Agenda and minutes

To approve as correct the notes of the meeting held on 26 July 2016

The group approved the notes of the meeting held on 27 September 2016.

The Community and Wellbeing Policy Development Advisory Group shall advise the Cabinet Member on Strategic Grants prior to the making and publishing of a non- key decision by the Cabinet Member for Community and Wellbeing.

The Head of Community and Culture explained that the advice of the group was being sought on the Strategic Grants Scheme 2017/18. The Cabinet Member, upon taking the advice of the group, would then make a Cabinet Member ‘non-key’ decision, in accordance with the constitution of the council. Contextually, the Head of Community and Culture set out the changing position of funding and grants which had emerged as a consequence of the 87% reduction in central government revenue support grant since 2010. A new Strategic Grants Scheme had been agreed to replace the existing Service Level Agreement process. The scheme opened in May 2016 and bids were to be submitted by July 2016.

Councillor Britten declared a non-pecuniary interest in the agenda item by virtue of his involvement in the Horsham Community Car Scheme; and Councillor Rowbottom declared a non-pecuniary interest by virtue of a family member being a user of a service provided by one of the applicants.

Members received summaries of the purpose of each grant request, the level of any funding previously provided by the council and an officer recommendation. Officer recommendations had been informed by the:

a)         extent to which the organisations request aligns with council priorities

b)         organisations previous performance and perceived value for money

c)         historical level of financial support received from the council

d)         impact of reducing council financial support on that organisations service

In turn, the group discussed the strategic grant requests received under the following themes:

i)          Older people

ii)         Young people

iii)         Families/Communities

iv)        Infrastructure Support

v)         Community Transport

The group endorsed the process and supported the officer recommendations, but recommended that consideration be given to providing information on employee costs and applicant running cost overheads to accompany the summaries in future years. The Chairman noted the general support of the group for the recommendations and thanked the group for their participation and advice.