Grants Panel
Tuesday 27 May 2014 10.00 am
GRANTS PANEL – 27.05.14
ii
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
Document Title: Minutes of the Grants Panel – 27 May 2014
Author: Wendy Binmore
Creation Date: May 2014
GRANTS PANEL
PART I
APOLOGIES
Apologies were received from Councillor Bathurst.
The Community & Business Partnerships Manager introduced the paper and stated that Policy & Performance had done some research and found five areas which could be discussed. These were:
- 1. A single route of information (website) that outlines all grants, commissioning opportunities available through the local authority.
2. Clearly defined categories of grant funding available, showing levels and duration of funding.
3. Funding eligibility criteria, including practical examples to provide clarity to potential applicants.
4. An application process that is commensurate with the level of grant requested.
5. On going support provided throughout the application process.
The Community & Business Partnerships Manager said the aim was to have more and diverse groups coming forward to apply for grants which would help them to organised things locally. He stated there was the option of changing things so that any organisation that applied for or was awarded over £50,000 could be moved over to a commissioning based model instead of staying within grants. That would also enable other, smaller, grass root groups a better chance of securing funding. The Community & Business Partnerships Manager explained that the Borough should not be relied upon as a sole source of income and that organisations should have other funding sources they could utilise. He added that the Borough’s grant funding should not be considered as ongoing running costs funding. The paper was intended to bring about a discussion over how the Borough could encourage more new groups to apply for funding and increase the opportunities for local people to get involved in civic involvement.
The Community & Business Partnerships Manager stated there were various key Borough objectives that organisations should have to meet before funding is granted. These included:
- 1. The Borough’s Strategic Objectives:
Residents First.
Value for Money.
Delivering Together.
Equipping Ourselves for the Future.
- 2. Build local capacity:
Support the delivery of the Borough’s Big Society aspirations around resident involvement and civic participation.
Help to remove barriers for communities to take action for things that matter to them.
Building local capacity of residents and communities to engage in civil involvement.
Building the capacity and capability of the local voluntary sector to be less reliant on Council funding.
- 3. That supports the delivery of specific directorate service targets and objectives.
Many local authorities and funding bodies provide different levels of funding with the level of funding awarded directly commensurate with the contribution made to the achievement of specific key corporate priorities.
A suggested framework for awarding grants by financial level is detailed below:
A. All Quarterly grants & Annual grants < £1000
At least one Borough’s Strategic objectives. These grants are principally used to help build local capacity for residents and voluntary and community sector and promote/ increase levels civic participation.
B. Annual grants £5000 to £10,000
Must meet:
Two or more Borough’s Strategic objectives. Grants would seek to build local capacity of the Voluntary and Community Sector to facilitate local civic participation, remove barriers or contribute towards the delivery of a key Council priority.
C. Annual grants £10,000 to £50,000
Must meet:
Four or more Borough’s Strategic objectives. Contribute towards the delivery of specific directorate targets and build local capacity for residents and voluntary sector organisations to engage in Civic participation.
D. Annual Grants. £50,000 – Move to commissioning model.
- An increase the choice of providers – more than ever it is essential to have in place a policy which ensures that the Council has the widest range of options when commissioning services and makes best use of the resources available to achieve best value;
Engage with users – many organisations within the sector are established in response to an identified need. They are trusted by the people they work with, and therefore are often best placed to listen to and understand peoples’ needs;
Create and harness social capital – through building and maintaining relationships within and across communities;
Tailor services around the user – it is common for third sector organisations to be founded by people who have direct experience of an issue and to involve service users on the board or in delivery, thus directly informing service design;
Access ‘hard to reach’ groups – as VCS organisations are independent and have gained high levels of trust they can often engage more effectively with marginalised or disadvantaged groups. Many services can be delivered within a community setting to remove any stigma and fear of being associated with a particular issue or problem;
Innovate – an ability to respond quickly and be flexible in their approach means that the sector can often pilot and innovate new solutions to meeting needs;
Provide value for money - many organisations deliver preventative / early intervention services, which can subsequently reduce the number of future users of statutory services. Also the establishment of joined up services can deliver a number of outcomes across a range of service areas. The third sector organisations may also have access to additional funding that is not available to statutory agencies.
