My direct line: 02085149612
My email: ross@redbridgecvs.net
3rd Floor Forest House
16-20 Clements Road
Ilford IG1 IBA
Telephone: 020 8553 1004
John Turkson
Principal Officer, Community Partnerships
Adult Social Services
London Borough of Redbridge
Room 307, 3rd Floor,
497-499 Ley Street House,
Ilford, Essex,
IG2 7QX
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
Fax: 020 8911 9128
Email: info@redbridgecvs.net
Web: www.redbridgecvs.net
RedbridgeCVS’ mission is to
promote a strong, effective and
independent voluntary and
community sector in Redbridge.
Funded by
Dear John,
RedbridgeCVS is pleased to respond to the Council’s Corporate Grants
Programme review.
We have completed the online survey, and welcomed you to the September
“Voluntary Sector Network” meeting where you gave a brief presentation on the
review which we found helpful. This will be shared, via the Minutes of the
Network meeting being circulated in hard copy, by email and online via with the
600+ local voluntary and community sector organisations on our database. We
have also used our eNews bulletins etc to encourage local groups to engage with
this review.
We were very pleased to see the wording of the review, which says that it aims
to review the Corporate Grant “processes to evaluate how it can be improved to
strengthen its funding programmes, respond to changing social emerging needs
and support the growth and development of the voluntary and community
sector.” Redbridge’s Corporate Grants Programme is extremely helpful to the
local voluntary sector and we are very keen that Redbridge continues to offer
this programme. We do have some comments, however, on ways that the
processes might be improved.
RedbridgeCVS and most of the voluntary groups that we support tell us that they
find the application processes reasonably clear and straightforward – and that
there is currently sufficient support (via Council Officers, and RedbridgeCVS’s
Community Fundraiser) to help people understand what is being asked of them
and how to maximise their chances of securing funding in each area. One of the
ways that RedbridgeCVS uses its Strategic Partner grant is in promoting further
LBR grants programmes to the wider voluntary sector in Redbridge – in a
‘virtuous circle’.
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By contrast, the process of agreeing Key Performance Indicators does perplex
many groups, who struggle to fully understand the relationship between what is
being asked of them in terms of reporting and what they actually do with the
funding received. Currently the Strategic Partners grant, for example, includes
indicators that are drawn from the old Local Area Agreement National Indicator
Set (on which local Councils used to have to report to central government, but
which was formally abolished in 2011). We would be keen to discuss ways that
the development of relevant indicators can be agreed and how monitoring might
be made clearer for all parties.
In a related issue, there have also been some concerns raised with us about the
level of monitoring required for the Corporate Grants – both in terms of the
detail required and the amount of returns sought. For example, when
RedbridgeCVS was in receipt of a £500,000 (over 3 years) grant from the Big
Lottery, we were required to report twice yearly on progress. This is the same
requirement for monitoring that groups receiving less than £20,000 are asked to
submit to LBR. We do recognise the importance of ensuring that grants are being
used correctly, but would like to restate the importance of the local Compact
principle that monitoring should be commensurate with the sums awarded.
We would also like to add the fact that we have found the Council officers
responsible for the grants programmes to be approachable and flexible, so that
we have usually been able to help groups to find ways to meet the needs of the
grants officers and their own objectives through these processes.
RedbridgeCVS also believes that the Council’s Small Grants, Arts grants, and any
future use of the funding once allocated as grants by Area Committees could
usefully have been included in this review, and should be considered as part of
the future Corporate Grants programme.
One issue that voluntary and community organisations often struggle with is the
difficulty in keeping good projects funded – as many funders often prefer to fund
“new” and/or “innovative” projects, meaning that excellent projects can struggle
to continue, despite demonstrably meeting the needs of the funders and the
community. ACE Community Accounting is one such scheme which no longer
operates in Redbridge as a result of the Council no longer being able to fund it
under any of its current Corporate Grants schemes. This was a very useful
resource that added to RedbridgeCVS’s “offer” to local voluntary groups. We
know of many local groups which used ACE to help them with their accounting
and financial reporting and there is currently a gap in this area. We are reluctant
to establish a new programme as we fear that this would be fundable only when
it was “new”. This is a problem that all funders have to contend with, and it may
be that a programme of commissioning some services which are of proven value
to the community could be developed so that projects reaching the end of
Community Fund or Emerging Needs grants could be picked up with longer term
funding. We recognise that funding constraints are getting ever more difficult for
Local Authorities, but do believe that spending small sums supporting voluntary
organisations represents excellent value for Councils.
Finally, we would also like to reiterate the importance of the Corporate Grant
Programme and the value it has in Redbridge alongside the commissioning
programme – and I am attaching some of our thinking on this below.
