Archived decisions
Hampshire County Council
Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 10
23 March 2006
Annual Revenue Support to Community Associations - 2006/07
Report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage
Contact: Margaret Plumridge, ext 6173 e-mail: [email protected]
1. Summary
1.1 The County Council, through its Recreation and Heritage Department, supports Community Associations who aim to provide the opportunity for local people to participate in recreational, educational, social, cultural and environmental activities within their local communities and to encourage local initiatives by people of all ages.
2. Purpose of report
2.1 The purpose of this report is:
i) to provide details of requests for financial support towards the annual revenue costs of these organisations.
ii) to recommend changes to the scheme to be put in place from 2007/08 onwards.
3. Legal Implications
3.1 The council has wide powers under Section 19 Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 to provide recreational facilities and to contribute by way of a grant or loan towards the expenses incurred by voluntary bodies in providing such facilities.
4. The Corporate Strategy
4.1 By supporting these organisations in their work and through working in partnership with them the Recreation and Heritage Department helps to achieve Aim 4 of Hampshire County Council's Corporate Strategy - `Building safe and strong communities'
5. Supporting County Council Outcomes
5.1 These organisations provide a wide range of social and recreational activities locally for all age ranges. This year the organisations requesting funding were asked to indicate what activities they could provide in 2006/07 that will support the outcomes of the county council. The three activities selected were Silver Surfers, Healthy Hampshire and activities relating to young people.
6. Impact Assessment
6.1 Organisations applying to this scheme are by their nature defined as accessible
to all members of the community. This is embodied within their charitable objects, therefore no groups or organisations should be excluded from any benefit arising from these decisions.
7. Finance
7.1 It is proposed that the sum of £170,000 is set aside from the 2006/07 revenue budget to meet requests from Community Associations for Annual Revenue Support.
7.2 Proposals brought forward in this report (summarised in Appendix 1) amount in total to £166,000. A further sum of £16,000 in support of staff costs at Leigh Park Community Association is budgeted for separately.
8. Details of the applications
8.1 Appendix 1 is a summary of the current proposals for 2006/07.
8.2 Appendix 2 sets out the conditions and criteria governing annual revenue support as they currently exist.
8.3 Appendix 3 contains individual reports which summarise the funding applications received to date. Each contains:-
· an indication of the financial position of the organisation
· information on how well they achieved against jointly agreed objectives set last year
· activities being provided in 2006/07 that support the outcomes of the County Council
9. A review of the current Annual Revenue Scheme
9.1 Research and consultations have shown that revenue funding is difficult for Community Associations to obtain from other sources and that this particular scheme is a very valuable resource to the organisations who receive it. It is also known that the stability of these organisations is increased if funding is confirmed over a longer period i.e. 3 - 5 years.
9.2 However, this scheme does pose difficulties for the County Council in terms of evaluation and assessing value for money in relation to county council priorities. There are difficulties with the production of clear and consistent criteria for this scheme and at present much of the assessment has to be qualitative rather than quantitative.
9.3 Additionally the Hampshire Compact Funding Code recognises that there are issues relating to support for the revenue costs (Full Cost Recovery) of organisations who are assisting with the delivery of Hampshire County Council Services and outcomes.
9.4 At the present time only 23 of the 105 Community Associations in Hampshire are actually in receipt of this funding. Amongst these organisations there are a number who because of their location in areas of high relative deprivation are dependent on this financial support and will probably never be able to operate in a financially self sustaining manner.
10. The current Community Support Strategy
10.1 The current strategy recognises the potential of Community Associations to act as our partners in the provision of activities locally. This strategy included an increase in the staff team and has enabled a much more localised support framework to be put in place. We are now in a position to develop more substantial partnerships with these organisations.
10.2 Additionally the team now has the potential to provide support to project activity and three such projects were included in this year's application process - Silver Surfers, Healthy Hampshire and activities for young people. More activity is also to be developed in the future to support the Well-Being agenda. However, project activity does require some financial support if it into be successful.
11. Proposals for alterations to the Annual Revenue Scheme
11.1 All these factors have led to a review of this scheme. Outlined below are some recommended changes to it that take into account all the above factors.
1) Revenue be provided in future to Community Associations that:
_ are working in partnership with the county council
_ have agreed to develop activities that support specific county council outcomes and priorities
_ are willing to provide monitoring and evaluation material demonstrating their success
2) A funding formula is developed for this revenue fund that is based on the size of the building and the amount of activity taking place.
3) that where organisations are shown to be in areas where revenue funding is
essential to support them, funding is on the basis of need rather than as
above.
4) that consideration be given to developing 3 year agreements/contracts for
some organisations especially those that are in geographical priority areas
for the county council.
11.2 These changes will enable the best of the current revenue scheme to be retained, while recognising that there are some organisations in areas of special need. This will also begin to address the issue of supporting the overheads of organisations working in partnership with the county council and the activity element will enable value for money for the county council to be assessed.
11.3 There remains one element of the revenue programme that cannot be resolved by these changes. Organisations occasionally find themselves in financial difficulties and need temporary revenue support. Providing this funding in the past has prevented organisations from closing down altogether. For such organisations it is proposed that these should be considered on an individual basis. It will however be a condition of funding that the organisation is willing to work with one of the Community Support Officers to resolve their difficulties.
11.4 Provided that these changes are agreed it is proposed that a new scheme and its related paperwork be put in place and brought to the executive member for approval later in the year.
Recommendations
i) That annual revenue support of £160,000, as summarised in Appendix 1, be approved.
ii) That the changes outlined in paragraph 11 be implemented.
Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents
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.