july – december 2008 councillor diane thomas (chair) councillor kath banks councillor jack cookson...

July – December 2008

Councillor Diane Thomas (Chair)Councillor Kath BanksCouncillor Jack CooksonCouncillor RJ FarooquiCouncillor Jinny PearceCouncillor Mark Shurmer

Mrs Ann Sowton from the Bromsgrove and Redditch Network (BARN)

Jess Bayley

December 2008

The picture on the front cover was taken during the Redditch Borough Council Voluntary Sector Consultation Event 21 November 2008

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Third Sector Task and Finish Group

Duration of the review

Task and Finish Group membership

Co-opted Member

Overview and Scrutiny Support Officer

Third Sector Task and Finish Review

Date for submission of report

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Front cover picture

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Main Contents Page

Introduction page 7

Recommendations page 8

Background page 11

Review Scope page 15

Approach to the Review page 16

Consultation Event page 18

Recommendations: Further Information

Recommendation One page 28

Recommendation Two a page 39

Recommendation Two b page 40

Recommendation Three page 43

Recommendation Four page 45

Third Sector Task and Finish Review 3

Main Contents Page

Recommendation Five page 47

Recommendation Five a page 48

Recommendation Five b page 49

Recommendation Five c page 50

Recommendation Five d page 48

Recommendation Five e page 50

Recommendation Five f page 52

Recommendation Six page 54

Conclusion page 57

Consultation Event – Expert Witnesses page 58

Expert Witnesses page 60

Additional Thanks page 61

4 Third Sector Task and Finish Review

Main Contents Page

Appendix A: Shopping, Investing and Giving page 62

Appendix B: Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy 2008 – 2011: Summary page 64

Appendix C: Officer Costs (this appendix is available separately from the report pack).

Appendix D: Delegate Pack Information (this appendix is available separately from the report pack).

Bibliography page 72

Website References page 76

Glossary page 81

Overview and Scrutiny Contacts page 83



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Third Sector Task and Finish Review6

Introduction

This report represents the culmination of a six month review into the Council’s grants process. We were commissioned to undertake this review on behalf of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

In the report you will see that we have undertaken a thorough investigation of the Council’s grants process and of the various options that could be utilised to improve funding arrangements at the Council.

We have produced a number of recommendations which we feel, if they are adopted, will make the Council’s grants process fit for purpose from 2010/11 onwards.

This report should be read in conjunction with the brief presentation report produced by Councillors Shurmer and Thomas on behalf of our Group.


Recommendations

We RECOMMEND that

1) the Council adopt a written Grants Policy and Procedure;

2a) the Council’s purpose for funding the third sector should be aligned to the following mission statement “Redditch Borough Council supports Voluntary and Community Sector organisations because we believe that a vibrant third sector is vital to our community”;

2b) the criteria for grants applications be aligned to the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy priorities;

3) the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework be adopted for the Council’s grants process;

4) the Council officially endorse the Worcestershire Compact;

8 Third Sector Task and Finish Review

Recommendations

5) further work be undertaken into the following issues:

a) a review of ways to enhance Voluntary and Community Sector involvement in the Redditch Partnership;

b) a review of the Council’s provision of non-grant support to the Voluntary and Community Sector;

c) a review of how the Council should meet its responsibilities as set out in the Worcestershire Compact agreement;

d) a review of how the six equalities strands could be embedded in the working practices of Redditch Borough Council and the Redditch Partnership;

e) a review of the Council’s procurement code; and

f) a review of how multi-year funding arrangements should be implemented as part of the Council’s grants process; and


Recommendations

6) subject to the successful submission and approval of a revenue bid, the Council introduce a clerical support role in the policy team to support the grants process; or

subject to funding using a portion of the grants budget the Council introduce a clerical support role in the policy team to support the grants process.


Background

Increasingly, in recent years, central government has been promoting the need for a thriving third sector.

The government has recognised that the third sector has a significant role to play within society, including: delivering public services; campaigning for change, promoting social enterprises and strengthening communities (Office of the Third Sector, 2008).

As part of this commitment two national performance indicators have been introduced that relate to the third sector. These national performance indicators encourage local authorities to build capacity within the sector:

• National Indicator Six: ‘Participation in Regular Volunteering’; and

• National Indicator Seven: ‘An Environment for a Thriving Third Sector’ (this national indicator encourages consideration of more than just providing financial support to the sector).

Local Authorities are not legally required to distribute funding to third sector organisations. However, many Councils do provide financial support. The arrangements for providing financial support to the third sector vary between Councils.

National Context

National Performance Indicators

Local authority grants processes


Background

Redditch Borough Council currently allocates grants and donations to third sector organisations from the Council’s Grants Fund. The Council allocates grants and donations from this grants fund in a number of different ways:

Core Funded organisations: The Council provides some larger grants which cover core funding costs. Five organisations received core funding in 2008/09. Collectively, these core funded organisations received £184,980 from the Council.

Donations: The Council also donates funds to third sector organisations. Two organisations received donations from the Council in 2008/09. The total cost of these two donations was £18,000.

Project Grants: Third sector organisations can apply for Project Grants valued at up to £10,000. Applicants must demonstrate that the Project Grant will be used to finance new work. Project Grants are not designed to cover core costs.

Start-Up Grants: New and fledgling organisations are eligible to apply for Start-up Grants. Applicants can apply for grants valued at up to £1,000.

Current Redditch Borough Council grants

arrangements


Background

Under current arrangements at Redditch Borough Council applications for funding are made on an annual basis. The Council has one submission date each year which applies to applications for all grants and donations.

Each application is scored in accordance with a set criteria. This criteria is linked to funding priorities, including the Council’s priorities. In recent years the criteria has been linked to the themes for the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy. (For further information about the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy please refer to Appendix B).

The Council’s Grants Panel awards the scores to each application. The Grants Panel recommends that the applications which receive the highest scores should be approved for funding by the Executive Committee.

In recent years a number of incremental changes have been made to the Council’s grants process. These changes were made in response to the local, regional and national context.

However, these reviews did not resolve all of the problems with the Council’s grants process. Consequently, in 2007 a Task and Finish review of the Council’s grants process was proposed with a view to devising a new process for 2010/11 onwards.

Current grants process

Recent history


Background

A number of problems with the Council’s grants process have been identified in recent years through exercises such as internal audit reports and through consultation with representatives of the third sector in 2005.

These problems include (in no particular order):

• a lack of continuity in the grants process, particularly in relation to Officer support. There have been seven Officers in post to support the Council’s grants process in the course of five years;

• inconsistent linking of grants to Redditch Borough Council’s priorities;

• weak monitoring arrangements (monitoring arrangements at the Council have been strengthened over the past year);

• a cycle of dependency amongst a number of third sector organisations on Council sources of funding;

• procurement issues, particularly overlaps between the grants process and procurement arrangements that have not been resolved; and

• a lack of confidence in the Council within the sector, mainly for the reasons listed above.

Problems with Redditch Borough Council’s

grants process


Review Scope

The Third Sector Task and Finish Group was established in July 2008. We were commissioned to undertake a strategic review of the Council’s overarching approach to funding third sector organisations.

We were specifically tasked with reviewing the Council’s arrangements for awarding grants and donations to third sector organisations. We were asked by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to bring forward proposals that would shape the Council’s grants process from 2010/11 onwards.

There were a number of relevant issues which were not contained within the remit of our review. We feel that it is important to mention these areas as this informed the context for our review.

We were not asked to scrutinise additional forms of non-grant support that the Council provides to third sector organisations (such as peppercorn rent arrangements). We were also not tasked with reviewing the specific grants awarded to individual organisations as part of the current grants process. This remained the preserve of the Council’s existing Grants Panel.

Objectives of the review

Exclusions from the review


Approach to the Review

Task and Finish Groups are informal working groups which do not hold meetings that are open to public attendance. However, from the beginning of our review we were aware that the subject would be of interest to local third sector organisations. For this reason we made our review process as transparent as possible.

