Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1. The report makes recommendations in respect to the allocation of the Community Strategy budget for 2009/10 that will support the delivery of the Hampshire Sustainable Community Strategy ambitions and Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets.

2. Background

2.1. The Community Strategy budget (£233,000) has been used to fund work at a district and county-wide level and there are a number of on-going commitments that need to be reviewed.

2.2. Having reviewed these commitments and in the light of the recently published Hampshire Sustainable Community Strategy, it is proposed that as well as supporting partnerships through Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs), this budget should be applied to provide capacity to support our objectives in a number specific partnership activities.

3. Review of Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) activity

3.1. A review of LSPs provides evidence that LSPs have been active in the following areas:

· Reviewing the partnership vision for the respective districts through the preparation of the statutory Sustainable Community Strategies.

· Developing these in conjunction with the Local Development Framework Core Strategies.

· Bringing together partners for community information and community involvement events.

· Developing partner understanding and approach to tackling areas of need.

· Helping services to join up at a local level to have a greater impact.

· Embedding the County LAA priorities into local strategies and action plans

· Developing thematic partnership arrangements at the local level and ensuring these are co-ordinated.

· Monitoring and reviewing performance (which supports the delivery of the LAA).

· Drawing together partner funds for local projects

· Initiating and delivering specific local projects

· Building capacity of under-represented groups

3.2. The Deputy Leader chairs the LSP Chairs network and has held recent discussions on how the LSPs can further support the delivery of LAA targets and the work of the Hampshire Senate.

4. Previous commitments from the Community Strategy budget

4.1. Capacity of LSPs, including posts

Operating LSPs and related activity clearly requires capacity. The County Council acknowledges the capacity through the establishment of the Community Strategy budget, over half of which is directed towards district LSPs. There is a variation across the county in terms of how that capacity is provided. For those which are funded between partners locally, there is an expectation of a continued contribution from the County Council.

4.2. Inequalities - Rowner

From this budget, there has been a specific focus on inequalities and regeneration especially in Rowner.

	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09
Rowner regeneration project - Augur	60,000	60,000
Rowner NMG Co-ordinator				10,000
Rowner Access Point			10,000	15,000

4.3. Interfaith Network

An element of the budget has been used to establish and run the Interfaith Network.

	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09
Hampshire Interfaith Network		10,000	10,000	10,000

4.4. BME Capacity building

A project has been established to co-ordinate various demands on the budget for BME community capacity building and engagement projects up to £10,000 in total. Further funding is likely to be sought to develop diversity networks. This project is being led by the County Council in partnership with Community Action Hampshire.

	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09
BME Capacity building projects			10,000	10,000

4.5. Local community planning processes

An annual allocation of £10,000 has been established for support (up to £750 each ) local groups to develop local community planning processes, which may include parish, neighbourhood and market town plans. This has been a popular initiative squarely within the remit of this budget and it would be appropriate for this to be sustained.

	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09
Parish, community and market town planning	10,000	10,000	10,000	10,000

4.6. Community Safety

A proportion of this budget has been used to support county level community safety initiatives, including mitigating the Home Office cut to partners in 2007/08.

4.7. Other/ general

In addition to funding capacity and projects led by district LSPs, the budget has also been used to fund a wide range of projects over the past few years from RETIS (European Transregional Network for Social Inclusion) to publications, workshops and conference costs for the Sustainable Community Strategy, Quality of Life report and LAA.

An annual budget monitoring report is prepared each year covering the activities undertaken in relation to grants provided over £2,000.

5. Proposed allocations for 2009/10

5.1. It is proposed that the use of this budget be revised and the following indicative budget headings created for the forthcoming year.

5.2. Capacity and priorities for district LSPs (£110,000)

It is proposed that the criteria for this element of the budget be amended as follows:

· The budget will be used to support the delivery of the Hampshire Sustainable Community Strategy ambitions and LAA targets, including capacity building initiatives to support partnership activity and community planning processes, addressing inequalities and regeneration activity.

· The maximum contribution to each district LSP is £10,000. The Executive Member for Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs (in consultation with the appointed HCC representative on the LSP) will agree and document priorities for funding with each LSP Chair for each financial year. The contribution is specifically to support the development of capacity of the LSP to deliver/ influence outcomes in accordance with the local Sustainable Community Strategy and LAA targets. Any identified underspend may be offered for application to other LSPs or used according to other priorities for the overall budget. Local priorities may include staff costs if they are essential to the delivery of outcomes.

