PAPER D

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PLANNING, TOURISM AND LEISURE SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE – 6 FEBRUARY 2004

REVIEW OF EXTERNAL FUNDING SERVICE

REPORT OF THE CORPORATE POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS

REASON FOR SELECT COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION

A report on the External Funding Service within the Corporate Policy Unit was presented to this Select Committee in October 2003. Members requested further details about the service and the results achieved and this report addresses this request.

ACTION REQUIRED BY THE SELECT COMMITTEE

Consider and comment upon the service delivered.

BACKGROUND

Arising from the Economic Development Best Value Report and the creation of a new Corporate Policy and Communications Unit, it was determined to create a new ‘External Funding Service’ as part pf this unit. Established with effect from November 2002, the core role of the External Funding Officer and the Assistant Funding Officer is to provide corporate information, advice and support to Council Departments and partner agencies. They are also required to monitor funding issues at a strategic level, work together with key funders and project partners and contribute to policy development where necessary and have also been given the responsibility of promoting and supporting Council applications for awards.

The key outputs of the service developed in 2003 are:

Funding Support Website Set up on iwight.com, this includes a database, a ‘Latest News’ section, useful websites and strategies links and a ‘how to’ section to help applicants

E-mail circular - regular ‘latest news’ e-mails are sent out to a wide variety of contacts, both internal and external to the Council

Internal funding contacts from across the Council have been designated to receive and disseminate information

Support, of different levels, has been provided for a variety of applications and details are provided in Annexe 1.

Project Monitoring – this area will be addressed in the coming months and it is likely that a new system will be introduced following consultation with Finance and Internal Audit.

Key Funding Related Policy input:

Ø Area Investment Framework – supported Council input into Isle of Wight Economic Partnership response to SEEDA on Area Investment Framework priorities

Ø European Social Fund consultation – co-ordinated feedback to Learning and Skills Council on behalf of Island and co-ordinated LASER (Local Authority South East Region ESF group) response to GOSE re ESF

Ø Lottery review – contributed to (Local Authority) South East Lottery Forum feedback to National Lottery re their restructuring plans

Ø Sit on Advisory Panel for ESF Global Grants in Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Ø Sit on ESF marking panels at Government Office for the South East

Awards applied for:

Ø Beacon Council Scheme application by Early Years – not short listed

Ø Local Government Chronicle Awards – The Community Partnership Team submitted its partnership network under the ‘Community Partnership Award’ and ICT submitted the Council website under ‘Improving Services with E-technology’ but neither short listed

Ø Municipal Journal of Local Government Awards – Community Partnership work has again been submitted plus a joint project between the Council, Primary Care Trust and Connexions to address teenage pregnancy issues has been submitted.

The External Funding role in practice

The work done by the External Funding Team is really the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of projects the Council receives external funding for. Finance keep a simple spreadsheet list of grant funding which has over 80 entries at present, representing tens of millions of pounds, mostly extra funding from Government Departments, especially the Department of Health and national or regional Non Governmental Agencies dealing directly with the appropriate department within the Council. Eg. £7.5 million secured for the Supporting People Programme by a partnership involving Social Services.

In practical terms the day to day support role of the External Funding Team divides into three areas of work:

3.i Hands on support with project development and funding applications. In some instances this is simply providing feedback on an application which people find useful as it is often difficult to see the wood from the trees while writing a bid. In other instances this is longer term partnership based developmental work such as combining with the voluntary and private sector to help address care sector training issues and actual bid writing such as for the Adult and Community Learning Team amongst others.

The work essentially tends to address Social and Economic issues with a stronger focus on the Social. Thus far the key practical benefits of the extra funding the team has helped to access for the Island have been related to:

· Supporting regeneration work and improved Council service provision in deprived areas on the Island.

· Increasing the number of Island residents engaged in community based learning.

· Supporting Arts and Carnival activity on the Island.

· Supporting skills and training initiatives especially in the care sector.

· Helping residential care homes try to meet the required national training standards by 2005.

· Supporting initiatives providing for people with disabilities.

· Supporting the voluntary sector.

(more details on specific funding applications are provided in Annexe 1)

3.ii Information provision – as much information to as many relevant people as possible – mainly through the News Flash Service which is sent to over 100 people.

3.iii Contributing to improved Corporate Performance by improving the monitoring of External Funding accessed by the Council – to be addressed through a new system in 2004.

3.iv – Practical issues - The External Funding Team can achieve nothing on its own and its level of success is dependant upon many factors outside of its control……like being asked to help…..like needing a delivery agent for any project…..like changes in EU/National/Regional policies and regulations…..like ring fenced pots of money to which the Island cannot apply….like the difficulties associated with the partnership approach so necessary to access much funding.

RELEVANT PLANS, POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

4 The summary update provided relates to the Corporate Policy Unit service plan objective of ‘Establishing an External Funding Service’.