We introduced a bespoke webpage on the Council’s website which provided information about the review. Visitors to the Council’s website were able to access copies of the agenda and notes from meetings of the Group on this webpage. To view the information provided on the Council’s Third Sector Task and Finish Group webpage please use the following URL address: http://www.redditchbc.gov.uk/democracy/mgCommitteeDetails.asp?ID=238

We also added a feedback form to the Council’s homepage to advertise our review. We invited representatives of local third sector organisations to use this feedback form to advise us of their interest in the review and of any concerns they had about the Council’s grants process.

We were appointed to the Third Sector Task and Finish Group because of our interest in the subject and, in many cases, because of our experiences of working in the third sector. Throughout the review we declared our personal interests. (Further information about us and our interests can be found in Appendix D).

Transparency

Declarations of Interest


http://www.redditchbc.gov.uk/democracy/mgCommitteeDetails.asp?ID=238


We embarked on the review in July in 2008. We began by reviewing the Council’s existing grants process and the sustainability of funding the third sector.

We interviewed the leaders of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups at a meeting of our Group on 14 August 2008.

We felt that it was important for us to understand the views of the political party groups represented on the Council towards the grants process. In particular, we believed that it was important to determine their opinions of the sustainability of funding the third sector and of the purpose of the grants process.

The political party group leaders’ responses indicated that they agreed in the sustainability of the Council’s grants process. They all commented on the valuable role played by third sector organisations, particularly in delivering public services.

They had mixed views about the Council’s purpose for funding third sector organisations. They were broadly in support of the Council awarding grants in accordance with wider considerations, such as the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy vision. They did not, though, provide a specification for the purpose of the grants process.

Initial analysis

Councillor Interviews



Councillor Interviews

Officer Interviews

The political party group leaders cautioned against linking the criteria for grants applications to a single theme. This had been attempted in 2005/06: all applicants had had to demonstrate in their applications that the project for which they were applying for funding was linked to the theme of community safety. This theme-based process had not been considered a success and had been discontinued in subsequent years.

We also interviewed the Deputy Chief Executive on 18 August 2008 to determine her views of the Council’s purpose for funding third sector organisations. She explained that there could be a number of objectives for the grants process.

She suggested that when considering the purpose Councillors should remain aware of expectations at the local, regional and national levels. There also needed to be consideration of the added value that the Council’s grants process could ultimately provide for the community.

She noted that the Council could operate the grants process with a view to enhancing capacity within the third sector; to address gaps in service provision; and to target particular groups within the local community.

A more detailed record of the evidence provided by the political party group leaders and the Deputy Chief Executive can be viewed in notes from the relevant meetings of the Task and Finish Group on the Council’s website.



We agreed that it was important during the review for us to learn from other local authorities about alternative grants processes.

The grants processes in place at a number of local authorities were scrutinised. We decided to concentrate on arrangements in place at comparable local authorities and in Councils within Worcestershire. We agreed that this would enable us to determine both what types of arrangements could feasibly be implemented in Redditch as well as the types of grants processes that many local third sector organisations would already be familiar with.

We selected two local authorities for more detailed analysis: Gloucester City Council and Worcestershire County Council. These were both authorities which had grants processes that the Improvement and Development Agency had praised as examples of best practice (I&DeA, 2008). We interviewed relevant Officers from both of these authorities.

We also dispatched questionnaires to a number of comparable local authorities: East Staffordshire Borough Council, South Bedfordshire District Council; and Stevenage Borough Council. We received one response to this questionnaire which was treated as confidential.

External interviews

Questionnaires



Gloucester City Council was a comparable sized local authority and had recently changed its grants processes following an internal review. We felt that we could learn something from a Council that had gone through a similar critical process of analysis.

The Officers from Gloucester City Council explained that they had a much wider remit than administering a grants process in that they managed a Voluntary and Community Development Team. They also utilised specific funding arrangements in the form of engaged funding. The Engaged Funding framework required Officers at Gloucester City Council to work closely with a third sector organisation to develop a funding proposition.

The engaged funding arrangements also provided Officers with an opportunity to identify needs within those organisations; to advise organisations about alternative sources of funding; and to advise those organisations about additional sources of support, such as the support provided by local infrastructure organisations.

We were impressed by the engaged funding arrangements at Gloucester City Council which we felt enabled that Council to develop close working relations with local third sector organisations. We also felt that this proactive form of engagement helped the Council to develop a positive reputation within the third sector.

Gloucester City Council



Worcestershire County Council operates the Shopping, Investing and Giving model of funding. This funding framework has been increasingly promoted by central government as an example of best practice.

During the course of the interview Officers explained that Shopping, Investing and Giving had only been introduced in recent years. The implementation of this funding framework had been relatively successful. Moreover, local third sector organisations had become familiar with the funding framework and were applying to receive financial support from the Council.

(Further information about Shopping, Investing and Giving can be found in Appendix A).

The Officers from Worcestershire County Council were concerned about the lack of awareness of the Worcestershire Compact agreement within relevant local public agencies. They explained that the principles contained within the Compact agreement represented best practice and that more needed to be done to embed these principles into wider local authority working practices. (Further information about the Worcestershire Compact is provided on pages 45 - 46).

Worcestershire County Council


Consultation Event

We agreed early in the review that we wanted to engage representatives of the third sector in the Task and Finish Group exercise. We felt that it would be good practice to engage representatives from the sector as they would be affected by any recommended alterations to the Council’s grants process.

Furthermore, during the course of the exercise we were made aware of the outcomes of a similar review that had been undertaken by Leicester City Council. That Council’s grants process had been altered following their review. This action had subsequently been subject to a judicial hearing, which had criticised the Council for not providing appropriate advance notice to the third sector organisations most affected by the changes. Leicester City Council had also been criticised for not having consulted with the third sector during their review.

Early in our review the five third sector organisations in receipt of core funding, as well as the two organisations in receipt of donations from the Council, were advised in writing that we were undertaking this review of the grants process. They were also advised that the Council would be altering its grants process from 2010/11 onwards.

Engaging the third sector

Notice of change


Consultation Event

Reasons for holding a Consultation Event

Promoting the event

We discussed various options for engaging representatives of the third sector in the review. Throughout we aimed to ensure that any form of engagement that took place was conducted fairly.

We recognised that we could have interviewed representatives of the third sector. However, we only had six months to complete our review and would not have had enough time to interview everybody who would have been interested in participating. We felt that this would have been unfair to many third sector organisations as well as to their service users.

We also rejected engaging third sector organisations through questionnaires as we were aware that questionnaires did not always elicit high response rates.

As a Group we agreed that an open Consultation Event would be the most appropriate method for engaging the third sector in our review. We were anxious to ensure that this Consultation Event was widely advertised to provide a fair opportunity for representatives from across the third sector to participate in the review.

We promoted the Consultation Event in variety of ways: through advertisements in the local newspapers; by providing information at local Neighbourhood Group meetings in October 2008; and the Bromsgrove and Redditch Network (BARN) circulated information to local third sector organisations.


Consultation Event

The Voluntary Sector Grants Consultation Event took place on Friday 21 November 2008. We hosted the event at Redditch Town Hall. Twenty five representatives of local third sector organisations attended the event (further details about the range of delegates present during the Consultation Event can be found on pages 60 - 61).

We issued delegate packs to all participants prior to the event. These delegate packs provided further information about the terms of reference for the review and the aims of the event. (Copies of the documentation provided in the delegate packs are provided in Appendices A, B and D).

We were anxious to ensure that the Consultation Event represented a meaningful opportunity to engage with representatives of the third sector. For this reason we devised a mixture of information and interactive sessions for the event.

We provided delegates with information about the work of the Task and Finish Group and the aims of the review. Delegates were advised that as we were undertaking a Task and Finish Review we had no decision making powers but that we could make recommendations based on the evidence that we had gathered during our review.

Programme for the event

Information sessions


Consultation Event

We also offered a number of interactive sessions during the Consultation Event. Many of these interactive sessions were completed in the form of group activities. These interactive sessions encouraged delegates to think about the wider considerations involved in managing a local authority grants process.

