The Head of Community Services submitted a report (previously circulated now appended) which provided details of monitoring information returned by community & voluntary organisations awarded a grant by the City Council in 2014/15.

The Board was pleased to note that the level of grant funding was higher than 5 years earlier despite the reduction in funding from central government, demonstrating the Council’s commitment to the voluntary sector. 

The Board noted the comments from the Scrutiny Committee concerning the need for a rigorous assessment of all grant applications to ensure that they delivered the best value for money.   Officers were asked to provide additional analysis on this point in future monitoring reports.  Cllr Simm confirmed that this was an important aspect of the existing process to review grant applications and invited members to refer concerns about any particular scheme to herself and the Grants & External Funding Officer.

The City Executive Board resolved to NOTE the report.