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Agenda item

Pre-Decision Scrutiny: Development Voluntary & Community Sector Strategy for Croydon

To provide comment and inform the development of a Voluntary & Community Sector Strategy for Croydon Council.

Minutes:

The Committee received a report, set out on pages 15 to 58 of the agenda, together with a supplemental presentation, that provided information on proposals for a Voluntary and Community Sector Strategy for Croydon. The Committee was asked for its comments, which would be used to inform the final strategy that would be considered by the Cabinet in March 2019.

During the introduction of the report, which was presented by the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities, Councillor Hamida Ali, the following points were noted:-

·      The voluntary and community sector was a massive asset for the borough with 819 groups registered with the Charity Commission and over 2,000 with Croydon Voluntary Action.

·      The Council worked with the sector in a number of different ways including providing infrastructure support to build capacity, co-ordinating engagement, providing information on commissioning opportunities and a range of work through the One Croydon Alliance.

·      The Strategy was being developed to coordinate the Council’s work with the voluntary sector, to ensure that there was transparency in the Council’s grant processes and that funding was balanced.

·      The Community Fund was the main source of voluntary sector funding provided by the Council. It was last awarded in September 2016 with funding provided over a three year period. This was to provide greater certainty to the organisations in receipt of a grant. In total £1.9m of funding was being awarded per annum to 31 separate organisations.

·      The Prevention Fund, was a grant aimed at organisations providing services for the over 65s. This fund awarded a total of approximately £500k per year to 21 organisations.

·      Other funds available to the voluntary and community sector included the Community Small Grants fund, which had a budget of £100,000 for small grants up to £5,000. There was also Subsidy and Rate Relief and Community Ward budgets.

·      As part of the process of developing the Strategy a consultation process had been undertaken, with 225 organisations responding and over 100 organisations communicated with directly.

·      From the responses to consultation, the main threats to voluntary and community sector organisations included funding concerns, the lack of affordable premises and the availability of volunteers.

·      As a correction to the published report, it was highlighted that 70% of organisations who had responded felt that their needs were not being met by the Council, rather than 30% which was stated in the report.

·      The responses had also indicated that there was an expectation that the Council would facilitate collaboration, that the Council should be doing more to promote the sector, provide affordable space, provide funding and assisting with capacity building

Following the introduction, the Committee was given the opportunity to question the Cabinet Member on the proposed strategy. The first question posed asked whether there was a need for a voluntary sector and whether the sector was providing services that should be funded by either the Council or the Government. In response it was advised that it was not for the Council to say whether there should be a voluntary sector or not. The sector did a lot of valuable work in the community that supported the aims of the Council. In particular there were instances where the voluntary sector could help in ways that the Council was unable, such as through peer support to reduce youth violence. The Labour Manifesto had given a commitment to maintaining the Community Fund and it was expected that this would be the case.

          In response to a question about the number of Local Voluntary Partnerships in the borough, it was advised that it was proposed there would be six partnerships, with the application process underway. As a follow up it was questioned whether the Council could do more to raise public awareness of the Local Voluntary Partnerships. It was acknowledged that more could be done and that the strategy would help to direct the Council in doing so.

The Committee raised concern about whether there was sufficient evidence being provided of client satisfaction as part of the grants process. It was agreed that client feedback should be essential evidence in informing the Council about the actual outcomes arising from the grant funding awarded. As such it was questioned whether organisations had to provide evidence of client satisfaction and whether technology could be used as a means of collecting feedback.

In response it was advised that recipients of Community Fund grants held quarterly meetings with the Contract Managers at the Council. These meetings focussed on project delivery and would include evidence such as client feedback. Through the creation of the strategy, it would be possible to review how grant funding was monitored to ensure that criteria such as client feedback was prioritised.