The contributions made by delegates during the Consultation Event were considered by us at subsequent meetings of the Third Sector Task and Finish Group and informed our final recommendations. In particular, we reviewed responses provided during the interactive group activities; during a question and answer session; in completed evaluation forms; and during an exploration of some of the key issues which the third sector felt should be addressed by the Council.

A number of representatives from the third sector suggested that more Consultation Events should be hosted in future by the Council as this could facilitate positive working relations between the Council and third sector organisations. We feel that the Council may wish to consider this proposal further and to host Consultation Events on appropriate occasions.

However, we are also aware that an opportunity for third sector organisations to consult with representatives of the Council is already made available during the quarterly networking meetings of the Bromsgrove and Redditch Network (BARN). Relevant Officers attend these meetings, though we think the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Management should consider accompanying them in future.

Interactive sessions

Lessons learned during the Consultation Event


Three Key Statements

During the course of the Consultation Event delegates proposed three key statements on behalf of the third sector for the consideration of the Council.

• Redditch Borough Council should ensure that the needs of the Borough are considered when making decisions. In the absence of this awareness some

needs within the Borough may fail to be addressed.

• Redditch Borough Council should ensure that some basic expectations inform decisions about distributing funding to third sector organisations. Funding should be fairly distributed across different communities and organisations within the Borough. The Council should seek to fund organisations that serve a range of communities as well as to award funding to a mixture of small, medium and large organisations.

Statement One

Background

Statement Two


Three Key Statements

• Redditch Borough Council needs to develop more proactive communications arrangements. The Council should do more to publicise local events and opportunities, including opportunities for third sector organisations to apply for funding. The achievements of, and activities delivered by, third sector organisations using Council sources of funding should also be publicised. Relevant articles in a Council newspaper could help to address this issue. The Council could invite representatives of local third sector organisations to contribute relevant articles to a Council newspaper.

We feel that both Councillors and Officers should take due regard of these key statements and should consider how they could inform the Council’s working practices.

Statement Three

Conclusion


Recommendation One – Further information

We recommend that the Council adopt a written Grants Policy and Procedure.

We discovered during our review that Redditch Borough Council does not currently have a written Grants Policy and Procedure. In recent years draft Grants Policies have been produced, though the contents of these documents have not been based on the type of overarching review that we have undertaken. None of these draft documents were approved by full Council.

The subject of a Grants Policy was discussed with all of our expert witnesses. We discovered that it was not unusual for a local authority not to have a Grants Policy and Procedure. In fact, many local Councils refer to their local Compact agreements as their Grants Policies.

However, the benefits of a Grants Policy are recognised. A Grants Policy provides an opportunity to explicitly define the basic working principles for a grants process. Our expert witnesses also acknowledged that use of a Grants Policy and Procedure could help to embed the principles of the local Compact agreement into a Council’s working practices (for more information about the Worcestershire Compact see pages 45 - 46).

We believe that this absence of a Grants Policy and Procedure document has had a detrimental impact on the Council’s grants process. In particular, we feel that the

Recommendation One



lack of consistency and the numerous reviews of our grants process, which have taken place in recent years can, in part, be linked to a lack of definite terms of reference for the process as contained within a policy. We also feel that a written Grants Policy would provide greater clarity about our grants process, to the benefit of local third sector organisations.

We are aware that producing a Policy and Procedure requires a lot of work from Officers. We felt under these circumstances that we should provide Officers with some guidelines about the specifications that we felt should be incorporated into this document.

The specifications detailed here are based on examples of best practice identified by us during the course of our review.

a) The Council should utilise the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework.

As part of our review we are recommending that the Council adopt the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework (For further information about this recommendation please refer to pages 43 - 44). We feel that this funding framework should be embedded within Council procedures in the long-term. We therefore feel that it is appropriate for the recommendation to be incorporated into the written Grants Policy and Procedure. (Further information about Shopping, Investing and Giving is provided in Appendix A).

Recommendation One: We recommend that the Council adopt a

written Grants Policy and Procedure.



b) The Council’s mission statement, (as recorded in recommendation two a), should be included within the body of the Policy and Procedure document.

We are recommending that the Council should adopt the mission statement that we are proposing in recommendation 2a. (For further information about recommendation 2a please refer to pages 39 - 40). As part of this recommendation we are proposing that this mission statement should be regarded as the purpose for the Council’s grants process. We feel that, if approved, it would be appropriate for the purpose of the Council’s grants process to be acknowledged in the Council’s written Grants Policy and Procedure.

c) The Executive Committee and full Council should make decisions about what should be bought by the Council when “Shopping” for services.

The Shopping element of Shopping, Investing and Giving, will have greater financial implications than typical grants arrangements. We feel that under these circumstances any decisions about Shopping arrangements should be considered by statutory Committees at the Council as part of a democratically accountable process.

Specifically, we believe that it would be most appropriate for the senior decision making body at the Council, the Executive Committee, to make decisions about these Shopping arrangements. Any decisions would be subject to approval at full Council and would need to be made in accordance with guidance from expert Officers.





d) Shopping arrangements should be funded using a portion of the grants budget (See Appendix A and recommendation 3, pages 43 - 44 for more details about Shopping);

The Shopping part of the funding framework will comprise of large funding arrangements, whether in the form of a contract or in the form of a Strategic Grant. This needs to be financed using Council funds. We recognise, though, that in the present economic climate it might not be appropriate to require individual services to assume responsibility for financing Shopping arrangements. Instead we feel it would be more appropriate for Shopping arrangements to be financed using funds from the existing grants budget.

We recognise that, by funding Shopping using a portion of the grants budget, there will be a limit to the amount of Shopping arrangements that could be agreed in any given period. We also recognise that the Council will need to ensure that a portion of the grants budget is retained in any given year to finance Investing and Giving.

We do not feel that it would be appropriate to set a specific limit for the portion of the grants budget that should be allocated to Shopping arrangements. We would resist setting limits on the division of the budget between Shopping and the Investing and Giving parts of the framework as we feel that this might prevent the Executive Committee and full Council from awarding some contracts or Strategic Grants that could lead to significant improvements in service delivery.





e) Third sector organisations should have opportunities to bid for both Strategic Grants and contracts as part of the Council’s Shopping arrangements (the latter option would be subject to the review of the Council’s procurement code, as set out in recommendation 5e, page 51).

During the course of the review we discovered that the Shopping part of the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework could be organised in two different ways.

The standard version of Shopping involves negotiating contract arrangements. These contracts can be Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or contracts, though only contracts represent legally binding agreements between the Council and third sector organisations. For contracts the Council would put a service out to tender and organisations would need to bid to deliver the service. Any contractual arrangements would need to be organised in accordance with the Council’s procurement code, and if valued at over £36,000, would be subject to European procurement laws. (Please see recommendation 5e, page 51 for further information about the procurement code).

Worcestershire County Council operates slightly different Shopping arrangements by providing Strategic Grants. Strategic Grants are larger grant settlements, which are subject to a bidding process similar to contract arrangements. However, Strategic Grants are not subject to European procurement laws.





We feel that both contractual arrangements and Strategic Grants should be made available because we think that this will provide the Executive Committee and full Council with the flexibility needed to offer the most appropriate Shopping arrangements.

f) There should be annual decision making about funding for the both the Shopping, Investing and Giving parts of the framework.

We feel that annual decision making for all parts of the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework represents the most appropriate way to manage the grants budget at present. We feel that annual decision making about funding arrangements is a more manageable process for the Council. Furthermore, annual decision making should enable both the Executive Committee and the Grants Panel to schedule specific dates for consideration of funding arrangements, in line with the Council’s corporate calendar.

We recognise that there may be a need to reconsider this principle if our recommendation for further work to be undertaken reviewing the potential use of multi-year funding arrangements is approved. (For further information please refer to page 38). Any such review could lead to recommendations that might conflict with yearly decision making about funding arrangements.





g) The Council’s Grants Panel should continue to make decisions about grants awarded as part of the Investing and Giving side of the framework, although this will be subject to members of the Grants Panel receiving training on assessing and making decisions about applications for funding.

We believe that the grants involved in the Investing and Giving part of the funding framework will be smaller than the funding awarded as part of the Shopping process. Under these circumstances we feel it would be appropriate for the Executive Committee to continue to delegate decision making for this part of the funding framework to the Grants Panel.

We reviewed the work of the Grants Panel and agreed that the involvement of Councillors in the grants process encouraged democratic accountability. However, during the course of our review we were concerned to discover an absence of training for members of the Grants Panel. We believe that some form of training should be provided to all members of the Grants Panel, particularly in relation to assessing grant application and monitoring forms. This training should be provided prior to the Panel making decisions about funding to ensure that all decisions are made in accordance with recognised standards of best practice.





h) Decisions about grants and donations should be made in accordance with assessment of need rather than in accordance with demographic considerations.

During the Consultation Event the criteria for assessing the distribution of funding to third sector organisations was discussed. The majority of delegates were resistant to distributing funding in accordance with demographic considerations. Instead, they suggested that funds should be allocated according to needs: in terms of the needs of third sector organisations and also the needs of the different social groups within the Borough. As a Group we endorsed this view.

i) Organisations should demonstrate an outcomes focus in applications for funding.

We feel that one of the weaknesses of the current grants process is an absence of an outcomes focus to funding arrangements. We feel that a grants system with an outcomes focus represents best practice. An outcomes focus should not be confused with a focus on outputs: outputs, in the context of a grants process, are the activities and services that are provided as a consequence of funding, whilst outcomes are the overarching changes that the organisation aims to achieve through delivering those activities or services.

We believe that if an emphasis was placed on an outcomes focus the Council would have access to more information about the likely consequences involved in funding a particular project or activity, which would be useful when assessing applications.





j) The Council’s funding application forms should be aligned with Worcestershire County Council’s application forms.

During the course of our review we considered the impact of local authority bureaucratic application arrangements on local third sector organisations. The delegates at the Consultation Event explained that some organisations lacked the capacity, particularly in the form of personnel trained to complete different types of application forms, to devote to the application process.

In part, this situation could be addressed through investing in training that would develop skill sets within those organisations. (For further information about Investing please refer to Appendix A and pages 43 – 44). We discussed application processes with Officers from Worcestershire County Council and suggested that by aligning our application forms we might be able to simplify application processes within Worcestershire to the benefit of local third sector organisations. The Officers at Worcestershire County Council were supportive of this proposal.

k) Monitoring arrangements should be commensurate with the size of the grant provided.

We believe that the information required from organisations for monitoring should be more detailed for organisations in receipt of greater sums of money than for organisations in receipt of smaller grants. This is required under current arrangements but we feel it should also be specified in the written policy.





l) Organisations should be able to secure full cost recovery with all applications for full cost recovery being assessed on a case by case basis.

During the Consultation Event full cost recovery was discussed with delegates. Participants were in agreement that provision should be made for full cost recovery where appropriate. They explained that when full cost recovery arrangements were not made available third sector organisations often were placed in a position where they could find it difficult to fund the staff required to administer a project or activity for which funding had been approved. Under these circumstances the continued delivery of that activity or project could be threatened.

Full cost recovery should not be confused with funding core costs. Full cost recovery involves sharing an organisation’s core costs among its projects or areas of work. The share of the core costs allocated to each project should be directly related to the amount of the core costs that will be required to deliver that project. Moreover, full cost recovery need not necessarily entail large grant settlements, as it may relate to covering basic administrative or minimal staffing costs for a small third sector organisation.

We feel that on balance, to ensure the sustainability of the projects to which we award funding, the Council should make full cost recovery arrangements available. These should be requested by applicants on a case by case basis to ensure that full cost recovery is only made available where appropriate.





m) Small grants should be regarded as sums valued at a maximum of £5,000 and large grants should be regarded as grants valued at over £5,000.

As a Group we discussed the appropriate sizes for the various grants that could be made available as part of the Investing and Giving parts of the funding framework. We agreed that both small and large grants should be made available as we recognised that organisations might require a variety of sums to support different projects and activities. This was confirmed by delegates during the Consultation Event.

We assessed arrangements in place at other local authorities as part of this discussion. There were local variances, but sums valued at under £5,000 were frequently regarded as small grants in many local authorities, including Gloucester City Council. We therefore believe that this interpretation of the appropriate sizes of small and large grants is based on examples of best practice.

Our specification for what constitutes a small grant as opposed to a large grant has implications for the Council’s monitoring arrangements. (For further information about the Council’s monitoring arrangements see recommendation 1k, page 36).




Recommendation Two a – Further information

Recommendation Two a

We recommend that the Council’s purpose for funding the third sector should be aligned to the following mission statement “Redditch Borough Council supports Voluntary and Community Sector organisations because we believe that a vibrant third sector is vital to our community”.

Throughout our review we felt that it was important to establish what the Council’s purpose for providing funds to the third sector should be. As a group we agreed that the purpose for providing funding was important and that it should inform the Council’s grants process.

We discussed the purpose of the grants process with all of our expert witnesses. Following our interviews with the expert witnesses we came to the conclusion that there was no agreed purpose for the Council’s grants process. This does not appear to be untypical in the context of local government as few external authorities appear to have an approved purpose for their grants processes.

We decided that it would be appropriate for us to develop a mission statement that could encapsulate what we felt should be the purpose of the grants process. This mission statement was developed with a view to demonstrating the Council’s commitment to continuing to support the third sector because of the contribution that they make to the local community. Indeed, we feel that this mission


Recommendation Two a – Further information

Recommendation Two a: Aligning the

Council’s purpose for funding the third sector

to the mission

statement

statement will become increasingly significant over the next few years as third sector organisations are invited to deliver more public services in line with central government advice.

We feel that commitment to supporting a vibrant third sector, as stated in this mission statement, is also in keeping with one of the Council’s new priorities: ‘Enterprising Community’. This represents a commitment to supporting organisations that could deliver projects and activities which might have a beneficial impact on the local community in a variety of ways.

We recommend that the criteria for grants applications be aligned to the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy priorities.

As part of the current grants process the Council’s criteria for grants applications is aligned to the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy themes. There are six themes in the Sustainable Community Strategy: communities that are safe and feel safe; a better environment for today and tomorrow; economic success that is shared by all; improving health and well-being; meeting the needs of children and young people; and stronger communities. We felt that these themes were extremely broad and that they could be used to justify awarding funds to any project. As a group we questioned whether this arrangement represented value for money and felt that change was required (for more information about the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy please refer to Appendix B).

Recommendation Two b


Recommendation Two b – Further information

Recommendation Two b: the criteria for grants applications be aligned

to the Redditch Sustainable Community

Strategy priorities.

We believe that aligning the criteria for grants applications to the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy priorities would be appropriate for the following reasons:

• it demonstrates Redditch Borough Council’s commitment to meeting the needs of our local residents;

• it demonstrates our commitment to working in partnership with the third sector to meet local needs;

• it demonstrates Redditch Borough Council’s commitment to other local partners;

• the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy priorities currently correspond with Redditch Borough Council’s priorities;

• the Sustainable Community Strategy priorities are more specific than the themes, which should help to ensure that projects which receive funding are consequently aligned to a more defined criteria than under current circumstances; and

• the Sustainable Community Strategy priorities correspond with the purpose for funding third sector organisations that we are proposing in recommendation 2a.


Recommendation Two b – Further information

Recommendation Two b: the criteria for grants applications be aligned

to the Redditch Sustainable Community

Strategy priorities.

During the Consultation Event we suggested that aligning the criteria for grants applications to the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy priorities might be one of our proposals. The majority of delegates were supportive of this proposal. They recognised that the Council needed to apply some form of criteria when assessing applications for funding. This convinced us that we would receive support from the third sector for this alteration to the grants process.

However, we are aware that there is no guarantee that the priorities of the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy will remain aligned to the Council’s priorities or that the Sustainable Community Strategy document will remain a permanent fixture of local government. Therefore, we agreed that this arrangement should be reviewed frequently and should not be recorded in the Council’s Policy and Procedure document.


Recommendation Three – Further

informationWe recommend that the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework be adopted for the Council’s grants process.

Increasingly, central government has been promoting the benefits of Shopping, Investing and Giving, as a flexible funding framework. (More detailed information about Shopping Investing and Giving can be found in Appendix A).

