Issue - meetings

To highlight the spending that has occurred in 2023/24, and that further work will be required to determine any potential future allocation of grant funding.

To meet the recommendation in the report to Cabinet on 21 July 2023, in respect of Citizen’s Advice Tendring, which approved a review of grant funding across the Council and requested a report following the review be presented to Cabinet considering the options available during 2023/24 in readiness for the commencement of 2024/25.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    notes the contents of this report  including the Allocation of Funding for 2023/24, as set out in Appendix 1 to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.4);

(b)    authorises the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships to continue with the requested review in order to determine what priorities the Council could support through external funding  in the future;

(c)    agrees that such review will include engagement with Officers and the relevant Portfolio Holders, in order to understand existing schemes and determine proposals for the future, taking into account service provision, subsidy control implications, the Council’s financial position and delivering the Council’s Corporate Plan;

(d)    requires that, following completion of the review, a further report will be presented to Cabinet in readiness for the budget process for 2025/26; and

(e)   in light of the revised approach for the review, recommends to the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee that its work on reviewing grant schemes operated by the Council ceases in order to prevent a duplication of Council resources on this subject.

Further to Minute 22 (21.7.23),Cabinet considered a report of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder (A.4), which highlighted the spending that had occurred in 2023/24, and that further work would be required to determine any potential future allocation of grant funding.

Cabinet was aware that this Council allocated a significant amount of funding across the voluntary and community sector, either from external provision, such as the Shared Prosperity Fund (government) or from internal resources, such as the Tendring Community Fund.

It was reported that, currently, funding was allocated individually by services following a broadly similar approach with application forms, criteria and assessment of applications. Any review of grant funding needed to consider what the Council was currently funding and then determine what priorities it wished to address going forward. This would require further work to be undertaken across the organisation to identify the gaps in provision and where support might be required to support delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan.

This report therefore identified the 2023/24 funding provision and proposed recommendations in relation to the further work required going forward. Further to the review, a policy could be developed to support the governance around the allocation of grant funding.

In the light of the fact that considering funding already allocated would assist in determining the types of funding the Council might wish to provide in the future and that a further review which analysed any gaps in service provision across the organisation would also assist in understanding what funding the Council might wish to provide to meet the Corporate Plan:-

It was moved by Councillor Placey, seconded by Councillor Barry and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    notes the contents of this report  including the Allocation of Funding for 2023/24, as set out in Appendix 1 to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.4);

(b)    authorises the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships to continue with the requested review in order to determine what priorities the Council could support through external funding  in the future;

(c)    agrees that such review will include engagement with Officers and the relevant Portfolio Holders, in order to understand existing schemes and determine proposals for the future, taking into account service provision, subsidy control implications, the Council’s financial position and delivering the Council’s Corporate Plan;

(d)    requires that, following completion of the review, a further report will be presented to Cabinet in readiness for the budget process for 2025/26; and

(e)   in light of the revised approach for the review, recommends to the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee that its work on reviewing grant schemes operated by the Council ceases in order to prevent a duplication of Council resources on this subject.