HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

RECREATION AND HERITAGE

Partnership Funding and Support - Consultation

Summary

The County Council wishes to consult key partners and other interested parties on proposals which, in its view, would improve the operation of the partnership funding and support programmes provided by the Recreation and Heritage services of the Council.

This document sets out the context of the consultation and invites comments on a number of specific questions. In summary, the key points are:

o Strategic partnerships to be the subject of more formal long term agreements

o Greater emphasis on evaluating outputs, outcomes and benefits

o Greater emphasis on the contribution to County Council objectives as the basis for allocating and evaluating partnership support

o Greater standardisation of documentation and processes

o Reduction in the number of different partnership funding and support programmes.

The consultation period runs from 1 June 2004 to 5 September 2004. A summary of consultation responses will be published on the County Council website at the end of this period.

Following the consultation a further report will be made to County Council members with final recommendations for approval by the Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage in November 2004. Any new arrangements would be phased in with effect from the start of the 2005/06 financial year.

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

RECREATION AND HERITAGE

Partnership Funding and Support - Consultation

Introduction

The Recreation and Heritage services of Hampshire County Council currently provide support to a wide range of organisations and individuals in Hampshire through grants and other indirect means. The total value of this support is approximately £2.3 million¹, which in 2003/04 helped 180 organisations and 70 individuals.

The support provided is of two main types:

o Direct support - which takes the form of cash grants and is the largest proportion with a total value of just over £2 million

o Indirect support - which consists primarily of officer time providing professional advice and expertise, attendance at monitoring meetings or involvement in the direct management of some organisations; this is more difficult to quantify, but is conservatively estimated as being worth approximately £250,000 per year.

The current pattern of partnership funding and support originates from different strands of County Council activity - libraries, museums and archives, countryside management, sport, outdoor activities, community support, arts - and has developed over time. These services were brought together organisationally when the Recreation and Heritage Department was formed in 2002. Each has its own processes for receiving, assessing and approving grant applications and subsequently administering, monitoring and evaluating grant awards.

Last year the County Council published its Cultural Strategy², which articulates cultural policy objectives that complement those of the Council's Corporate Strategy and provide the primary focus of the Recreation and Heritage services under the following key aims:

o Stewardship of the county's cultural heritage

o Promoting access, inclusion and participation

o Supporting lifelong learning

o Achieving economic benefits

o Reinforcing sense of place and community identity.

During 2003 the County Council undertook a fundamental reappraisal of its support for the voluntary and community sector³ as part of its formal Best Value review programme. The conclusions of this review have important implications for the partnerships supported by Recreation and Heritage.

It is therefore timely, in the light of these developments, to reassess the current arrangements for partnership funding and support in the Recreation and Heritage services in terms of their contribution to current County Council, Departmental and service objectives. Earlier this year a small officer team completed a mapping and analysis exercise to:

o establish the full value of the partnership funding and support provided by the Recreation and Heritage services

o review and evaluate current policies and policy objectives for all partnership funding schemes

o review the different application, award, administration, monitoring and evaluation processes in place.

The preliminary conclusions from this exercise were discussed by members of the County Council at a seminar on 24 February 2004. The aim is now to produce firm recommendations for consideration by the Recreation and Heritage Policy Review Committee and the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage on improving the overall management of partnership funding and support. The County Council is keen to ensure that these recommendations take account of the views of partner organisations and the wider community. This consultation is therefore a central feature of the dialogue with interested parties.

Scope

The proposals set out in this document relate to the following partnership funding and support programmes administered by the Recreation and Heritage Department:

o Sports Development

_ support for countywide sports bodies

_ sports bursaries

_ coaching and officiating bursaries

_ the European Sporting Exchange scheme

o Outdoor Activities

_ support for independent outdoor activity centres

o Community Support

_ Community Buildings Fund

_ support for Community Associations

o Arts

_ support for independent arts organisations

_ Annual Programme funding

_ Festivals

_ Projects

_ Two-for-One

o Countryside

_ Funding for services provided under joint management arrangements with other local authorities

_ support for independent countryside management and conservation organisations

o Museums and Archives

_ support for independent museums and archives

o Library and Information Service

_ European Information Centre

_ Hatrics (the library cooperative providing information for local businesses)

Review Proposals

One of the main conclusions of the review, endorsed by County Council members at the seminar on 24 February, was that the partnership funding and support arrangements in the Recreation and Heritage services should be brought in line with the principles of the "Hampshire Compact" (the framework for the relationship between the County Council and the voluntary and community sector) ⁴, in particular those relating to:

o the shared aims and mutually supportive roles of the voluntary and community sector and the County Council

o communication and dialogue

o resourcing and accountability

o consultation.

Question 1 - Do you agree that the Hampshire Compact principles provide an appropriate framework for conducting the relationships between the Recreation and Heritage services of Hampshire County Council and the partners they support through grants or other means?

