Agenda item

Officer: Jacqueline Harris Baker

Key decision: no

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To note the below delegated decision made by the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Families, Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources for the Community Fund:

1.    The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Families, Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resourcesapproved the awards of contracts for the Community Fund to the Organisations listed in this report for a maximum contract period of 3 years (starting 01/04/2020) and for a maximum total contract value across all awards of £7,115,530 as per the 5119SCC dated 18 December 2019.

The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities introduced the Community Fund which was a three year programme to support the community sector in the borough. The council remained committed to support this sector, and had increased investment in the Fund.

It was noted that the Programme had been a large piece of work with over 20 groups of officers being involved across the council and they were thanked for their work.

The Community Fund was built upon meaningful engagement and drew upon past experiences. As such, organisations were given more time to apply, grants were increased and residents were involved in evaluating the bids.

It was noted by the Cabinet Member that the Fund had been massively oversubscribed and so unfortunately three quarters of applicants had been unsuccessful. Whilst it was recognised that many organisations would be disappointed to have not been successful in being awarded grants, the Cabinet Member stated that it was not the final opportunity as there were other grants being awarded by the council, such as the Emerging Needs Grants.

In response to questions, the Cabinet Member confirmed that there had been a commitment to protect certain elements, such as advice services and so they had been prioritised for funding awards. This had led to a large variance in the number of applications for different streams. Despite this variance, the Cabinet Member stated that it was felt the weighting in terms of the five streams was right and it was expected that a plethora of bids were received for some strands only.

In terms of the timing of the Community Fund and the consultation on the Policy for Council Community Properties, rent subsidy and rate relief for the voluntary and community sector, it was noted that the council had been communicating with the community sector for two years in relation to reviewing how it was supported by the council. The council wanted to ensure there was limited impact on organisations which had been unsuccessful so sought to provide them with sufficient notice.

The Cabinet Member informed Members that the next stage would be to look at performance and contract management of the awarded grants and ensuring that it would be proportionate to the size of the grant and robust.

The Fund was welcomed by Members for ensuring a more transparent means for allocating funding to the community sector.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To note the below delegated decision made by the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Families, Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources for the Community Fund:

1.    The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Families, Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resourcesapproved the awards of contracts for the Community Fund to the Organisations listed in this report for a maximum contract period of 3 years (starting 01/04/2020) and for a maximum total contract value across all awards of £7,115,530 as per the 5119SCC dated 18 December 2019.