Contact: Frances Martin, Community Strategy Officer Ext: 5122

1. Summary

1.1 This report makes recommendations in respect of a number of applications for funding from various LSPs across the County, which have either been approved by the Chief Executive; are subject to approval by the Executive Member for Community Development and Regeneration; or which require referral to the Leader for approval.

2. Background

2.1 A budget for supporting projects derived from the County Council's statutory duty to prepare a community strategy has been set up and this includes a budget for pump priming the Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and to develop further community strategies.

2.2 Each of the 11 LSP's are encouraged to bid for money from this budget to support the development of their LSPs and for the pump priming of projects.

2.3 The budget is also available for the development and implementation of the Hampshire Strategic Partnership.

2.4 The Chief Executive can approve amounts of less than £2000. The Executive Member for Community Development and Regeneration can approve amounts between £2000 and £5000. Amounts exceeding £5000 must be approved by the Executive Member and referred, with a recommendation to the Leader for decision.

2.5 Appendix B sets out the funding criteria for which bids will be approved. They are intended as guidelines and not prescriptive rules.

3. Current bids

3.1 As approved by the Chief Executive, the following bids have been received:

3.1.2 The sum of £1,725, from Networkfareham to contribute towards the costs of a facilitated workshop for the Networkfareham Steering Group through which the partners will seek to address the following issues:

· The Community Strategy Document

· Agree final timetable for producing the strategy

· Implementation of the strategy

· Partnership structure and development

The facilitated workshop will help support Networkfareham to produce its Community Strategy and Action Plan and ensure there are effective structures in place to enable it to be implemented.

3.1.3 The sum of £1,500 from the Public Health Development Team as a contribution to this years annual Public Health Development conference, being held on the 17^th December. The conference is called `Developing the Health and Wellbeing of Communities' and the focus of the event will be to concentrate on how this can be achieved through working with Local Strategic Partnerships and Community Strategies to actually deliver change on the ground.

The conference to date has been organised and funded primarily by the Public Health Development team. This year however, they are working more collaboratively and have a multi-agency group developing the programme, of which Hampshire County council is a member. The target audience will also be expanded this year beyond the usual health professionals to involve LSP's and other partnerships and agencies. Hampshire County Council, through the Hampshire Strategic Partnership, have been asked to contribute £1,500 to the funding of this years event, in order to demonstrate joined up working and to help attract the LSP's to attend.

3.1.4 The sum of £1,300 from the Hampshire Strategic Partnership for the production of the invitations for the Hampshire Strategic Partnership Annual Conference on the 14^th October 2003. These costs include design, printing and purchase of an image to be used on the invitation.

3.2 The following bids are for consideration by the Executive Member for Community Development and Regeneration:

3.2.1 The sum of £3,700 for the Test Valley Partnership to be used to consult on the draft Community Plan for Test Valley. This process will include: community exhibitions, community meetings, distribution of draft Community Plan and meeting with existing groups. The bid will be used for the production of:

· 300 copies of the Draft Community Plan

· Venue booking costs

· Design display material

· Produce display material

· Advertising flyers

This bid will ensure the objectives within the Community Plan are agreed and owned by the public.

3.2.2 The government guidance on developing LSP's and Community Strategies highlights the importance of engaging hard to reach groups, especially multi-faith groups. This has since been highlighted further by guidance on community cohesion and social inclusion.

In order to develop best practice and fulfil our statutory obligations the County Council has met with Churches Together in order to look at developing an event to identify ways of working together to address these issues.

At this stage, there are no more details, but a multi agency group of people are due to get together to develop the ideas and costings. At this stage we are being asked to support this process although we will be asked for funding when the details have been worked up.

3.3 The following bid is recommended to the Leader for approval:

3.3.1 The sum of £20,000 to appoint a project officer to co-ordinate the county councils input into the RETIS network and other social inclusion activities associated with the Community Strategy process.

RETIS (the European Transregional Network for Social Inclusion) is a network of European regional and local authorities working together on social inclusion issues in order to develop best practices and common policies. The network is concentrating on addressing issues of social inclusion in relation to families, younger and older people, asylum seekers, those with disabilities and the homeless.

RETIS has received European funding within the framework of the Community Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion (2002-2006) in order to develop the network and develop and share examples of good practice with the aim of improving peoples quality of life.

Hampshire County Council , a founder member of the network, was asked to join because of the unique way we work in partnership through Local Strategic Partnerships and the considerable effort we spend trying to engage communities and especially hard to reach groups in local decision making processes. Hampshire acts as the coordinating body for the UK and the lead on English-speaking activity and Councillor David Kirk was invited to be the Vice President of the RETIS network.

To date the support and developmental work for RETIS has been carried out by the Community Strategy Officer but the work has grown substantially and in order for the County to get the best out of the network it is appropriate to consider resourcing this in a more effective way.

It is suggested therefore, that a part time appointment be made for 2 years, reviewable after one year, of an officer to undertake the work.

3.3.2 The unspent funds from 2002/03 (£119,252) has been agreed to be carried over to the budget for this financial year (2003/04). Added together this gives a total of £309,252. Following the above approved bids the total spend in relation to the budget is £160,698, leaving £148,554 (see attached appendix A).

Recommendations

The following recommendations are sought:

1. To approve the allocation of £3,700 for the Test Valley Partnership to be used to consult on the draft Community Plan for Test Valley.

2. To endorse the development of an event to build the capacity of multi-faith groups to engage in LSP's and the development and delivery of Community Strategies.

3. To recommend to the Leader for approval an allocation of £20,000 for the appointment of a project officer to co-ordinate the county councils input into the RETIS network and other social inclusion activities associated with the Community Strategy process.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

File FM Exec Member Location: Community planning/committee

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