This framework is designed to broaden the funding opportunities available to third sector organisations. Shopping refers to the Council choosing an organisation to deliver a service or project on their behalf. Shopping arrangements can be implemented in a variety of ways including through contracts or Strategic Grants (see recommendation 1e, page 32).

Investing refers to the Council providing funding to develop capacity in the third sector. Investing arrangements can include the allocation of grants to local infrastructure organisations to help build capacity within third sector organisations. Investing can also involve providing grants or donations to organisations to address training needs or to help develop a business plan for an organisation or project.

Giving refers to the Council providing funding to Voluntary and Community Sector organisations to support their independent roles. This generally entails the provision of standard grants and donations to third sector organisations.

Recommendation Three


Recommendation Three – Further

informationWorcestershire County Council currently operates a model of Shopping, Investing and Giving. This funding framework was introduced following a best value review which had concluded that improvements could be made to the Council’s grants process. The Council has been cited as an example of best practice since they introduced the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework.

We feel that the Shopping Investing and Giving funding framework would be suitable for Redditch Borough Council because:

• it ensures that there can be flexibility in the provision of financial support to third sector organisations;• it creates numerous opportunities to work in partnership with third sector organisations;• it is the same model as that which has already been implemented at Worcestershire County Council, which should help to clarify funding requirements to the benefit of local third sector organisations;• the investing arrangements could help to address some of the potential problems with dependency on Council sources of funding, (as detailed on page 14); and• it corresponds with central government guidance.

Recommendation Three: We recommend that the Shopping, Investing and Giving funding framework be adopted for the Council’s grants process.


Recommendation Four – Further information

We recommend that the Council officially endorse the Worcestershire Compact.

The Worcestershire Compact agreement is an agreement between the Statutory Sector and the third sector. The agreement sets out how organisations from both sectors can work together to deliver the best services possible to people within Worcestershire (the Worcestershire Compact, 2006).

The Compact originated in the form of a national Compact, which was agreed by central government and the third sector in 1998. The national Compact represented an agreement between partners for mutual development in their working relations.

The Worcestershire Partnership co-ordinated the negotiation of the Worcestershire Compact, which was launched at an ‘Improving Voluntary and Community Involvement in Worcestershire’ event in June 2006. The Worcestershire Partnership established a subsidiary body, the Engaging Worcestershire Steering Group, to maintain and monitor the Worcestershire Compact.

Local Compact agreements have been developed and agreed in Counties across the Country. Compact agreements contain principles outlining best practice for maintaining relations between the statutory and third sector. We discovered during our review that an absence of familiarity with local Compact arrangements appeared to be fairly common across local government.

Recommendation Four


Recommendation Four – Further information

However, during the course of our interviews with external expert witnesses we discovered that embedding the principles contained within a local Compact in a Council’s working practices was regarded as a key element in best practice grants processes. Officers from both Gloucester City Council and Worcestershire County Council explained that they were anxious to ensure that their local Compact agreements were embedded in working practices at their Councils.

We feel that embedding the principles of the Worcestershire Compact into working practices would represent best practice for Redditch Borough Council. Unfortunately, during the course of the review it became apparent that the Worcestershire Compact had never been officially endorsed by the full Council in Redditch. We believe that this situation is unacceptable. We are therefore recommending that Redditch Borough Council officially endorse the Worcestershire Compact agreement.

Recommendation Four: We recommend the

Council officially endorse the

Worcestershire Compact


Recommendation Five – Further information

We recommend that further work be undertaken into the following issues:

During the course of our review we became aware of a number of areas relevant to the subject of our review which we felt required further consideration. Unfortunately, due to the narrow scope of our review, we did not feel that it would be appropriate for us to investigate these issues in further detail. For that reason we are recommending that further work be undertaken to address the issues detailed in recommendations 5a-5f.

We have not provided any specifications for the arrangement of these additional reviews. We recognise that these reviews could be conducted by a number of different groups including: another Task and Finish Group; a Council Advisory Panel; a statutory Committee; an Officer review group; or by a subsidiary group of a local partnership organisation.

In part, the appropriate style of review will be determined by the subject and the availability of Council resources to commit to that review. Under these circumstances we feel that the Executive Committee, advised by senior Officers, should decide which review arrangement would be appropriate for each recommended piece of further work on a case by case basis.

Recommendation Five



We recommend that there be... a review of ways to enhance Voluntary and Community Sector involvement in the Redditch Partnership.

The Redditch Partnership is the Local Strategic Partnership in Redditch. Local Strategic Partnerships bring together representatives from public, private, community and voluntary agencies to work together to identify improvements that are needed in local service delivery which cannot be made by any one organisation working alone. The partnership approach allows the Local Strategic Partnership to plan and deliver a range of projects, services and initiatives that meet these identified needs.

The Redditch Partnership has a board of Directors. At present, there is one third sector representative on this board. We feel that further opportunities for involving representatives of the third sector in the work of the Redditch Partnership could be explored.

During the Consultation Event the issue of the involvement of representatives of the third sector in the Redditch Partnership was raised during the concluding question and answer session. Delegates were broadly in favour of there being more opportunities for representatives of the third sector to get involved in the work of the Redditch Partnership.

Recommendation Five a: We recommend that

further work be undertaken



We recognise that the Redditch Partnership is a body which operates separately from Redditch Borough Council. Under these circumstances, if this recommended piece of further work is approved, we think that it might be appropriate for the review to be undertaken by a subsidiary group of the Redditch Partnership.

We recommend that there be... a review of the Council’s provision of non-grant support to the Voluntary and Community Sector.

We were provided with a very specific scope for our review. We were tasked with scrutinising the Council’s approach to awarding grants and donations to third sector organisations. We recognise, however, that the Council provides additional forms of financial support to third sector organisations which we were not tasked with reviewing. These additional sources of financial support include the following: peppercorn rents; discretionary rate relief; discounted access to services; partnership agreements; and financial contributions from the civic fund.

Throughout the exercise we recognised that these additional sources of financial support were of importance both to the third sector and to the Council, particularly in the current economic climate. Consequently, we feel that the arrangements for providing this additional support should be reviewed to ensure that they are fit for purpose both for the Council and for local third sector organisations.

Recommendation Five a: We recommend that


Recommendation Five b



We recommend that there be… a review of how the Council should meet its responsibilities as set out in the Worcestershire Compact agreement.

We feel that the official endorsement of the Worcestershire Compact agreement, as set out in recommendation four, should be only the first stage involved in embedding the principles of the Worcestershire Compact agreement into working practices at the Council. As a Group we believe that the principles contained within the Worcestershire Compact agreement represent best practice for managing relations between the Council and the third sector. For this reason we agree that a review of how the Council should meet its responsibilities as set out in the Worcestershire Compact agreement would be a worthwhile exercise.

We recommend that there be… a review of how the six equalities strands could be embedded in the working practices of Redditch Borough Council and the Redditch Partnership.

There are six equalities strands which have been recognised in consecutive pieces of legislation: age; disability; gender; race; religion or belief; and sexual orientation. As a Group we are aware that the subject of equalities and diversity is increasingly regarded as an important area for consideration in a public sector context. We therefore feel that it is important for the Council to review how these equalities strands should be embedded in local working practices, particularly the grants process.

Recommendation Five c: We recommend that


Recommendation Five d



We recommend that there be… a review of the Council’s procurement code.

The ‘Shopping’ element of the Shopping, Investing and Giving framework is about procuring services as defined by the Council. We think that the Council should take steps to ensure that third sector organisations are able to access funding from the Council through routes other than open grant funding. This is because we recognise the importance of a mixed economy of service delivery, and that there are some services where the best provider may be a third sector organisation.

Currently, we do not feel that third sector organisations have equitable opportunities to tender for Council contracts. Areas for further consideration include: reviewing the use of a 25% turnover limit for any single contract, which is disproportionately prohibitive for third sector organisations; reviewing how to give appropriate weighting to wider social benefits when selecting successful contractors; and reviewing how contracts are parcelled up to make them more accessible to the most appropriate providers.

