Issue - meetings

Report of the Service Director Communities, Libraries, Heritage & Arts is circulated

Cllr John Thomson, Cabinet member for Adult Care, Communities and Libraries presented a report which set out how the Council intended to support the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS), by clarifying its funding processes. This was to ensure they were clear, equitable, accessible and consistently applied across the Council. If agreed by Cabinet, the recommendations in the report would also be put before the Board of NHS Wiltshire.

In 2008 Cabinet approved 13 recommendations made in the Council and NHS Wiltshire Review of Working with the VCS. The report now presented included progress made to date against these recommendations. The report dealt in particular with the development of recommendation 5 in respect of the Council and the PCT jointly adopting the ‘shopping, giving and investing framework set out in the review report.’  The VCS had requested a change of wording to grants, procurement, investing (grants replacing ‘giving’ and ‘procurement’ replacing ‘shopping’). The report also dealt with recommendation 8 in respect of the implementation of the Full Cost Recovery framework. It was noted that the process for monitoring and evaluating resources provided to the VCS would be proportionate to the size of the organisation.

In response to a query, Cllr Thomson confirmed that the maximum grant which could be offered by an Area Board was £5,000 and for the avoidance of doubt, agreed to issue guidance to all Community Area Managers on this.  The Council through its Area Boards gave out a considerable amount of money supporting local communities and projects through its grants system.  It was considered reasonable for the Council to expect for there to be some form of recognition and acknowledgement of the Council funding by those communities.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

a)                 agree to the arrangements set out in the report for adopting a ‘grants, procurement and investing’ model for funding the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and to endorse that wording as the preferred option of the VCS in Wiltshire (it replaces the suggested wording of ‘shopping, giving, investing’).  The full funding framework template be approved as shown in  Appendix 3 of the report presented;

b)                 agree the application of the full cost recovery model set out in the report as it applies to commissioned services (excludes grant provision);

c)                 agree to the principle of removing current more cumbersome arrangements for the award of grants so that arrangements for grants to VCS organisations up to a maximum of £25k can be awarded without the need for quotations that are more appropriate for procured services.  A working group of relevant Council staff including procurement and legal representation to complete the necessary work on eligibility criteria and processes for implementation by 1 April 2011 and

d)                 agree to delegate the responsibility for finalising the detail of the VCS Funding Framework to the Head of VCS Strategy in consultation with the Cabinet member for Children’s Services.  This would allow the Performance Framework and quality standard elements of the work to be incorporated into the Funding Framework prior to implementation from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86