Grants and Concessions Panel
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Grants and Concessions Panel Annual Report Financial Year 2018/19 The Annual Report is intended to document the Grants and Concessions Panel’s review of its decisions in the previous year. Contributing to the Council’s commitment to transparency, it is a public document, with the final version made available on the Council’s website. Consideration of the Annual Report by the Grants and Concessions Panel provides an opportunity for the Panel to make amendments to the programme’s Guidance supporting continuous improvement of Grants and Concessions processes and also to make recommendations back to Cabinet for any changes to Policy. 1. Grants During the last financial year, grants have been considered and determined in two ways: Four Panel meetings considering bids in excess of the Fast track limit were held on: . 11th July 2018; . 10th October 2018; . 30th January 2019; . and 20th March 2019 Fast track bids requesting sums up to £1,000 received on a rolling basis throughout the year were considered through email exchange by representatives of the Panel. Key figures: Summary figures for grants are outlined in the table below: Total funding available: £175,000 – 2018/19 financial year (of which £25,000 was allocated for Fast Track applications) Complete bids received over 48 the period: - 25 Panel applications - 23 Fast Track applications (Additionally 1 Panel bid was withdrawn by applicants prior to consideration by Members) Total requested: Overall: £162,904.70 - £143,403.25 in bids to Panel - £19,901.70 in Fast track applications (Above excludes withdrawn bid request totalling £15,000) Total successful bids: 45 - 25 Applications approved by Panel - 20 Fast Track Applications Total funding awarded: Overall: £160,813.20 - £143,400.00 Panel applications - £17,413.20 Fast track applications Table 1: Programme grant summary 2018/19 1 1.1 Summary observations about the grants scheme: 2018-19 was the third year of the current grant programme, following a review intended to secure the sustainability of the fund. No changes were introduced to the scheme for this year, the budget remained £175,000 and the Panel had previously decided to keep the three focused ‘Priorities for funding’ unchanged, providing applicants with a period of consistency to help with planning projects. Overall the number of applications to the programme was over 70% up on the previous year. The increase was most pronounced in the Fast Track bids, up from 12 to 23, although 2017-18 had been unusually low in these applications. It has also been popular with different types of groups (e.g. small capital improvements to community halls etc.) The figures below breakdown this increase and comparison in more detail. The number of grant applications received (Panel and Fast Track) from 2016/17 - 2018/19 (number of bids) 60 48 50 36 40 27 30 20 25 23 20 16 15 13 10 0 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 Number of Panel applications received (excluding withdrawn) Number of Fast Track applications received (excluding withdrawn) Overall combined total number of complete bids received (Panel and Fast Track) Fig.1 Year on year on the number of applications received Figure 2 below shows that overall the increase has been in more ‘modest’ sized bids which reinforces a trend noted in the last Report, for fewer large-scale/ambitious schemes coming forward as groups manage the unpredictable financial climate. Comparison of the values requested and awarded by grant applications to the programme from 2016/17 - 2018/19 (Panel and Fast Track) (£) £200,000.00 £180,000.00 £160,000.00 £140,000.00 Total requested by £120,000.00 presented bids (£) £100,000.00 Total funding awarded £80,000.00 (£) £60,000.00 Grant funding £40,000.00 programme available £20,000.00 budget (£) £0.00 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 Fig.2 Year on year comparison of funding awarded in total to applications to the programme 2 All applications received this year enjoyed a high rate of success (94%). Funding Advisors are encouraged to ensure that applicants are aware of the Funding Priorities (which are now less broad) to ensure a good fit from submitted bids. Looking at the ‘Priorities’ for funding, there was a continued decrease in ‘Economy’ bids (reflecting the availability of Enabling Grants detailed in 2.5). For the first time most ‘Over £1,000’ bids were being made under the ‘Targeted Projects’ priority, frequently by community and voluntary services supporting the most vulnerable in communities (61% of all Panel bids.) These applicants were generally reporting an increase in demand. Applications came from Parishes well dispersed across the District suggesting a good level of awareness of the scheme. There was also an increase in the number of bids from organisations providing a ‘District-wide’ service (this included groups such as: the local Foodbank, mediation, support services for vulnerable families, counselling provision for survivors of abuse). 