We have concluded that the Council’s procurement rules and procedures should be reviewed to ensure that they are not unnecessarily and disproportionately restrictive to third sector organisations.

Recommendation Five e: We recommend that




We recommend that there be… a review of how multi-year funding arrangements should be implemented as part of the Council’s grants process.

Multi-year funding arrangements were discussed during the course of our review. Reports issued by central government departments have commented on some of the benefits of multi-year funding arrangements, particularly in terms of ensuring the sustainability of local third sector organisations or specific projects (HM Treasury, 2008). These have indicated that multi-funding arrangements should be considered as a form of best practice in local funding arrangements.

Moreover, during the Consultation Event, a number of delegates suggested that the Council should make multi-year funding arrangements available to the Council. They explained that multi-year funding arrangements were useful because they could provide third sector organisations with the financial security needed to ensure that projects could be delivered over specific years.

We also discussed multi-year funding arrangements with our expert witnesses. We learned that Gloucester City Council, regarded as an example of best practice, offered multi-year funding arrangements. However, we felt that it was difficult to learn from the experiences of implementing their multi-year funding arrangements as they were only mid-way through their first implementation of a three year funding arrangement.

Recommendation Five f: we recommend that




Recommendation Five f: We recommend that

further work be undertaken.

We believe that multi-year funding could be introduced at Redditch Borough Council.

Multi-year funding arrangements can be managed effectively if organisations in receipt of multi-year funding are required to develop a feasible exit strategy as part of the application process.

However, we do not feel that we have gathered enough evidence during the course of our review about multi-year funding to justify making any concrete recommendations on the subject. We are aware that if the Council was to offer multi-year funding arrangements there would be less funding available from the grants budget to award to third sector organisations in the form of one off grants and donations. Indeed, the provision of multi-year funding could complicate management arrangements for the grants process, particularly if multi-year funding arrangements were offered year-on-year to third sector organisations.

However, clearly, there is support, both within the third sector and at a central government level, for the provision of multi-year funding arrangements. Under these circumstances we feel that a review specifically focusing on how multi-year funding arrangements could be implemented by the Council would be appropriate.


Potential Recommendation – Further information

We recommend that… subject to the successful submission and approval of a revenue bid, the Council introduce a clerical support role in the policy team to support the grants process; or

subject to funding using a portion of the grants budget the Council introduce a clerical support role in the policy team to support the grants process.

As a Group we are aware that the recommendations that we have included within this report, if approved, will require Officers to commit more time to working on the grants process than currently occurs. Additional Officer support will be required if these working arrangements are to be implemented in an efficient manner.

We were aware that various options for providing Officer support could be pursued by the Council. However, we were unable to come to any conclusions about the most appropriate way to provide or to fund that Officer resource. We therefore requested that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee consider a number of options and approve a final recommendation. This was duly undertaken at a meeting of the Committee on 17 December and the sixth recommendation, as recorded in this report, was agreed accordingly.

During consideration of this sixth recommendation the Committee was informed that at the Voluntary Sector Grants Consultation Event a number of delegates had expressed satisfaction with the existing level of Officer support that was being

Potential Recommendation Six


Recommendations – Further information

provided. Instead, some delegates had suggested that the Council should focus on working with local infrastructure organisations to build capacity within the sector.

Indeed, during our review we had considered the possibility of outsourcing management of the grants process to a relevant body, such as a local infrastructureorganisation. This could have helped to reduce associated staffing costs for the Council, though there might have been costs involved in contracting out to another organisation to deliver the service.

However, the majority of delegates during the Consultation Event were in support of the Council retaining at least one Officer to administer the grants process. The existing Officer support provided by the Council was considered important both as a source of advice about the grants process and as the conduit for maintaining positive relations between the Council and third sector organisations. Under these circumstances we would be concerned about outsourcing this role to an external agency as it could have a detrimental impact on relations between the Council and third sector organisations.

Instead, as agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, we are recommending that the Council introduce a clerical support role in the Council’s Policy Team. Responsibility for managing the grants process is currently located within the Policy Team. At the moment an Officer on a relatively senior scale administers the grants process. The clerical support role could be introduced to provide cover for the

Potential Additional Recommendation Six:

Officer Support


Recommendations – Further information

administrative duties associated with the grants process. This would provide more senior Officers within the Policy Team with the time to commit to the additional tasks involved in coordinating the grants process in the form we are recommending.

We understand that it may be difficult for the Council to finance this role. (For more information about the costs involved please refer to Appendix C). However, we feel that funding the role, through a successful revenue bid, would be the preferable method for financing the position. This would mean that money would not be diverted from the grants budget, and would thereby ensure that more funds would be available to distribute to third sector organisations.

We have also provided an alternative option for financing the post: that subject to funding using a portion of the grants budget, a clerical support role be introduced. This would be our second preference option and we suggest that this should only be considered if there is no support for the revenue bid option.

The benefits of this second preference arrangement would be that the Council would not need to utilise additional sources of funding to support the Officer post. However, we are concerned that this arrangement would divert a significant portion of the grants budget from the provision of direct funding to third sector organisations. Moreover, participants in the Consultation Event indicated that they would be opposed to funding an Officer role using a portion of the grants budget. We therefore urge the Executive Committee to seriously consider our preferred method of submitting a revenue bid to fund the post.

Potential Additional Recommendation Six:

Officer Support


Conclusion

At the start of this review we set out to establish what improvements could be made to the Council’s process for awarding grants and donations to third sector organisations. We have undertaken a thorough scrutiny exercise and we feel that we have achieved what we set out to do.

We urge you to approve the recommendations that we are making in this report as we feel that they will make the Council’s funding arrangements fit for purpose in future years.


Consultation Event - Expert Witnesses

We would like to thank the following representatives from the Voluntary and Community Sector for contributing to the review by attending the Voluntary Sector Grants Consultation Event on 21 November.

Ms Carol Yates

Ms Sue Moreve

Mr Bob Summers

Mr Mike Chawner

Ms Moira Morris Mr Tony Ventura

Mr Philip Hunt

Mrs Veronica AllenMr Ruel Diarem

Mr David CaseyMrs Irene Casey

Ms Diane MowattMs Sue Williams

The Advocacy Team

Citizens Advice Bureau

Age Concern

1st Birchensale Scout Group

Borough Tenants Panel

Carers Careline

Caribbean Roots Connection

Church Hill Scouts Group

CSV Training and Enterprise West Midlands

- Redditch


Consultation Event - Expert Witnesses

Mr David Loveridge

Mr Jim Smith

Ms Beth Haining

Mr Alex Lamb

Mr Bill Payne

Mr Martyn LawesMr John MannMs Lisa Stokes

Mr Bas Colaco

Ms Lee McKenzie

Ms Ingrid Mullings

The Prince’s Trust

Help the Aged

Talking Drums

Redditch Association for the Blind

The Redditch Disabled Access Group

RICA

North Worcestershire Dial In Connect

The Sandycroft Wellbeing Centre

West Indian Association


Expert Witnesses

Councillors – Political Party Group Leaders

Alison KiteTessa Liebschner(Voluntary and Community Development Team Leaders)

Suzy James (Voluntary and Community Sector Unit Co-ordinator)Gordon Stewart (Contracts Manager, Adult and Community Services Directorate)

One local authority completed the Task and Finish Group’s questionnaire. All details regarding this response have been treated as confidential. However, the Task and Finish Group wish to thank the local authority for their help.

Councillor Carol Gandy, Leader of the Conservative GroupCouncillor Malcolm Hall, Leader of the Liberal Democrat GroupCouncillor Bill Hartnett, Leader of the Labour Group

Sue Hanley, Acting Deputy Chief ExecutiveAngie Heighway, Head of Strategy and PartnershipsPeter Rose, Policy Officer

The following individuals were unable to attend the Voluntary Sector Grants Consultation Event. They instead provided information for the consideration of the Group.