The review exercise showed that, across the Recreation and Heritage services, it is possible to distinguish four main categories of partnership funding:

o formal partnerships governed by the provisions of joint management agreements with other local authorities

o strategic partnerships with key external organisations where the County Council has provided funding and other support over a number of years

o project support to enable partners to deliver specific activities in line with County Council policy objectives

o one-off grants to support individuals or organisations to achieve a specific goal, again in line with policy objectives.

The application, approval, monitoring and evaluation processes should be tailored to the different requirements for each category.

Question 2 - Do you agree that it is helpful to distinguish between the different categories of grant and that different application, approval, monitoring and evaluation processes should be used?

The formal and strategic partnerships would be managed more effectively if the County Council was prepared to enter into longer term partnership agreements, say over three years. Such agreements would set out the basic "contract" between the partners and clearly define what the County Council would expect to be done in return for its support. An agreement would specify:

o the purpose and intended benefits of the relationship

o the period covered

o funding to be provided

o specific and measurable objectives expressed in terms of outputs, outcomes and performance indicators

o monitoring requirements

o review process

o review evaluation criteria (which will include value for money considerations)

o notice period and termination arrangements.

This would give partner organisations greater confidence in their planning and dispense with the need to go through an annual application and review process. A move in this direction would be very much in line with the principles of the Hampshire Compact Code of Good Practice on Funding⁵.

Question 3 - Do you agree that placing key strategic partnerships on a longer term footing under the terms of a formal agreement would be beneficial to the County Council and the partner organisation?

Project support and one-off grants would continue to be managed through an application process, as at present, but with greater emphasis on establishing expected outcomes and benefits. Applicants would be expected to provide a clear indication of what would be achieved with the partnership funding provided by the County Council, quantifying outputs, outcomes and benefits where possible. The County Council would expect any recipient of project support and one-off grants to provide an evaluation of the effectiveness of their activities against agreed criteria.

Question 4 - Do you agree that placing greater emphasis on the expected outputs and outcomes from project support and one-off grants would be beneficial to the County Council and partners?

The review showed that each service had developed its own criteria for its partnership funding and support schemes to establish eligibility, assess grant applications and evaluate the benefits derived. There is some measure of commonality but also considerable variation between services. In particular, there are no core criteria linked to County Council or Departmental objectives. There is a clear need to redefine these criteria to establish greater alignment with the County Council's Cultural Strategy objectives of:

o Stewardship of the county's cultural heritage

o Promoting access, inclusion and participation

o Supporting lifelong learning

o Achieving economic benefits

o Reinforcing sense of place and community identity.

Question 5 - Do you agree that the aims and objectives of the County Council's Cultural Strategy should provide the primary basis for assessing and evaluating Recreation and Heritage partnership funding and support arrangements?

There are a variety of administrative procedures associated with the application, assessment and approval process within each service and funding scheme. There are separate application forms tailored to the specific requirements of each scheme, although there is some common base data requested from all applicants. The partnership funding application forms and the administrative processes in Recreation and Heritage are currently being reviewed, along with those in other parts of the County Council, as part of the action plan developed through the Best Value review of support for voluntary and community organisations. These will be the subject of a separate consultation, but it can be expected that the proposals may involve greater standardisation of documentation and, possibly, a centralised "clearing house" operation for receiving, logging and progress-chasing grant applications.

Question 6 - Do you agree that there is a need for greater standardisation of grant processes and documentation and a central contact point for applications?

Finally, the review suggested that there may be scope for greater pooling of resources within Recreation and Heritage. This would allow objectives and criteria to be determined at a Departmental level and also provide greater opportunities to focus on particular priorities. However, the view of County Council members expressed at the seminar on 24 February is that there is already sufficient flexibility in the current arrangements.

Question 7 - Do you consider that there should be greater pooling of resources and a reduction in the number of different partnership funding and support programmes in the Recreation and Heritage services?

How to Respond

We would like to hear your views on these proposals. When making your response it would be very helpful if you could consider each of the specific questions we have asked. However, please feel free to make any other comments or suggestions you have that would help us improve these arrangements.

Responses should be sent to:

Helen Wheeler

Recreation and Heritage Department

Hampshire County Council

Mottisfont Court

High Street

Winchester

Hampshire SO23 8ZF

e-mail: [email protected]

These should reach us by Friday 5 September 2004

We would also be very pleased to hear your views about how this consultation has been conducted and any ideas you have for improving future consultations we may undertake.

Alternative formats?

Background Information

References to relevant background documents are provided as footnotes to the main body of the text.

List of Consultees

The following individuals, organisations and groups have received a specific invitation to respond to this consultation:

All County Council Members

District Councils in Hampshire

Local Authority Joint Management Agreement partners

Signatories to the Hampshire Compact

Existing client organisations