A copy of the presentation will be provided prior to the meeting.

The Committee received and noted a report that provided an update of the Local Community Fund Transition Arrangements. The main points of the discussion may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

·         Noted that public services are constantly seeking ways of ensuring services reach those who are most vulnerable and ‘unreached’ in society;

·         Was informed that the Council’s principal objective in developing a new corporate grants programme is to harness the distinctive characteristics of grants to promote sustainable and resilient communities and help enable the voluntary and community sector (VCS) continue to make its unique contribution towards achieving the outcomes for the community set out in the Tower Hamlets Plan;

·         Commented that it wanted to see a breakdown of the funding to address the mitigation.  In response it was noted that there would be a report to Cabinet that would provide such deal.  Including looking at costing the proposals fully and the targeted commissioning;

·         Wished to know what is being done regarding capacity building and helping organisations to access alternative funding streams and how much extra money can be brought in.  In response it was noted that (i) Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Services (THCVS) is currently working on this; and

·         Noted that Spacehive is a trusted place for collaboration, bringing together communities, residents, businesses, councils, and grant bodies. Through the grant maker app Spacehive are able to automatically match projects to Funds, which can then pledge directly to the crowdfunding campaign

As a result of discussions on the report the Committee RESOLVED that it wanted to revisit this topic at the next meeting.

The recommendations were amended and then agreed.

The Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses were noted.

DECISION

1.        To agree the Local Community Fund programme and funding to individual organisations as set out in appendix F to the report for a period of 42 months from 1st October 2019 to 31st March 2023, subject to agreement of detailed funding agreements setting out the outcomes the funded projects are expected to achieve and conditions of funding. Subject to the following:

a.            That a delivery plan for the mitigation measures set out in paragraph 3.56 of the report, including how these will address the concerns raised at Cabinet with regards to meeting the needs of Somali and other minority community residents, be presented to the Mayor for consideration and agreement prior to the conclusion of the final funding agreements set out in Appendix F.

b.            That the ‘Advice and Information’ Scheme 3A, will not be implemented until a further report is presented to the Mayor setting out how the recommended advice consortium will provide wide geographic coverage including in the south west area of the borough and will reach excluded communities.

c.            That the report referred to in 1a above will include appropriate timelines for the mitigation measures set out in the Equality Analysis Action Plan referred to in 3 below.

2.        To agree that transitional arrangements will be put in place for funded organisations set out in paragraphs 3.54 to 3.58 of the report.

3.        To note the Equality Analysis and the specific equalities considerations as set out in paragraph 4 of the report and to agree the Equality Analysis Action Plan set out in appendix A to the report.

4.        That a separate report be presented to the Mayor setting out how the Council supports areas such as ‘play’, ‘sports’ and ‘activities for elders’ outside of the Local Community Fund programme and how the conclusion of Mainstream Grants will impact on these programmes.

Action by:

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (W. TUCKLEY)

(Divisional Director, Strategy, Policy and Performance (S. Godman)

(VCS Strategy Manager (D. Freeman)

The Mayor introduced the report on the Local Community Fund. He set out the history of grants arrangements and how these new arrangements had been set up following extensive involvement with the voluntary sector in designing the procedures. He welcomed the support the proposed projects could provide to local communities.

Councillor Candida Ronald, Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector, then took Members through the report in more detail explaining the proposals would provide over £2.6 million a year in funding to over fifty projects provided by the voluntary and community sectors to support local communities. The projects were arranged into a number of themes including around community safety, advice and information, digital including and health. She highlighted that there had been far more bids than there was available funding and so it was with great regret the Council had been unable to fund all of the good schemes that had been proposed. She also explained that the evaluation process had been undertaken entirely independently of the Council.

The Mayor opened up the item for discussion and a number of points were raised, including:

·         Concerns of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee around the areas of deficiency highlighted by the equality impact analysis, whether the proposed £180k small grants funding was sufficient mitigation and how the identified gaps in provision would be filled.

·         Hearing from a number of organisations and service users who expressed concerns that the proposed projects under the Advice and Information Theme would be replacing organisations who had provided advice to specific areas of the borough and communities for a long time and were well known and trusted. Could the new consortium reach all vulnerable people and communities?

·         That many well run and valuable smaller organisations would not be able to survive without this funding and that the borough was in danger of losing vital support services.

·         Criticism that the application process was too difficult for some organisations, although it was noted that the process had been thoroughly revamped in line with requests from the sector. The new contract monitoring system was also designed to be rigorous but more proportionate than previously.

·         Questions about whether schemes relating to play and active lifestyles were missing from the list.

·         Particular concerns that no bids led by the Somali Community had been successful. The Mayor acknowledged this as an issue.

The Mayor also noted requests to make the process for applying for mitigation funding as simple as possible for example by reusing applications from the initial Community Fund process.

Concluding the discussion, the Mayor:

·         Thanked everyone for the good quality applications they had submitted and their desire to work to support the communities within the borough.

·         Welcomed the good work that the successful projects would be able to undertake to support residents.

·         Acknowledged the inevitable disappointment that it wasn’t possible to accept many bids as the process was heavily oversubscribed.

·         Noted the concerns submitted by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and their pre-decision scrutiny questions and officer responses. He  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6