Mrs Madge Tillsley MBE

Mr Jonathan Cochrane


Redditch Borough Council Officers


Community Relations Council

Redditch Arts Council

Questionnaire Respondent


Additional Thanks

The Third Sector Task and Finish Group would like to thank Councillor Michael Braley for attending two meetings of the Task and Finish Group to consider their proposals for the Voluntary Sector Grants Consultation Event. The Group were also grateful for Councillor Braley’s attendance during the Consultation Event.

The Third Sector Task and Finish Group would like to thank the following Officers for their help with the Voluntary Sector Grants Consultation Event.

Matthew Bough (Housing Policy and Performance Manager);Bob Foxall (Caretaker)Sue Hanley (Acting Deputy Chief Executive)Angie Heighway (Head of Strategy and Partnerships)Peter Rose (Policy Officer)Helen Saunders (Overview and Scrutiny Support Officer)Angelo Vallbona (Caretaker and Caterer)Ivor Westmore (Member and Committee Support Services Manager)

Portfolio Holder for Corporate Management

Officers


Appendix A

Shopping, Investing and Giving: A Framework for Voluntary Sector Funding

The Third Sector Task and Finish Group has been looking at a framework for voluntary sector funding that is used by some other Councils, called Shopping, Investing and Giving.

This framework is designed to broaden the funding opportunities available to Third Sector organisations. The following details may help to clarify the arrangements for this funding framework:

Shopping refers to the Council choosing an organisation to deliver a service or project on their behalf. This involves:

• the Council defining what service or project will be delivered;

• an open procurement process where one or more organisations are selected to deliver the service or project. As part of this open procurement process each interested organisation states how much funding they would require to deliver the service or project; and

• signing a contract agreeing the level of funding to be provided and the service or project that will be delivered in return for that funding.

Shopping, Investing and Giving


Appendix A

Shopping, Investing and Giving: A Framework for Voluntary Sector Funding

Investing: Investing refers to the Council providing funding to develop the capacity of the voluntary and community sector. As part of this process:

• the Council may contribute funding to infrastructure support services; and

• the Council may provide funding for training or business planning activities within organisations.

Giving: Giving refers to the Council providing funding to Voluntary and Community Sector organisations to support their independent roles. As part of this process:

• the Council may provide themes or priorities for funding, but the detail of services or projects will be defined by the organisation applying for funding; and

• approved grants will have mutually-agreed outcomes and appropriate monitoring arrangements.



Appendix B

Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2011: Summary

The Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy establishes the overall strategic direction and long term vision for Redditch. It contributes to meeting the social, economic and environmental needs of the area, helping to improve the lives of local people, both now and in the future.

The strategy has been developed by Redditch Partnership, which brings together representatives from public, private, community and voluntary agencies to work together to deliver a range of local projects, services and initiatives. Redditch Partnership will manage the implementation of the Sustainable Community Strategy and report on the delivery of its actions.

The strategy has been developed in consultation with all partners. A draft strategy was open to public consultation during May and June 2008, and the final strategy takes account of comments received during this process.

The Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy reflects the structure of the Worcestershire Local Area Agreement by using six key themes. The Local Area Agreement has been approved by Central Government as setting out the key priorities of Worcestershire. By reflecting this structure, Redditch Partnership can contribute effectively to the Local Area Agreement alongside focussing on the specific issues relevant to Redditch Borough.

Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy


Appendix B

The themes and priorities of the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy are:

Theme: Communities that are safe and feel safe

We want to develop strong and confident communities in which residents are safe both in their homes and when out and about in Redditch Borough. We are committed to reducing crime and disorder, improving the quality of life for local communities and creating a safe environment for those who live, work and visit Redditch Borough.

Our priorities under this theme are:

• to create safer communities;• to reduce crime and disorder;• to reduce the fear of crime;• to reduce anti social behaviour;• to tackle drug and alcohol abuse; and• to improve road safety.



Appendix B

Theme: A better environment for today and tomorrow

We want the residents of Redditch Borough to benefit from the educational, recreational and leisure potential of our environmental resources, whilst promoting, preserving and enhancing the town’s biodiversity and sustainability.


• to develop a cleaner/greener and more sustainable environment;• to tackle the issue of climate change and the impact of high levels of domestic and workplace energy consumption;• to reduce the amount of waste generated and increase the rates of recycling across the borough• to create an environment that is free from dog mess, litter, fly tipping and abandoned vehicles;• to increase participation in environmental projects; and• to increase participation in environmentally-themed educational and recreational activities.



Appendix B

Theme: Economic success that is shared by all

We want to ensure that all those living in Redditch Borough have the opportunity to share in the economic success of the Borough. We aim to provide means to overcome the economic barriers that still exist for many residents, and improve quality of life for all. Our priorities under this theme are:

• to increase the rate of employment opportunities;• to increase support for local businesses;• to look at ways of diversifying working opportunities to reduce reliance on traditional industries;• to increase investment from outside Redditch;• to improve the skills base for Redditch;• to reduce unemployment;• to reduce pensioner poverty; and• to develop the Town Centre as a destination with excellent facilities and transport links.



Appendix B

Theme: Improving health and well-being

We want to improve the health of the residents of Redditch Borough by providing excellent access to healthcare services and promoting healthy lifestyles. We aim to sustain the positive trends highlighted in the Health Profile for Redditch, and ensure that we are ready and able to adapt to changing health needs.


• to reduce rates of premature death in Redditch;• to promote healthier lifestyles;• to promote healthy eating and improve diets;• to tackle childhood and adult obesity;• to reduce the number of smokers;• to tackle mental health issues;• to improve access to healthcare facilities; and• to improve preventative healthcare services.



Appendix B

Theme: Meeting the needs of children and young people

Children and young people are the future of Redditch Borough. We want young people to thrive socially, educationally and economically. We aim to engage young people in the lives of their communities promote their achievements and enable their views to help shape the future of Redditch Borough.


• to improve the opportunities for young people;• to increase the number of 16-18 year olds in full time education, employment or training;• to increase the available activities/facilities for young people;• to listen to young people and value their opinions; and• to increase the percentage of students obtaining five A* to C grades at GCSE.



Appendix B

Theme: Stronger communities

We want all residents of Redditch Borough to feel that they are a valuable part of the community. We are committed to providing the infrastructure and services to enable people to contribute to the life of the Borough, and benefit from the opportunities available.


• to increase the availability affordable housing;• to improve access to public transport services;• to increase alternatives to the use of the car;• to increase access to services;• to improve cultural and leisure activities;• to strengthen the role of the voluntary sector; and• to develop greater community cohesion.



Appendix B

Progress against the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy will be managed by the Redditch Partnership Management Board. The bi-monthly meetings will receive and monitor reports on progress from Task and Finish Groups and existing groups and networks with which formal links have been created.

The Management Board will make progress reports publicly available, and will take action to address areas that need attention. Members of Redditch Partnership can raise points for consideration by the Management Board to ensure an inclusive and effective structure. The yearly meeting of Redditch Partnership will formally review overall progress towards achieving the vision of the Redditch Sustainable Community Strategy, and hold the Management Board to account.