CONSULTATION PROCESS

5 The following consultation has been undertaken:

• Internal and external partners were consulted re the structure and content of the website prior to its creation.

• Funding Contacts have been identified across the Council and informal feedback has been provided by some contacts.

• Presentations detailing the Funding Service at Senior Management meetings have been delivered to Corporate Services, Social Services and Education. A presentation to Environmental Services will be delivered shortly now that a new Director is in place. Extra presentations have also been provided to Financial Services and Children’s Services.

FINANCIAL, LEGAL, CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS

6 There are no legal or crime and disorder implications as a direct result of this report. There are clearly financial implications but they do not necessarily affect the Council budget as they are additional resources and cannot reliably be predicted. Legal obligations will result from any contracts entered into as a result of funding being approved.

BACKGROUND PAPERS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS REPORT

7 Corporate Policy Unit Service Plan

Contact Point : Michael Bulpitt; External Funding Officer; Ext 3141; email: [email protected].

JOHN BENTLEY

Head of Corporate Policy and Communication Unit

Annexe 1

Applications supported by the External Funding team through feedback, attendance at development meeting or bid writing

Note:

1 The following table represents only those funding applications where the External Funding team have provided some support/input. Many other bids are submitted across the Council eg the Sport Unit’s successful bid to the New Opportunities Fund last year, Social Services was a partner in securing £7.5 million of Supporting People money and many others.

2 The figure shown under “approximate value” are both the grant applied for and the total project cost, which in these instances is the same.

3 Once the tracking system is put in place it will be possible to provide some details about all external funding accessed by the Council.

FUND	APPLICANT	BID PARTNERS	NATURE OF PROJECT	APPROXIMATE VALUE - approved bids in bold	MATCH FUNDING REQUIRED	APPROVED PROJECT DATES
Invest to Save Expression of Interest	IOW Council - Social Services	-		N/A	N/A
Neighbourhood Learning Scheme	IOW Council – Adult and Community Learning Team	-	Supporting adult and community learning in deprived communities	£53,000	No
European Social Fund	IOW Council – Social Services	Riverside Centre, Care Learning Centre, IoW College	Training support for people with disabilities or drug and alcohol issues	£230,000	No
European Social Fund	IOW Council – Adult and Community Learning Team	IoW College, Island Volunteers, Platform One, West Wight Nursery, GFS Platform, Families First, Riverside Centre, Telling Tales, Healing Arts	Widening participation in learning through activities related to the creation, management and delivery of events around the Island	£525,000	No	Jan 04 – Dec 06
European Social Fund	IOW Council – Education	Learning Partnership, Community Solutions, Connexions	Improving co-ordination and delivery of 14-19 education	£200,000
European Social Fund	Isle of Wight College	IoW Council Osel, Riverside Ctr, Island Volunteers, Mencap,	Providing key skills and specialist training to people with disabilities	£140,000	No	Jan 04 – Dec 06
European Social Fund	Isle of Wight College	Careers Service, Hospitality Training Partnership	Supporting young people at risk of withdrawing from education and training	£130,000	No	Jan 04 – Dec 06
European Social Fund	Isle of Wight Economic Partnership	IoW Council, IoW College, RCC, Community Solutions, Learning Partnership, Careers, Link2Learn, Age Concern	Supporting learning opportunities for the over 45s	£1,000,000	No
European Social Fund	Care Learning Centre (From IOW)	A number of care training providers from Hants and IoW – including the IoW College	Subsidised training for residential care homes for the elderly and domiciliary homes – NVQ 2 & 3, Registered Managers Award and Assessors Award.	3 bids total value £875,000 for Hants and IoW– estimated £350,000 for Island	No	Jan 04 – Dec 06
European Social Fund	Mencap	-	Providing training and support for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems.	£700,000 for Hants and IoW – estimated £175,000 for Island	No	Jan 04 – Dec 06
European Social Fund	Real World Trust	-	Provide support and training to people recovering from substance misuse.	£95,000	No
Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder	IOW Council – Corporate Policy and Communications	Community groups in Pan, public sector agencies, the Local Strategic Partnership and others	Improving the delivery of all public services in Pan, encouraging regeneration through community action	£2.5 million	No	2003-10
Basic Skills Capacity Building Initiative from Learning and Skills Council	Portsmouth Council	Hampshire CC Southampton CC & IWC	Supporting community delivery of basic (now essential) skills	£70,000 estimated £20,000 for Island	No	Sept 03 – Mar 04
Basic Skills Capacity Building Initiative from Learning and Skills Council	Portsmouth Council	Hampshire CC Southampton CC & IWC	Examining basic (now essential) skills needs within local authorities	£20,000 estimated £5,000 for Island	No	Sept 03 – Mar 04
Estimated Total value approved for Island				£3,898,000

In addition it should be noted that the Ryde Development Trust accessed around £145,000, Island Volunteers/Community Solutions an estimated £500K and Olympian Training an unconfirmed amount of European Social Fund for training and support provision on the Island.