We would be very pleased to discuss these issues with you further and look
forward to hearing the outcome of this review.
Yours sincerely
Ross Diamond
Chief Officer
THE VALUE OF GRANTS IN REDBRIDGE
The Strategic Partner grants enable several key local groups to have secure bases
on which to build further fundraising and project work. Some of these groups
now deliver work in Redbridge funded in the hundreds of thousands of pounds –
but would struggle to survive and deliver the valuable work that they now deliver
without the core grant funding from the Strategic Partners grants.
The Community Fund and Emerging Needs grants are also extremely helpful, as
they allow local groups to deliver new and innovative projects that meet the
Council’s recognised strategic aims and also help the successful bidders to grow
and secure additional funding from elsewhere.
For some organisations only grants can enable them to achieve outcomes that
matter for local people. Well planned and managed grants can be:
 A stepping stone and initial lifeline for a small organisation just starting
out
 In keeping with the voluntary ethos ( ie won’t discourage volunteers from
taking part, who might otherwise not want to volunteer to deliver
services defined by the local authority as part of a paid-for contract)
 The provider of new opportunities – enabling groups to take risks and
innovate
 A vital way of allowing organisations to work with the least advantaged
in society from whom raising an income is next to impossible
 Flexible and made at low cost, proportionate to the size of groups they
are supporting
 A way to support organisations to meet the needs of the community and
stay close to their missions and values
 A way to underpin a initiatives in regeneration and community
development work
 An important way to help organisations develop to the next level. For
example, it can help them develop track records which can subsequently
enable them to make strong bids for services being commissioned locally
Local voluntary and community sector group can make even a small grant go a
long, long way. Grants, including relatively small ones, can mean that local
voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations are able to deliver vitally
important services for local people. Many are able to use these grants to lever
funds from other sources. We know of many local groups who are able to use
Council grants as match-funding to enable them to bring in further funding from
external charitable trusts etc.
VCS groups are particularly effective at reaching people whose voices are
seldom heard. This often happens spontaneously as most voluntary and
community groups are local and seen as accessible. Those who are socially
excluded will often take part in local community-led activities as they aren’t seen
in the same way as the “authorities” are; they use outreach effectively; and the
activities are tailored to local needs. Other groups actively make it their mission
and seek to bring help to “difficult groups” or take on “difficult tasks”. It is vital
for social cohesion as well as natural justice that such voices are heard locally.
Embedded within the community and at the grassroots level, local voluntary and
community organisations are particularly adept at involving their users and
reflecting the diversity of the local area. They are also well aware of equality
issues and embrace local diversity. The smaller scale of their operations also
makes them closer to their clients and hence closer to identifying and knowing
about their needs.
Volunteers are often the lifeblood of local voluntary and community sector
groups. Volunteers can be initiators of an activity. Local people associate to help
each other perhaps initially in informal groups and then more formally in
recognisable VCS organisations. Or they might be previous beneficiaries of the
charity who now want to get involved. Volunteering brings benefits to the
individuals involved, as well as extra capacity and expertise to groups. Giving
grants to local volunteer-involving organisations helps to maximise this vital
resource.
Grants can also lead to multiple wins from a single intervention: many
voluntary and community sector groups, although set up or focused around
single issues, actually achieve multiple outcomes (for example social, economic
and/or environmental). In addition, one good grant “investment” can be more
effective than several distinct interventions. Voluntary and community groups
tend to focus on the person as a whole and will aim to tackle the breadth of the
issues faced by their beneficiaries.
Making their community a better place to live is the driving force behind the
majority of local voluntary and community groups. They may have a specific
objective or user group in mind when defining their “outputs” – but overall they
are working towards improving the quality of life within their communities. This
can bring about positive benefits such a reduction in isolation, increased
community cohesion, and building links between people. These outcomes are
difficult to achieve unless one is able to reach right down to the local level and
meet people where they are. Local voluntary and community groups are
particularly good at doing this and providing choice to their beneficiaries.
Many grants to local organisations support people on an individual basis and
try to help many of them find ways of dealing with the situations they find
themselves in. This level of one to one support achieves many qualitative
outcomes for its beneficiaries in terms of building confidence, self esteem and
rebuilding relationships. It is often possible to see that initial investment in a
person’s self confidence can lead to hard outcomes such as educational
achievements and increased employability.
Local voluntary and community organisations have a good understanding of
local needs and opportunities, and are able to develop initiatives that are
tailored to that specific area. This “bottom up” response to local issues and
opportunities is a prerequisite for a healthy community and an essential
component of externally driven regeneration and development programmes.
Local organisations can see issues emerging and can react quickly. Grant funding
can be used to meet these needs more immediately and Redbridge’s grant
makers have the capacity to turn around grants much faster than national
programmes or via contracts.