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‘Community Funding Support: Search for Community Funding’, http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=311

‘Grant Aid: who can Apply for Grant Aid?’, at http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=93&documentID=622

‘Grants and Development Fund’, at http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/services_info.php?serviceID=829&startsWith=G

‘Latest News: Members’ Grant Aid’, at http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=550

‘Members’ Grant Aid Initiative Scheme: About the Scheme’, at http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=3330&documentID=694

‘Members’ Grant Aid Initiative Scheme: Terms and Conditions’, at http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/downloads/Members_Grant_Aid_-Terms.pdf

‘Members’ Grant Aid Initiative Scheme Leaflet’, at http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/downloads/Membergrantleaflet.pdf

Bromsgrove District Council

Cannock Chase District Council


http://bromsgrove.whub.org.uk/home/bdc-about-bromsgrove-voluntaryandcommunitysector?hilightTerm=Bromsgrove20&Compact



http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=311

http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=93&documentID=622


http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/services_info.php?serviceID=829&startsWith=G

http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=550

http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=550



http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/downloads/Members_Grant_Aid_-Terms.pdf

http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/downloads/Membergrantleaflet.pdf

Website References

‘Corby Borough Council is here to help – so apply for your grant today!’http://www.corby.gov.uk/CouncilAndDemocracy/CouncilNews/Pages/CorbyBoroughCouncilisheretohelp%E2%80%93soapplyforyourgranttoday!.aspx

‘Grant Aid’, at http://www.eaststaffsbc.gov.uk/Services/Pages/GrantAid.aspx

‘Community Development Team’, at http://test.gloucester.gov.uk/Documents/CommunityServices/Community%20Development.pdf

‘Community Grants Funding Programme’, at http://www.gloucester.gov.uk/Community/Grants/cgfp.aspx

‘Guide to Community Support Grants’, at http://test.gloucester.gov.uk/ZZZZOldFolders/GrantsUpTo5000/GuidetoCommunitySupportGrants.aspx

‘Review of the Council’s Funding Programme for the Voluntary and Community Sector: Grant Review One’, at http://www.gloucester.gov.uk/grants-review

‘Welcome to the GRANTfinder Website’, at http://www.grantfinder.co.uk/

Corby Borough Council

East Staffordshire District Council


GRANTfinder


http://www.corby.gov.uk/CouncilAndDemocracy/CouncilNews/Pages/CorbyBoroughCouncilisheretohelp%E2%80%93soapplyforyourgranttoday!.aspx

http://www.corby.gov.uk/CouncilAndDemocracy/CouncilNews/Pages/CorbyBoroughCouncilisheretohelp%E2%80%93soapplyforyourgranttoday!.aspx

http://www.eaststaffsbc.gov.uk/Services/Pages/GrantAid.aspx

http://test.gloucester.gov.uk/Documents/CommunityServices/Community%20Development.pdf

http://www.gloucester.gov.uk/Community/Grants/cgfp.aspx

http://test.gloucester.gov.uk/ZZZZOldFolders/GrantsUpTo5000/GuidetoCommunitySupportGrants.aspx

http://test.gloucester.gov.uk/ZZZZOldFolders/GrantsUpTo5000/GuidetoCommunitySupportGrants.aspx

http://www.gloucester.gov.uk/grants-review

http://www.grantfinder.co.uk/

Website References

‘GRANTnet a straightforward free-to-use service from GRANTnet, can help small businesses like your to identify suitable funding’, at http://www.grantnet.com/index.php?

‘Case Studies’, accessed 14 August 2008, at http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7640697

‘Doing a Review’, accessed 14 August 2008, at, http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7640645~contents-1

‘Revising Your Funding Arrangements’, accessed 14 August 2008, at,

http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7640676

‘Community Grants’, at http://www.kettering.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=755&documentID=478

‘Kettering Borough Council Application Form for Small Grants’, at http://www.kettering.gov.uk/downloads/small_grants_application_form.pdf

‘Grants’, at http://www.malvernhills.gov.uk/home/mhc-grants

‘Voluntary Organisations – Funding’, at

http://www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk/business/grants-funding/voluntary-organisations--funding

GRANTnet

Kettering Borough Council

Malvern Hills District Council

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough

Council


Improvement and Development Agency

(I&DeA)

78

http://www.grantnet.com/index.php


http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7640645~contents-1


http://www.kettering.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=755&documentID=478

http://www.kettering.gov.uk/downloads/small_grants_application_form.pdf

http://www.malvernhills.gov.uk/home/mhc-grants

http://www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk/business/grants-funding/voluntary-organisations--funding

Website References

‘Community Grants’, at http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/services_info.php?serviceID=530

‘The James Kenning Public Purposes Charity: Funding for Small Charities’, at http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=822

‘Grants and Funding Opportunities: How to Apply’, at http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=159

‘Grants and Funding Opportunities: Application Criteria’, at http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=159&pageNumber=2

‘Grants and Funding Opportunities: Rugby Borough Council’s Partnership fund’, at http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=159&pageNumber=6

‘Grants and Funding Opportunities: Rugby Borough Council’s Rural Development fund’, at http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=159&pageNumber=7

‘Community Grants’, at http://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4644

‘Community Grants’, at http://www.southbeds.gov.uk/community_living/grants/default.aspx

Rugby Borough Council

Rushmore Borough Council

South Bedfordshire Borough Council


http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/services_info.php?serviceID=530



http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=822




http://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4644



Website References

‘’Grants to Voluntary Organisations: Tamworth Borough Council: Guidelines for Applicants’, at http://www.tamworth.gov.uk/Documents/GVO%20Guidelines%202008-9.doc

‘Office of the Third Sector Homepage’, (2008), at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector?about_us.aspx

‘Still time to Apply for a Community Chest Grant’, at http://www.westlancsdc.gov.uk/council__democracy/news_and_publications/june_2008_news/

community_chest_grants.aspx

‘VCS Unit’, at http://worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/wcc-voluntary-sector-latestnews

‘Voluntary and Community Sector: Information Update’, at http://worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/community_link_newsletter_feb_08_-_final-3.pdf

‘Wychavon Community Grants Scheme’, at http://wychavon.whub.org.uk/home/wdc-grants.html

‘External Funding Service’, at http://www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/community-and-living/community-advice/external-funding/

Tamworth Borough Council


Wyre Forest District Council

Office of the Third Sector


West Lancashire District Council)

Wychavon District Council

80

Glossary

Core costs are the costs of an organisation that are necessary for an organisation to operate but do not relate specifically to one project. Typically they include overall management, administration and premises costs that relate to the whole organisation.

Donations are funds that are awarded to organisations without there having been a formal process. At Redditch Borough Council donations tend to be awarded to organisations following direct lobbying by those organisations for funds.

For engaged funding arrangements “the funder and applicant organisation work closely together to develop a funding proposition, and then are engaged as equals in the process of grant management” (J Unwin, quoted by the I&DeA, 2008).

Fledgling organisations: There is no definition of what constitutes a “fledgling” organisation.

Full cost recovery is the process of sharing an organisation’s core costs among its projects or areas of work. The share of core costs allocated to each project should be directly related to the amount of the core costs that will be required to deliver that project.

Project Grants are a source of funding which is currently provided at Redditch Borough Council. Third sector organisations can apply for Project Grants valued at up to £10,000. Applicants must demonstrate that the Project Grant will be used to finance new work. Project Grants are not designed to cover core costs.

Shopping Investing and Giving is a funding framework. Further information about Shopping, Investing and Giving is provided in Appendix A to this report.

Core costs

Donations

Engaged Funding

Fledgling organisations

Full Cost Recovery

Project Grants



Glossary

Start-up Grants is a type of fund which is available as part of Redditch Borough Council’s current grants process. New and fledgling organisations are eligible to apply for Start-up Grants. Applicants can apply for grants valued at up to £1,000.

The Redditch Partnership is the Local Strategic Partnership in Redditch. Local Strategic Partnerships bring together representatives from public, private, community and voluntary agencies to work together to identify improvements that are needed in local service delivery that cannot be made by any one organisation working alone. The partnership approach allows the Local Strategic Partnership to plan and deliver a range of services and initiatives that meet these identified needs.

For the purposes of this review we interpreted third sector as referring to the Voluntary and Community Sector.

The Worcestershire Partnership is the County Local Strategic Partnership for Worcestershire. A number of local agencies are represented on the Worcestershire Partnership including; the local County and District Councils; public services such as health, learning providers, police and probation; local businesses and the third sector.

Start-up Grants

Redditch Partnership

Third Sector

Worcestershire Partnership


Overview & Scrutiny at Redditch Borough Council

Overview & Scrutiny Contacts

1

For additional copies of this report, or to find out more about Overview & Scrutiny at Redditch Borough Council please contact:

Jess Bayley, Overview & Scrutiny Support [email protected] 01527 64252 (3268)

or

Helen Saunders, Overview & Scrutiny Support [email protected] 01527 64252 (3267)

Overview & Scrutiny Committee ServicesRedditch Borough CouncilTown HallWalter Stranz SquareRedditch B98 8AH

83

july – december 2008 councillor diane thomas (chair) councillor kath banks councillor jack cookson...

Documents

sector task

review task

finish review slide

finish review date

review scopepage

review of ways

month review

community sector c