Agenda item

Resolved: to note the report.

Aileen Buckton (Executive Director for Community Services) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

• The Council had a strong relationship with the community and voluntary sector (CVS).
• The Council was facing a major challenge to redesign its services and reduce its budget. For the first time in ten years, a reduction was being proposed to the main grants budget.
• It was no longer feasible to put forward a programme to protect the sector. A 25% reduction (£1.5m) was being proposed – which was at the lower end of the cuts being planned for Council services.
• The grants budget was £5.9m and a further £20m was spent across the Council on the commissioning and delivery of services from the community and voluntary sector.
• £330k of the budget was allocated to the London borough grants scheme, which supported organisations providing services across the city. There was no proposal to reduce this.
• It was important that there continued to be a vibrant and independent community and voluntary sector, which provided advice to residents and acted as a critical friend to the Council.
• Lewisham had a three year programme of grant funding, which enabled the core costs of organisations to be covered, enabling them to draw in other funding and resources.
• There would be funding available for infrastructure organisations.
• The new programme would encourage community and voluntary sector organisations to work in partnership with the Council to deliver services.
• Lewisham was the first London Borough to develop a community and voluntary sector compact. This long-term commitment to the community and voluntary sector made it important to ensure the consultation on the main grants programme was well run.
• Organisations would be expected to work collaboratively to deliver sector wide delivery of the Council’s equalities objectives.
• Consultation events would be held across the borough. The consultation process would allow for flexibility in responses.
• The consultation would close on 30 October. A report would be available for the Committee’s meeting on 3^rd November, but much of the information would need to be provided at the meeting.

The Committee resolved to suspended standing orders at 21:30 in order to enable the completion of committee business.

In response to questions from the Committee, the following key points were noted:

• The programme of small grants would continue. There was currently £100k allocated to this programme.
• The community and voluntary sector were not major employers in the borough, so it was unlikely that the reduction in funding would substantially impact on employment in the borough. However, it was recognised that CVS organisations were important local organisations, employing local people. The impact assessment being carried out on the proposals would identify where there would be an adverse impact on any particular group.
• The Council had, in the past provided ‘investment in kind’ through reduced rents or the use of shared facilities.
• Due to the programme of cuts the Council was required to obtain commercial rents for its assets. Even if the Council was in a position to provide buildings for the use of the sector, these would need to be on the basis of full repairing and maintenance leases, which many CVS organisations would be unwilling to take on and manage.
• Different funding amounts being allocated to the different grant themes would be made available once the results of the consultation were available.
• The community and voluntary sector was adaptable, and would be in a position to adjust to the requirement to deliver new services.
• One of the changes in the new programme was to allow organisations to bid to be a community development partner – which would draw together partners to coordinate the needs of a defined neighbourhood, working with local assemblies and other local groups.
• Officers would work to reduce duplication in the programme, in partnership with the sector, to ensure there was minimal duplication of effort.
• There would be a covering letter with the consultation document, setting out the context for the changes. This would most likely be from Councillor Millbank (Cabinet Member for the Third Sector)
• If there was to be a named person to deal with queries about the consultation, this would probably be an officer because typically queries about consultations focused on administrative issues.

Resolved: to note the report.