG Red & Amber Project Update
Meeting: 01/11/2016 - Grants Scrutiny Sub-Committee (Item 5)
5 MSG Performance Report - Variation Request Report PDF 133 KB
Additional documents:
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 ... view the full minutes text for item 5