LONDON BOROUGH OF WALTHAM FOREST
BUDGET SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
Tuesday 24 March 2015
External Funding Briefing
Report Authors:
Wil Lewis, National Management Trainee
Classification: For
Scrutiny
020 8496 4734 / wil.lewis@walthamforest.gov.uk
Status: Open
James Partis, Programme Manager
020 8496 4203 / james.partis@walthamforest.gov.uk
Directorate: Operations
1.
SUMMARY
1.1
This report provides members with an overview of the review
(Appendix 1) of the Council’s approach to External Funding recently
undertaken at the Transformation and Business Change service as
part of its wider Service Review Programme which looks to prepare the
Council and its services for the financial challenges ahead
2.
BACKGROUND
2.1
The Council’s approach to external funding was identified for review
because in the current financial climate it is of increasing importance.
The Council’s approach to securing external funding is a critical
criterion of success for the Council; it helps fund innovative initiatives,
is an effective source of making the Council think creatively about the
challenges it faces and helps promote the organisation and the local
area.
2.2
In future, the Council will look to attain external funding to alleviate the
pressure on the central budget, and to run services and initiatives in a
different way (e.g. via Social Impact Bonds and/or partnership working)
2.3
The Council has had strong success in accessing external funding –
for example on notable projects such as the William Morris Gallery and
Mini-Holland – and it is clear that with core funding from Government
continuing to decrease, the Council will have to become increasingly
systematic and creative in seeking alternative sources of external
funding to deliver the Council’s priorities and mitigate against funding
loss.
LONDON BOROUGH OF WALTHAM FOREST
2.4
External Funding is here understood as discretionary money not
accounted for within the Formula Spending Share (FSS) or equivalent,
distributed by local, national and transnational bodies on a business
case and/or competitive basis requiring an application or bid
3.
PURPOSE
3.1
The review sought to clarify the Council’s current approach to External
Funding by evaluating the Council’s current model for bidding and bid
performance, the quality of its delivery and monitoring of outcomes
when successful, and to scrutinise how decisions about which funds to
bid for get made and on what basis
3.2
Looking forward, the review sought to find areas of good practice and
glean what lessons could be learned from these areas that are
successful in applying for funding, identify areas in which the Council is
missing opportunities for securing external funding and identify future
opportunities for the Council in bidding for funding. It also engaged in
horizon scanning to map available funding at a local, regional, national
and European level (Appendix 2).
3.3
The review also sought to codify and clarify the governance
arrangements for bids, improve corporate oversight of bids and
suggest a methodology for bidding to ensure the Council’s approach to
External Funding aligns to our core and transformational priorities
4.
PROCESS
4.1
The review was undertaken by the Transformation and Business
Change team from October to early January, following the Council’s
agreed approach to service reviews (Appendix 3).
4.2
The review included:
(a)
Engagement with Cabinet members, Management Board,
service managers, lead officers and officers from other local
authorities (over 50 interviews in total)
(b)
Desktop analysis of monitoring data from Finance
(c)
An Expert Panel comprising of independent consultants
(Access Europe), officers from other local authorities (RB
Kensington and Chelsea, LB Tower Hamlets) and internal
officers to discuss various approaches to bidding for funding
(d)
Auditing of six successful and unsuccessful bids to glean idea
of good practice at the Council
(e)
The holding of an options development workshop to flesh out
report outputs with internal officers
LONDON BOROUGH OF WALTHAM FOREST
4.3
Findings were regularly reported to and agreed with Cllr Sharon
Waldron (Junior Cabinet Member and portfolio lead for External
Funding) and Rhona Cadenhead (Assistant Chief Executive)
5.
REVIEW FINDINGS
5.1
SUCCESSFUL AREAS
The review found that the Council is increasingly active in bidding for
and receiving External Funding. According to monitoring data (which is
self-reported and does not cover all bids made at the Council) the total
value for external funding bids (£69,490,528) and the total value for
successful external funding bids (£34,430,751) in 2013/14 were higher
than the previous two years combined.
