The Head of Community Services submitted a report that informed members of the monitoring findings of the 2015/16 grants programme.

Cllr Simm, Board Member for Culture and Communities presented the report.  She explained that we currently have an increased demand for community grants but a shrinking grants budget. People are aware that there is less money available and are collaborating ie joint bidding. She said that people in Oxford were very good at responding to need and there were lots of people across the city wanting to help which the Council needed to support.

The social and economic geography of Oxford is changing  with the County Council cutting services ie children centres closing have increased need in that area.

Cllr Simms explained that recommendation 2 was aspiration at the moment but officers are doing a lot of partnership work. However we need to get more strategic about it.

Cllr Brown asked what would be the impact on the city of lost EU funding?  The Board agreed the need to record the organisations who receive EU funding and to remind the government of their promise to maintain funding.

Cllr Tanner said it was important for Oxford to retain its international links and money should be put into twining associations and European groups. The Council should look at creating an Eastern European twin.

Cllr Simm replied that the Communities team was actively engaging with the polish community and making sure they had the services they need.

The City Executive Board resolves to:

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

2.    WORK with partners to understand the issues facing the community and voluntary sector in greater depth so we are better able to target our support where it is most needed and will have the greatest impact.

The Head of Leisure, Parks and Communities submitted a report (previously circulated now appended) which sought an increase of £2,500 to the 2015/2016 community and voluntary organisations (CVOs) grant programme.

Cllr Rowley, Board Member for Leisure Contract and Community Partnership Grants presented the report. He apologised to the Grants officer for the need for the second report.

Cllr Fooks queried why the proposed grant increase had not been mentioned in the previous minutes. The Chief Executive explained that the minutes were a comprehensive record not a verbatim record of the meeting.

The Chief Executive explained that he had asked for an internal review of the grants process to take place, the findings will be reported to the Board in due course.

The City Executive Board resolved to APPROVE an additional allocation of £2,500 to the CVO’s grant programme to increase the grant awarded to South Oxford Adventure Playground.

The Head of Leisure, Parks and Communities submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the proposed allocation of grants to community & voluntary organisations for 2015/16 through the Community Grants Programme.

Cllr Rowley, Board member for Leisure Contract and Community Partnership Grants presented the report. He said he was keen for officers to work with the Cutteslowe Community Association (CCA) to make their holiday scheme sustainable.

Shirley McCleery, Chair of the Cutteslowe Community Association (CCA) spoke on the CCA only receiving 25% of the grant it had requested to run a children’s holiday programme. She was concerned there had been an error in calculating the cost per head and that the fees the children pay hadn’t been taken off the overall cost. This had made the total figure per head significantly more expensive than it actually was.

Cllr Price said that the Council would review its decision and would get back to the CCA.

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

1. APPROVE the recommendations for the three year commissioning programme as listed in Appendix one, with the addition of reviewing the Cutteslowe Community Association grant.

2. APPROVE the recommendations for the applications received to the grants annual open bidding programme as set out in Appendix three.

3. APPROVE the recommendation for Oxford Friend to be funded through the Community Safety commissioning theme.

4. DELEGATE authority to the Board member for Leisure Contract and Community Partnership Grants in consultation with the Board member for Customer Services and Social Inclusion and the Head of Customer Services to approve proposals for the unallocated funding (£20,000) in the Advice and Money Management commissioning theme.