1.2 Grants- decisions made by the Grants and Concessions Panel: A full list of decisions made on grant applications to the Grants and Concessions Panel during the review period is documented in Appendix 1. The outline below gives an overview of the grant applications (over £1,000) considered by each Panel meeting. 11th July 2018 The Panel considered five applications requesting a total of £28,626.50. Two applications were considered under the ‘Improving Living Places and Spaces’ priority and three under the ‘Targeted Projects’ priority. All considered bids were successful (Panel rounded figures) with £29,000 awarded. One application for £15,000 was withdrawn by the applicant before the Panel. Half were to benefit the whole District. 10th October 2018 The meeting was the busiest of the year, considering nine applications requesting a total of £53,914.00. All applications were successful and supported in full with £54,000.00 awarded. This included one bid under the ‘Improving Living Places and Spaces’ priority, the other eight were all under the ‘Targeted Projects’ priority. The average grant awarded was £6,000 although there were three requests for £10,000, this meeting also considered the smallest request of the year (£2,400). 30th January 2019 The Panel received four applications for the first meeting of the New Year. The total requested was £13,547.00. All four applications were made under ‘Targeted Projects’ and were supported. The average grant award was £3,375.00 . 20th March 2019 The Panel received seven applications requesting a total of £46,915.75. Four applications were made under the ‘Improving Living Places and Spaces’ priority and three under the Targeted Projects. All were supported in full. This meeting considered the only two requests for the maximum grant of £15,000, although the other five all requested less than £5,000 making the average request £6,702.25. 3 1.3 Analysis of grant applications by ‘Priority’ heading The grant application forms ask applicants to tell us which funding “priority” best describes the main outcomes of their projects. Applicants sometimes identify that their project cuts across multiple priorities but for analysis each bid has only been recorded under the principal priority identified. The funding ‘Priorities’ and descriptions, first introduced in 2016-17, continued unchanged during 2018-19, these were: ‘Improving Living Places and Spaces’, ‘Targeted Projects’ and the ‘Economy’ (described in full on p.17). The main grants pot saw a continued reduction in bids requesting support under the ‘Economy’ priority. This was anticipated as applications under the ‘Economy’ priority were capped at £2,500 and eligible activities under this scheme closely matched those of the separate Enabling Grants funding also administered by the Council during this year (full details at 2.5). This anomaly was picked-up when the programme’s ‘Priorities for Funding’ were reviewed in this year. There were no Panel bids under the ‘Economy’ priority. Of all the Panel grant applications received: 35% identified as contributing to the ‘Improving Places and Spaces’ priority, the majority were under ‘Targeted Projects’ – supporting ‘disadvantaged’ individuals, families and communities. This was a notable shift from previous years. Through the smaller Fast Track scheme, four applications were received under the Economy priority (17% of bids). 48% of bids received identified under ‘Improving Living Spaces and Places’ priority- often towards small scale improvements to community buildings or spaces. A further 35% requested Fast Track grants under ‘Targeted Projects’. Across the programme, the number of bids received under the ‘Targeted Projects’ priority was more than double the previous year- representing over half of the bids received. Under this priority theme there were 25 bids, these requested £94,242.70 and awards were made of £92,153.20 (57% of the overall total awarded). Included within this were a high number of moderate sized bids, 10 of the Panel bids were requesting £5,000 or less (the average Panel grant request value was just more than £5,000 slightly less than in previous years). There were two larger requests for £10,000 which were supported. These bids were often towards the running of voluntary sector services supporting vulnerable or disadvantaged individuals or families. ‘Improving Living Places & Spaces’ bids frequently requested a contribution towards a capital purchase or building project and are typically larger. The only two maximum grant requests of this year were under this priority and were both supported, these were both to large scale community