Our practice of monitoring External Funding bids at the Council was
highlighted by other authorities engaged during the review as an
example of good practice.
Analysis of monitoring data and testimony of stakeholders highlighted
specific services as highly successful in their approach to external
funding e.g. Leisure; Business, Employment and Skills; Community
Safety; Museums and Galleries.
These services’ efficacy is largely down to the good relationships they
foster with funding organisations; officers enjoy strong relationships
with funding bodies, particularly the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Greater
London Authority, the Outer London Fund and Arts Council England.
The review also found increasing evidence of partnership working, both
internally across the Council and with our external partners. This style
of working is critical to the success of the Council’s External Funding
efforts in future, as many funding applications are contingent on the
involvement of partners e.g. from the voluntary sector and/or
integrative projects.
External Funding is sought out and used to achieve Council priorities,
e.g. regeneration (Mini Holland, Wood Street regeneration, Lea Bridge
Station) and improving quality of life (Building Resilience Through
Integration and Trust (BRIT) Project, Drug Intervention Programme,
Prevent).
Council officers appreciate that External Funding will play a larger role
in the financial landscape of the local authority in future, and appreciate
the need to centralise processes, increase corporate oversight and
prioritise areas wherein External Funding will be sought.
5.2
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
5.3
Governance
Against a background of increased bidding for monies, it was felt that
governance structures need to be clarified.
LONDON BOROUGH OF WALTHAM FOREST
New governance structures for the sign-off of bids, particularly where
match-funding or major decisions are required to submit bids, will be
required given the level of funding sought.
The Council should also look to formalise its governance arrangements
and achieve clarity regarding the roles of responsibilities of officers
from senior management down in bidding for External Funding
5.4
Resources
A central repository for the data that make up the bedrock of many
External Funding bids – needs analyses, demographics, projections,
stakeholders – is required and Resident Insight hope to house such
statistics in future.
The Council should make use and build upon areas of excellent
practice.
Services that are currently successful at securing External Funding
should have their funding structure redesigned to account for their
External Funding in a meaningful way. The Council should do so, with
a view to achieving services with fully-externally-funded status.
5.5
Corporate oversight
The Council should look to achieve better corporate oversight and
strategic cohesion. Bids occasionally did not chime with Council
priorities or duplicated programmes on-going elsewhere at the Council.
On occasion officers did not take the correct steps to engage Finance
early when match funding was required from the Council, or lower level
officers worked without the oversight of service leads; both cases lead
to wasting officer time and resources
Going forward, the implementation of a revised approach to External
Funding will depend on buy-in and compliance from officers across the
Council and at all tiers of management
5.6
Preparing bids and projects
Opportunities for External Funding need to be identified via a thorough,
systematic and co-ordinated approach e.g. central horizon scanning.
The Council should look to improve its horizon scanning for upcoming
funding opportunities
A selection of key criteria for pursuing External Funding opportunities
should be developed to help identify and quantify the potential benefits
and impact of securing External Funding in any given area and assure
adherence to Council priorities
The review found that many officers knew little of the process involved
or landscape of available funding. This should be remedied by
increased engagement in securing External Funding as a core activity
of business, achieved via creating an internal External Funding bulletin
or subscribing to a national version
5.7
Project delivery
LONDON BOROUGH OF WALTHAM FOREST
The Council is proactive in making and submitting bids, but
occasionally loses focus in resourcing and planning for delivery once
successful. The Council should look to sense-check projects at the
earliest stages
6.
OPTIONS
6.1
The review presented its initial findings internally and the findings have
been shared with relevant Council officers
6.2
Next steps are developing detailed proposals for the Council’s revised
approach to External Funding based on the evidence found during the
review and stakeholder engagement
6.3
Additionally, an implementation and action plan is in development to
enable a smooth handover of responsibilities going forward to the
relevant service for delivery
9
APPENDICES
9.1
Appendix 1: External Funding Executive Summary
9.2
Appendix 2: External Funding Calendar
9.3
Appendix 3: Service Review Framework