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 the Hampshire Strategic Partnership, 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 £2,000 from the Hampshire Strategic Partnership for the production of 2000 folders, using the HSP branding. These folders will be used for delegate packs at the HSP conference on the 14 October and afterwards for distribution of information and the Community Strategy for Hampshire. The folders have been designed in such a way that they will not date and can be used by all the HSP steering group members

3.1.3 The sum of £1,000 from the Hampshire Strategic Partnership for the design and printing of HSP stationery. This will include 5,000 HSP letterheads and 5,000 compliment slips. Both the headed paper and the compliment slips will use the HSP branding and a batch of 100 of each will be distributed to all the HSP steering group members for their own use. A template of the letterhead will also be supplied to the HSP members via email and CD, accompanied with instructions for use.

3.1.4 The sum of £500 from the Hampshire Strategic Partnership for the production of 1000 pens, using the HSP branding. These pens will be distributed at the HSP conference on the 14 October to officially launch the logo and the strapline for the HSP to help raise public awareness and the profile of the HSP brand.

3.1.5 The sum of £540 from the Hampshire Strategic Partnership for the initial design visual of the HSP web site, with basic navigation showing proposed links. The web site will be unique to the HSP and will feature its own style and branding in line with the HSP stationary. The HSP web site will however adhere to Hampshire County Council's guidelines in terms of font size and use of visuals and will be quality checked by IT services. The amount also includes a planogram of the proposed content of the HSP web site (see attached appendix C)

Upon approval of the design visual the next stage is to proceed to build the site (see 3.2.1)

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

3.2.1 The sum of £4,270 for the Hampshire Strategic Partnership to be used for the build, demonstration and testing of the HSP web site. The web site will provide both the HSP partners and the Hampshire Community with an information source about the HSP and the Community Strategy for Hampshire and will also signpost to relevant web pages including partners and relevant organisations. The web page will also be used as a method for consulting on the draft Community Strategy, providing people with a chance to comment on the document.

Based upon initial estimates there are 3 main sections, 13 sub sections and 50 content pages plus. The web site will need navigation options, a keyword search and an index section. The amount specified is an estimation for a web page designer to build the complete HSP web site within a specified timescale of 4 weeks. However the other option is for the web page designer to build a certain number of web pages and then for HCC to undertake the rest of the work, this will however require more time. HCC will have to undertake to help maintain the HSP website once it is up and running.

3.2.2 The sum of £4,300 from the Hampshire Strategic Partnership to be used for the cost of hosting the annual HSP conference on the 14 October. The conference is to be held at Botley Park Hotel and will take the format of `Open Space', which means that delegates propose what they would like to discuss in a series of workshops. This process is innovative and will engage the delegates into the process more fully and create more ownership of the draft Community Strategy for Hampshire.

The cost of hiring the venue including refreshments and a buffet lunch for 150 delegates totals £6,800. We have secured contributions from the Strategic Health Authority of £2,000 and from the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service of £500, therefore the outstanding amount is £4,300.

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

3.3.1 The sum of no more than £15,000 for the Hampshire Strategic Partnership to be used to consult on the draft Community Strategy for Hampshire. This process will include

· Consultation internally with the Corporate Community Strategy Group, all County Council departments and Members

· Consultation with HSP members and their organisations and networks

· Consultation with district LSPs

· Consultation with district councils

· Consultation with already established groups and partnerships- e.g. CVS Chief Officers Group, HIOWA, Community Safety Partnership etc

· Consultation with cabinet priority sub groups

· Consultation with representatives of the Hampshire Community

The £15,000 will be used in the main to consult with a representative sample of the Hampshire Community. It is proposed that to build on existing research, either a community workshop or focus groups would be the best method to engage the public in order to start to look at what solutions the HSP can do to address the concerns and priorities that the community and partners have identified. Corporate Communications have developed a consultation proposal, based on these suggestions. The costs for a community workshop would be between £12,000-£17.500. This will include, recruitment, venue hire, refreshments, research design, moderators for each group, transcribing, and reporting pus a presentation. The costs for 8 focus groups would be the region of £9,600 and £12,800 (£1,650 per group). This would include recruitment, venue hire, refreshments, research design, moderator and reporting, including a presentation.

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 £187,158, leaving £122,094 (see attached appendix A).

Recommendations

The following recommendations are sought:

1. To approve the allocation of £4,270 for the Hampshire Strategic Partnership for the build, demonstration and testing of the HSP web site.

2. To approve the allocation of £4,300 for the Hampshire Strategic Partnership for the cost of hosting the annual HSP conference on the 14^th October.

2. To recommend to the Leader for approval an allocation of no more than £15,000 for the Hampshire Strategic Partnership to be used to consult on the draft Community Strategy for Hampshire.

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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