· Costs should not cover any areas of disinvestment from other partners, including HCC services.

· The Executive Member should be satisfied that the contributions are being adequately matched by other partners.

· Payment will only be made following satisfactory completion of budget monitoring reports for the previous year's funding by 1^st June of the financial year concerned.

5.3. Community Safety (£50,000)

The Executive Member for Policy and Resources has already approved an allocation of £50,000 to the Deputy Leader as Chair of the Hampshire County Strategy Group for Crime and Disorder to support community safety initiatives and the delivery of LAA targets

5.4. Local Community planning processes (£10,000)

Continued pot to fund small contributions (up to £750) toward local community planning processes, including parish and neighbourhood plans.

5.5. BME Capacity and Diversity projects (£10,000)

To complete the third year commitment to this project. This year, the focus of this fund will be to support the development of organisations and groups, in order for them to participate actively in the setting up of an independent equality forum. This forum will be an access point for advice, information and consultation.

5.6. Interfaith network (£10,000)

To provide a further (4^th) year's commitment to the development of the Interfaith Network under the co-chairmanship of the Deputy Leader. The Forum will continue its work with young people and produce the second interfaith calendar- with adults and the community in general, it will continue to bring communities of faith together to build an even more cohesive Hampshire.

5.7. Inequality and community development (£35,000)

To provide a 3^rd year contribution to the Rowner Access Point project (£15,000) and a second year contribution to the Rowner Neighbourhood Management Group Co-ordinator post (£10,000) plus £10,000 for further development work on addressing areas of inequality across the County, the latter to be agreed with the Executive Member for Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs.

5.8. Partnership management costs (£8,000)

To cover any materials, publications, web development, workshops, meetings and associated costs with the wider partnership network.

(Total = £233,000)

6. Way forward beyond 2009/10.

6.1. It is recommended that future funding contributions to LSPs should be further reviewed in light of the County Council's future policy on locality working.

7. Recommendation(s)

7.1. To approve the proposed allocation of the community strategy budget as set out in section 5.

Appendix A

Current funding criteria for the Community Strategy Grants budget

The following criteria should be taken into consideration when preparing a submission for funding. They are intended as guidelines and not prescriptive rules.

Under delegated powers, bids up to £2,000 can be agreed by the Chief Executive; bids between £2,000 and £10,000 can be agreed by the Executive Member for Community Development and bids over £10,000 can be agreed by the Leader

1. The grant money available is for projects that wouldn't be developed without the support of the LSP or without the help of pump priming money

2. Any grant application must highlight the links with the themes contained in the relevant Community Strategy where one has been adopted

3. Any bid must be consistent with the themes and aims in the Hampshire Strategic Partnership's Community Strategy, and the priorities of the County Council

4. The funding request must be discussed and approved by the relevant LSP and any application approved by the Chair of that LSP

5. The budget will not be divided equally between district LSPs but awarded on individual consideration and the merits of the project

6. Applications will be referred for decision as per delegated powers above

7. Grants will not be awarded in order to meet shortfalls in service delivery budgets

8. Grants will not be paid for partner organisations staff costs, however bids will be considered for support staff that; work directly for the LSP ; are joint funded with other LSP partners; and report to the chair of the LSP

9. Funding will be given to applications for pump priming specific projects rather than general running costs of organisations or projects with ongoing revenue requirements. Applications which have a resource implication must state how the ongoing costs are to be met.

10. Where possible joint funding in line with partnership approaches should be encouraged and to this end grants should normally be a percentage of the sum required to complete the project

11. A budget monitoring report will be required for all bids over £2,000 at the end of the financial year. Continued financial support will be conditional on this basic information being provided

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1. Significant allocations from this budget support work to address equalities.

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1. The budget specifically supports a range of community safety programmes.

3. Climate Change:

a) How does what is being proposed impact on our carbon footprint / energy consumption?

b) How does what is being proposed consider the need to adapt to climate change, and be resilient to its longer term impacts?

· The budget will include allocations to support capacity building on a range of programmes including climate change mitigation and adaptation.