1.1 In past years, the Council has made central grant funding available on an annual basis to Relate in support of their services on the Island, and continues to do so. Since the formation of Relate Solent, whereby the Island operation is now managed from Southampton, it seems appropriate that a more detailed and formal agreement should now be drawn up setting out what services and facilities will be provided in return for the funding provided. A copy of the Service Level Agreement has been placed in the Members Room.

2.1 Over recent years the amount available for central grant funding has dwindled to the extent that very few organisations currently benefit and this is one of the issues being addressed by the Grants Task Group. Service Level Agreements with organisations for service provision are not viewed as grants and as such are not being included in the work of the Grants Task Group. A term Service Level Agreement, typically over a three year period, allows for greater stability and for clear requirements for the service to be negotiated, agreed and monitored, allowing an organisation to provide better value for the public money provided by the Council.

2.2 Relate Solent was formed in 1999 as a result of a merger between Relate I.W. and Relate Southampton. The I.W. operation was re-evaluated and restructured during 2000 and 2001, and this raised a number of concerns regarding the way in which services were being offered to Island clients. A series of meetings have taken place, facilitated by the Rural Community Council, and the issues raised have been discussed at length at the CommunityLink Committee. These activities have resulted in proposals for three options for the future:

The basic counselling and psychosexual therapy service is maintained at a standstill grant with only inflationary uplifts. The grant required for 2002 at a standstill rate, and in conjunction with the Social Services & Housing Directorate’s annual grant, now approved, in the sum of £4,490 for 2002/03, is £9000. It is proposed that the Social Services funding element will be combined with the Service Level Agreement from next year.

This option will allow Relate to continue to provide approximately 600 hours of counselling per annum across Newport, Ryde and Freshwater.

3.2 Option 2. Recruitment of additional counsellor giving an additional 100 counselling hours in the first year, and a further venue offering increased accessibility.

Recruitment of an additional counsellor will necessitate an increase in the grant of £2,100 over two years. This will allow Relate to provide additional hours in the venues currently used, increasing counselling hours to 700 during 2002/03.

Coupled with this is the opportunity to offer the service at an additional venue on the Island, possibly in the southeast. An additional venue will increase the accessibility of the service and allow the current workforce to increase the number of hours they work, if they so wish.

The cost of this option includes an element for rental of premises for an additional venue which will be ongoing, but may be slightly offset by an anticipated increase in client income.

3.3 Option 3. Option 2 plus the recruitment of a trainer to provide Education and Training workshops and courses for the general public and bespoke training.

This option would ensure the provision of an education and training service on the Island, including open access courses such as ‘New Life New Challenge’ and ‘Taking Charge of Your Life’. Anger Management and Stress Management courses could also be provided for the general public or tailor-made to organisations’ requirements. Other bespoke training could be arranged, particularly courses for schools, colleges and prisons, etc.

The cost of providing this service is £5,950 over three years but it is anticipated that income achieved by the end of the three years will enable this to become a self-financing service on an ongoing basis.

The central grant aid required for each of these three options is set out under paragraph 4 below.

3.4 The Resources Select Committee debated these proposals at their meeting of 10^th April last, when the manager of Relate Solent, Julie Stallard, attended the meeting to provide members with detailed responses to their questions.

4.1 The Council’s budget for 2002/03 includes central grant provision for funding Option 1. There is no budget provision for the funding of the extra sums required to satisfy Options 2 or 3, and, if approved, these additional amounts would have to be found from balances.

Relate Solent	Central Grant Funding
Relate Solent	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05
Option 1.	£4,510	£4,510*	£4,510*
Option 2.	£5,760	£7,010*	£7,010*
Option 3.	£7,760	£7,760*	£7,760*

4.2 The Social Services & Housing Directorate have renewed their annual grant in the sum of £4,490 for 2002/03. Central Funding is complementary to Social Services Directorate Funding in ensuring provision of the overall service on the Island.