David Freeman, (VCS Strategy Manager) presented the update on the Small Grants Programme, administered by the East End Community Foundation.  The report also provided details of the two new grants themes agreed by the Mayor in Cabinet to mitigate the impact of the Local Community Fund around: Access and Participation support for BAME communities and Community Support Services for Older People.

The report also proposed a variation to the upper income threshold for eligible organisations to apply to future funding rounds.

Regarding the round one results, it was noted that the Small Grants fund was oversubscribed.  76 applications were received and, of these, 13 applications received funding from a diverse range of organisations, across the Borough. Details of the geographical spread of the projects were set out in the report.  A number of former MSG projects received funding. Regarding the second round of funding, the results were expected to be available by the end of November/early December. The closing date for the third round would be in the spring of 2020. Officers felt that this programme should more clearly promoted as a ‘rolling programme’ and would discuss this with East End Community Foundation, as well as the lessons learnt.

Councillor Tarik Khan (Scrutiny Lead, Resources) advised of the Overview and Scrutiny’s questions on this report regarding: the feedback and the support provided to unsuccessful groups, the measures to raises awareness of the two new themes and the revised threshold.

The written responses were noted and would be published on the website.

In response to these questions it was noted that:

•           That the East End Community Foundation provided feedback to the successful organisations.

•           That the Council will carry out targeted publicity for the two new small grant themes, as well as more general publicity.

•           Regarding the proposed £250,000 threshold, this mirrored the Charity Commission’s definition of a small and medium sized organisation .The feedback from organisations showed that there was support for this change. In response to questions about how this would be assessed, Officers expressed an intention to identify an average income for organisations over a period of time to identify if organisations met this threshold.

In response to further questions, it was noted that all projects funded would be required to complete an end of project report. It was also noted that an annual report would be brought to the Sub – Committee.

Members also noted details of the number of BME led projects that received funding.

RESOLVED:

1.         Note the progress in implementing the Small Grants Programme and the outcome of the first round of the programme

2.         Note the details of the two new small grants Themes agreed by the Mayor in Cabinet as part of the proposals to mitigate negative impact identified in the Local Community Fund Equality Analysis, and

3.         Agree the eligibility criteria for the whole of the small grants programme be amended to restrict the programme to voluntary and community

organisations with an income of less than £250,000 per annum.