Council response poses more questions than answers
Community groups and voluntary sector organisations must wait until next month before they will learn what their funding fate will be.
With the new financial year just weeks away many organisations have no idea what their budget allocation is likely to be, leaving little time to plan for the future. At least one local project has now issued redundacy notices to staff – and more could follow suit as the uncertainty drags on.
Edinburgh’s voluntary sector umbrella organisation EVOC coordinated questions to put to the Executive Director of Communities and Families following the withdrawal of the key report containing recommendations for the grants programme on 7 December.
Over sixty organisations responded and the questions were summarised and grouped to streamline the process. The questions (available here) were sent to Children and Families Director Gillian Tee on 16 December – coincidentally the same day the Education chief announced her intention to retire – and a response to the first two blocks of questions first was promised before the Christmas break.
The reply was received on Chistmas Eve and is reproduced in full below:
Questions and Concerns for Executive Director of Communities and Families
Core Questions and Concerns
- Why was the report withdrawn? In order to allow a further level of scrutiny
- Who made the decision to withdraw it? The Executive Director of Communities and Families
- What is the reason behind the delay? In order to allow a further level of scrutiny
- What is the timescale moving forward? In particular, when will organisations be informed of the final decisions? Organisations need to know the decisions as soon as possible and certainly by the end of January to enable them to finalise budgets. Decisions will be made at the specially convened Education Children and Families Committee on 11 February 2016
- Why was the decision to delay not taken sooner, when concerns were raised so early on? We are not aware of concerns raised early on and are therefore unable to comment
- Can you please outline the accountability and governance procedures that are in place or planned now that this has happened? The Executive Director of Communities and Families manages governance and accountability procedures and will continue to do so
- Will the scoring be reconsidered? Yes, depending on the outcome of external scrutiny
- Why is the Report to go to full Council rather than the subject committee? The report will be considered at a specially convened Education Children and Families Committee on 11 February 2016
It would be helpful if CEC could provide a clear, transparent statement to the Sector
The Council’s commitment to early intervention/prevention approaches for families in Edinburgh through 2016-20 remains.
Grant Application Assessment Process
All applications received were scored according to the same criteria, following the same process. Applications were not compared against each other, but scored according to whether or not they met the requirements. Scores were awarded based on what was submitted in the bid only – not on the basis of any prior knowledge, experience or opinion of an organisation, or personal interest.
Assessment of each application was undertaken by three officers from Children and Families independently but then brought together to agree a consensus score.
Following that assessment, appropriate officers liaised with other Council departments and, in instances where organisations submitted the same application to more than one Council department, discussion took place about the most appropriate sources of funding. The Council has a responsibility to ensure that the same work is not funded more than once. A number of applications were not considered for award as an existing contract with the provider was to be extended to meet the Council’s core service requirements but at the time the grant process started the organisation would not have been aware of the Council’s contractual intentions.
The Executive Director of Communities and Families with support from the Chief Officers of the Children’s Partnership oversaw the process to ensure a city wide, strategic and equitable geographical spread of services which meets Council and Children’s Partnership strategic objectives for children and families.
Independent External Assessor
The independent external assessor will review the assessment process, including the extent to which the grading of applications was rigorously applied to achieve a consistent outcome. This will be based on current applications and no organisation will be required to submit any additional information. The recommendations in the report may change, depending on the scores of the independent external assessor. The outcomes of this process will be managed according to standard procedures ensuring the production of award recommendations and a report to Education, Children and Families Committee on 11 February 2016.
Future Revenue Grant Awards
The next revenue grants process will be in 2019. In preparation for that, the process will be reviewed and organisations will be briefed and consulted. Dates for this are still to be established.
Decision making
Recommendations regarding the level of Revenue Grant awards were made by the Executive Director of Communities and Families, supported by officers, to maximise the strategic benefits from the deployment of the Revenue Grants budget.
The Council will be approving Children and Families grant awards for the period 1st April 2016 – 31st March 2019 at the Education, Children and Families Committee on 11th February 2016 and this is consistent with the timing of grant approvals in previous years. Following the committee decision, the customary process of engaging with funded organisations to put in place funding agreements, negotiate targets etc will be undertaken by officers. This process will take account of partial awards as appropriate. For those organisations who do not receive an award support to identify possible alternative sources of funding will be available. Additional areas of support may be available following discussion with individual organisations.
Organisations may find it helpful to assess the potential financial impact of any decisions regarding revenue grant awards for this period. Organisations are reminded that, as has been the case with previous grant award processes, funding may reduce from the previous year’s level. As such it is the responsibility of individual organisations to maintain sufficient funding to satisfy current and future obligations to staff and creditors.
Small Grants Programme
As detailed in the Education, Children and Families Committee (6 October 2015), the Small Grants Programme (SGP) has a minimum award level of £1000 and a maximum of £10,000. The SGP can be used for revenue funding, project funding, testing new approaches and capacity building for organisations. The funding is for one year and the closing date is 6 January 2016. All applications will be considered but applicants to the main grants programme will not automatically be referred to the small grants programme.
Additional Information
The following was sent by Andy Gray, Head of Schools and Lifelong Learning, to all organisations that had made application to the Revenue Grants fund:
Following the withdrawal of the grants report to Education, Children and Families Committee on 8 December 2015, we have decided to introduce an extra level of scrutiny to the process by an independent external organisation.
The intention is to bring the report to a special meeting of Education, Children and Families on 11 February 2016. The full report will be available for agenda planning on 2 February 2016 and it will be published on the Council website on 5 February 2016. Elected Member briefings will be arranged following agenda planning.
FORTH & INVERLEITH VOLUNTARY SECTOR FORUM
Meeting Rescheduled
The next Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum was scheduled for the 12th January but a decision has been made to push the Forum meeting back a few weeks.
It will now take place on the Tuesday 26 January from 12.30-2.30 at Pilton Community Health Project.
EVOC’s June Dickson said: “The main Agenda item is a discussion regarding Localities, please forward or bring along any questions you may have regarding the shift to Localities and we will endeavour to answer what we can.
“I have attached a draft Agenda and also a full list of all dates for the Forum meetings in 2016 (see below) . We are also always looking for venues in the Forth and Inverleith areas to hold the meetings and would appreciate if any organisations who can offer some space throughout the year could let us know if they are available on any of the dates listed.
“Can you please let me know if you can attend the meeting on the 26th and also circulate this email to anyone you may feel would be interested in coming along.”
Forth & Inverleith Agenda – 26th January 2016
FORTH AND INVERLEITH FORUM DATES 2016
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