The Committee highlighted that although there was a thriving voluntary sector in the borough, there may be certain areas where this was not the case and as such it was essential that the strategy gave consideration to how these areas of need would be identified and what could be done to address the shortfall. In response it was advised that the strategy would set out a number of priorities and it was expected that there would be a strand focussing on a community based approach, which would fit into the Council’s own work on locality based services. Should gaps in provision be identified, then funding could be focussed towards these area. However, further thought would need to be given on how best to support grass root organisations within local communities.

As it was highlighted that some organisations may have concerns about how grant funding was awarded, with there being a perception that grants were being awarded to those organisations best able to write funding bids, it was questioned how future grant awards would be determined. It was advised that funding would be based upon a clear set of criteria, against which bids would be evaluated. It was important to ensure that proportionality was used to ensure that a more rigorous process was used to determine larger grant applications.  A team of officers from across the Council was used to evaluate the bids to ensure that the process was robust and transparent.

          As it was noted that key performance indicators would be used as part of the monitoring process, it was questioned whether there were any penalties for those organisations who did not achieve their targets. It was advised that as funding was paid in instalments, if there was a significant issue then funding could be withheld.

          As an alternative to the Council setting priorities it was suggested that consideration should be given to allowing the voluntary and community organisations to set the priorities themselves.  It was acknowledged that the new Strategy would be an opportunity to bring organisations together to build trust and relationships. This would lead to greater opportunities to feed into the setting of priorities through allowing a greater flow of information.

          There was a general level of consensus amongst the Committee that there was a need to reassess the approach to funding (including Rate Relief) particularly in regard to organisations who had received a similar level of funding over a long period of time. This would ensure that the funding was still being used to deliver the outcomes intended by the Council and would help to improve the transparency of the process.  It was also agreed that there was a need for the Council to be clearer on what it was funding and the level of support the sector could expect to receive.

In response to a question about oversight of how Councillors spent their Ward Budgets, it was advised that although the spending of the budget was within an individual Councillor’s discretion, guidance was provided and there were checks in place within the Communities team who processed the applications. Given that it was near the end of the financial year a request was made for data on the amount of money remaining in the Councillor Ward Budget fund for the current year.

Given that the availability of premises had been raised as an issue during the consultation it was questioned what support the Council could offer in this regard. It was acknowledged that it was a challenge for the Council to provide support as its estate was almost fully occupied. Where possible the Council did look to create community space, such as the former premises of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust on Tamworth Road. It should also be considered whether rate relief could be made dependent on organisations offering space to other voluntary sector organisations as an incentive.

Information Requests

Information was requested on the amount of funds unspent in the Councillor Ward Budgets for 2018/19 broken down by Ward.

Conclusions

Following the discussion of this item, the Committee reached the following conclusions:

1.  That it was a very positive report and the full answers given by the Cabinet Member to the Committee’s questions was to be commended.

2.  The Committee agreed with the need for the Strategy, as set out in the report.

3.  The Committee agreed that there were locality issues with some areas being underrepresented by voluntary organisations than others.

4.  There was a concern that feedback from service users was not being taken into account, as it could be used to help measure the success of a service.

5.  It was agreed that the Council should not be too prescriptive on the type of grants it offered.

6.  The Committee had significant concerns about the benefit provided by the infrastructure support organisations supported by the Council and felt that the current relationship should be reviewed.

Recommendations

The Committee RESOLVED to recommend to the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities:-

1.  That the final Strategy should set out how it will identify the unmet need within the Borough and how it will work with the voluntary and community sector to meet this need.

2.  That more funding should be made available for grass root organisations than at present.

3.  That feedback from service users should be taken into account when monitoring the outcomes from grant funding.

4.  That feedback from service users should be used to inform future needs and priorities.

5.  Within the Community Grants fund the majority of funding should be retained for three year contracts, but an increased amount should be retained for flexible funding as required.

6.  There should be a fundamental review of infrastructure support organisations to ensure they were achieving their expected outcomes.

The Chair advised the Committee that given their significance it had been decided to split the next item into two and consider the Cultural Strategy and the Libraries Strategy separately.

Supporting documents: