Minutes:
The Committee considered a report which outlined a proposal to test a new approach to support communities and also in regard to funding for independently managed community centres for summer schemes.
The Director of Neighbourhood Services provided an update in regard to Community Capacity. He provided an overview of the current support in terms of financial assistance, provision of community buildings and direct staff provision. He stated that, in order to ensure that the Council continued to respond to emerging needs, consideration had been given to testing new methods of supporting communities with a weak or no community infrastructure and he provided a detailed overview of the proposals.
During discussion several Members highlighted the issues within their communities that existed in terms of weak local community infrastructure and lack of capacity.
The Director advised that further consideration was being given as to how communities of interest could be supported and stated that proposals would be submitted to a future meeting for Members consideration. He further detailed that these areas of concern would be considered as part of the pilot, this might identify that a different approach was required and if this was the case, such changes could possibly be looked at through a co-design process.
In terms of the 2020/21 Capacity Grant, the Director reminded the Members that the Chief Executive had written to the Department for Communities (DfC) outlining the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions and the bearing that these had had in regard to the delivery of services for community/voluntary organisations. The letter had requested that the Council’s Letter of Offer, in its entirety, be extended to allow 2020/21 funding to carry forward to the 2021/22 financial year.
The Director advised that the Department for Communities had responded stating that the Council should put only 2020/21 COVID-19 specific funding on to the Council reserves for use in the 2021/22 financial year. It stated that the DfC grant, which funds the Council’s community capacity, buildings revenue and advice grants, must be spent in keeping with the original terms and conditions from DfC i.e. only spend between 1st April 2020 and 31st March 2021 would be eligible to be claimed.
The Members were reminded that the Council provided a significant amount of match funding for this grant funding and the Members were asked to consider if they wished to extend the delivery period for all of the above 2020/21 capacity, revenue and advice grant funding to end September 2021, to be considered on case by case basis.
The Members of the Committee recommended that, in accordance with the Council decision of 4th May, the Chief Executive exercise her delegated authority to:
· agree to test the new approach to supporting areas of weak or no community infrastructure in partnership with communities on a North, South, East, West basis and with a budget of £15,000 for each area; and
· extend the delivery period for 2020/21 capacity, revenue and advice grant funding to end September 2021, on a case by case basis as needed.
Supporting documents: