The Head of Service for Community Services submitted a report to inform members of the monitoring findings of the 2016/17 grants programme.

Recommendation: That the City Executive Board resolves to

Note the results of the grant monitoring and the positive impact the community and voluntary sector is making in the city.

The Head of Service for Community Services submitted a report to inform members of the monitoring findings of the 2016/17 grants programme.

Cllr Sinclair, Board Member for Culture and Communities,  spoke to the report noting in particular the high proportion of  grants used to support  those who were homeless and those experiencing  financial difficulties.

In discussion it was agreed that it would be helpful if future monitoring reports had a greater focus on qualitative outcomes of grant provision, tying that analysis back to the Council’s priorities etc.

The Acting Communities Manager said that steps were being taken to simplify unnecessarily burdensome returns from those in receipt of grants as well as simplifying the process of application. In determining grant allocations the importance of weighting areas of need (which often lay within wider areas not considered to be so needy) was recognised.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

Note the results of the grant monitoring and the positive impact the community and voluntary sector is making in the city.

Ask officers to ensure that future grant monitoring  reflects the extent to which their use supports Council priorities.

Cllr Christine Simm, Board Member for Culture and Communities presented the report and outlined the positive impact the council grants were able to make during this time of austerity, despite there being less money to spend there was an increasing need in the City. The leverage of Council grant funding enables organisations to apply for money from elsewhere.

Cllr Hayes asked whether allocations could be conditional on recipients achieving match funding from other sources.  Cllr Simms said that while this was taken into consideration, it should not be a requirement as the Council did not want to create barriers to small organisations seeking to access funding.

The Committee noted that the Council needed to achieve the best possible value for money from its grants programme.  The amount of additional funding leveraged in and the number of beneficiaries were useful indications in this respect.  The Committee noted that some types of interventions that benefit relatively few individuals, such as homelessness prevention, could deliver more social value than, for example, inclusive arts and culture schemes that benefit many more individuals.  The Committee suggest that it would be useful to measure and monitor the social value impacts of grant allocations, perhaps at category level, in addition to leveraged funding and the numbers of beneficiaries.

Cllr Simmons asked how grant allocations were tied into service delivery and noted that he would like to see more research to inform how the Council could best focus resources (e.g. across homelessness grants and Discretionary Housing Payments).  Cllr Simm said that the grant allocations were in line with the Council’s strategic aims and that the Council’s approach to advice commissioning, which was part of the Council’s cross-cutting Financial Inclusion Strategy, was a good example of joined up thinking.  Cllr Simmons suggested that consideration should be given to how the Council could do more of that and what the mechanism for doing so would be.

The Committee AGREED the following recommendations to CEB

1 – That consideration is given to how to quantify the social value achieved from the different grant programmes for community and voluntary organisations and to the inclusion of a measure of social value in future grant monitoring reports.

2. That consideration is given to whether and how the Council could better integrate its grant programmes for community and voluntary organisations with related aspects of service delivery, with a view to focusing resources as effectively as possible.

The Head of Community Serviceshas submitted a report which details the proposed allocation of grants to community & voluntary organisations through the Community Grants Programme.

Recommendations: That subject to Council subsequently agreeing the grants budget as set out in Table 1 of the report, the City Executive Board resolves to:

1.    Approve the recommendations for the second year of a three year commissioning programme as listed in Appendix 1;

2.    Approve the recommendations for the applications received to the grants annual open bidding programme as set out in Appendix 2; and

3.    Approve the recommendation to delegate authority to the Executive Director for Organisational Development and Corporate Services in conjunction with the Executive Members for Customer and Corporate Services and Culture and Communities to allocate the residual unallocated funding (£20,000) in the Advice and Money Management commissioning theme.

The Head of Community Servicessubmitted a report which detailed the proposed allocation of grants to community and voluntary organisations through the Community Grants Programme.

The Executive Board Member, Culture and Communities presented the report and thanked the Grants & External Funding Officer and her colleagues for their continuing hard work in this area.  She said that this programme was a good example of how the Council continued to work with the local community and voluntary sector to alleviate poverty and create a vibrant city for all residents.  She said that the current political and economic climate meant the Council’s grant programme faced increasing pressures and so it was essential that the grant applications were subject to a robust evaluation process.

She also thanked the Scrutiny Committee for its comments, noting the suggestions that the evaluation criteria might need to be reviewed in the future in the light of the wider economic climate and cuts to County Council services and also that consideration should be given to increasing the funding available through the “open bidding” element of the scheme.

Subject to Council subsequently agreeing the grants budget as set out in Table 1 of the report, the City Executive Board resolved to:

1.    Approve the recommendations for the second year of a three year commissioning programme as listed in Appendix 1;

2.    Approve the recommendations for the applications received to the grants annual open bidding programme as set out in Appendix 2; and

3.    Approve the recommendation to delegate authority to the Executive Director for Organisational Development and Corporate Services in conjunction with the Executive Members for Customer and Corporate Services and Culture and Communities to allocate the residual unallocated funding (£20,000) in the Advice and Money Management commissioning theme.

Contact Officer: Julia Tomkins, Grants & External Funding Officer,Tel 01865 252685, jtomkins@oxford.gov.uk

The Grants & External Funding Officer presented the report.  Councillor Brown, Executive Board Member for Customer and Corporate Services was also present to answer any questions from the Committee. 

The Committee noted the following points:

·         Since 2014 there has been a steady increase in the number of applications under open bidding

·         The Council recognises that small organisations have limited resources available to bid for grants and in response there are 2 workshops to explain the application process and support organisations making submissions

·         The Council does receive grant repayments on occasion

·         When awarding grants to county-wide organisations the Council makes it clear that the funding is to support Oxford city residents

·         The Council welcomes applications from new organisations and ward councillors are encouraged to publicise the grants allocation process within their community

·         The grant allocation evaluation criteria reflect the Council’s priorities and areas of responsibility

Modern Art Oxford’s Oxford City Council representative, Cllr Smith, said that she was working with the organisation to develop a new service level agreement and to improve the value for money derived from grant funding.   The Committee endorsed this approach.

The Committee NOTED the report.

Cllr Hollick rejoined the meeting.