- 4. Additional points to consider:
- Establish clearly that applicants should not expect to automatically be awarded funding by the Grants panel; funding should be seen as being discretionary. There is a limited budget and many competing good causes.
- Clarity to applicants that RBWM grants should not be relied upon by applicants as the sole source of funding. Applications should in the main have or be encouraged to secure their own independent sources of funding.
- Consider a change of policy so that rather than giving almost everybody who applies a fraction of what they have applied for give a to limited number of those who apply (but increase the amount awarded? and meet the Borough’s corporate priorities.
- Greater clarity given to applicants that the grants should not be viewed as a contribution towards on an going annual operational cost or for funding for specific annual events or activities e.g. Town Centre Partnerships, Maidenhead at the Movies etc.
- Consider options for moving to an on line grants making system – more scoping required is here.
- Provide greater clarity around the eligibility of uniformed and or religious groups.
- A communications & marketing plan should be developed to raise local awareness of grants to develop a wider more diverse pool of applicants. The plan should include the Use of Social Media (Marketing) and grants are promoted via Facebook and Twitter through a dedicated funding twitter feed as done by Southampton City Council.
Councillor Jones stated she was not happy awarding up to £20,000 to an organisation who had met only two of the Borough’s objectives. She wanted to focus on the criteria of how grants were awarded and move the issue of the monitoring of organisations following the award of funding to one side until the criteria had been thoroughly looked into.
Councillor Hollingsworth stated some clarity was required regarding awarding grant funding to uniformed or religious groups and how that criteria had been decided. The Acting-Chairman confirmed the Borough did not award grant funding to uniformed or religious groups.
The Head of Education, Strategy & Commissioning explained faith based groups could apply for funding for community wide projects. He added that more stringent clarity was needed to explain that in greater detail. Faith groups could not apply for funding for projects that only benefit one particular faith or group.
Councillor Jones agreed that the website and grants criteria needed to be simplified and that the updated criteria should then be sent out with the application form. She added she did not think it was about what groups or organisations applied, it was more about how they spent the funding and the outcomes they were awarded and that some words were required in the criteria that explained the funding needed to benefit the wider community. Councillor Jones said that religious groups would still be able to apply for funding but, only for community wide based projects. The Acting-Chairman confirmed that the Community & Business Partnerships Manager was to add the wording to the Terms of Reference and bring them along to the next meeting.
Councillor Jones stated a lot of organisations that have been awarded SLA funding also applied for quarterly grant funding. She was concerned that when that happened, it would take away vital funding of other start up groups which increased community involvement. Councillor Jones felt it was unfair if organisations were already in receipt of SLA funding that they should then get further grant funding during the quarterly round of grants.
The Acting-Chairman explained that the extra grant funding could be for a different or new, one-off project. Therefore, there was no reason why they could not apply for extra grant funding and it is for the Panel to decide if their reasons for requesting extra grant funding are worthy of the funds. Councillor Jones requested all previous funding that had been granted to organisations be noted and made available to Members before they make a decision on any extra funding.
RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That: the Terms of Reference, criteria procedure and grants forms be brought to the next Quarterly Grants Panel for further discussion.
COUNCIL FUNDING FOR LOCAL ORGANISATIONS
i) the grants as detailed below be approved.
| Organisation | £ |
| Berkshire County Blind Society | 350 |
| Bridge Trust Thames Valley R&R Re:Charge | 350 |
| Dance for Fun | 350 |
| Family & Friends in Windsor & Maidenhead | 350 |
| Honeypot Children’s Charity | 350 |
| Norden Farm | 350 |
| Windsor Festival | 350 |
GRANTS PANEL – 25.05.13
- ii) That with regret, the following applications were refused:
- Beehive Pre-School
Furze Platt Scout Group
SportsAble
| Organisation | Description | £ |
| Cookham Reach Sailing Club | To help towards refurb/building costs of a new women’s section of the club to provide changing facilities | 350 |
- iii) That with regret, the following applications were refused:
- Maidenhead United Supporters Association
Windsor & Eton Sea Cadets
MEETING
The meeting which began at 10.00am, ended at 11.30am
Chairman…………………………………………….